A while back, a coworker commented, “I bet you’re loving that Prius now that gas prices have started going back up.”

I said, “Yeah, and it spits out fewer emissions, too.”

He said, “You know the Earth is actually cooling, right?”

He totally misses the point! Does anyone remember air pollution??

In 1975, we had our first Earth Day. Back then, we talked about air pollution, water pollution, excessive consumption, and litter. These things are still problems, but they’ve been pushed aside by the global warming/global cooling cults. Now that some hacked climate-scientist emails “debunked” global warming, it’s OK to pollute the air, throw trash out the car window, and dump toxic waste into the ocean? Why does that make it OK?

I used to live in Southern California. I know what air pollution tastes like, smells like, and looks like. It’s gross. And it’s mostly caused by the millions of cars spewing exhaust into the atmosphere all day, every day. It wasn’t until AFTER the problem got so bad—with no going back—that they starting investing in public transportation and bike lanes. From my back yard in the Paradise Hills neighborhood of San Diego, I could see the San Diego Bay—on a clear day, which was only a few days per year. And that was almost 20 years ago. I’m sure today even with the Santa Ana winds, seeing the coast would be difficult from my old back yard.

Here in San Antonio, we have our occasional “air quality alert” days, but we have the benefit of the jet stream and Gulf breezes to clear the air. Most of our air quality alert days happen when Mexico is doing their annual burning of their fields. With more than a million cars, though, we do have air pollution.

If companies want to do their part to curb air pollution, save wear and tear on the highways, reduce insurance costs, save electricity, and take part in many any other “green initiatives,” they need to set up a telecommuting program. I’m a writer, and spend my entire day at my computer. I rarely have meetings to attend, and usually the only time I see coworkers is when I go down the hall to the bathroom. Most of my interaction with coworkers is via email, instant message, and phone. Occasionally, a coworker will stop by to chat, or to answer a question that I emailed him, but usually it’s just email. I can do that just as easily from the comfort of my own home. Not only would I not have to drive my car to work, wasting an hour or more of my day, but I also wouldn’t have to take up office space, or use the company’s electricity, heating, cooling, water, etc.

I don’t have small children to distract me while I work at home, and I have dedicated office space (which I share with my husband). There are many people with distracting children or spouses at home during the day, or who lack the discipline to work unsupervised at home. But given the opportunity, most people who work at a computer can be more efficient at home, and not be tied to the 8am to 7 pm hours. Some of my most creative thoughts come at 3 am. My only distraction is the dirty house screaming to be cleaned; a cat who likes to walk in front of my monitor, pausing just long enough to get a reaction; and my son’s Labrador. When I work at home, there are no coworkers to stop by and chat (but if I wanted to do that, I could do so with Skype, Go To Meeting, etc.), no car problems or accidents to make me late for work, no worries about dress codes (unless you do video conferencing), and back to my original premise—no air pollution!

OK, we’d still have air pollution, but less of it. I don’t know about you, but I can’t get 2 weeks of groceries for a family of four in my backpack, so I’d still have to drive my car to the grocery store. You’d still have to run errands, go to the movies, take the kids to karate practice, whatever. But what if all of the people who live on the west side who drive to the east side to go to work every day, and all of the people who live on the east side who drive to the west side to go work every day, and all of the people who live on the far north side who drive downtown every day stayed home?? Just imagine what traffic would be like, how many fewer traffic accidents there would be, how much less wear and tear on the roads and highways, how much lower your car insurance would be, and so on, if most of us could telecommute to work?

“The idea that we have undergraduates who don’t read books distresses me. Of course, I know that they do read. …  They read in print and electronically. They read articles. They read blog posts. They exchange these items on Facebook and elsewhere. But reading a book, even a popular novel, requires some measure of sustained attention, and reading a serious book requires concentration and intellectual effort to comprehend and absorb the material. “

We aren’t born knowing how to read, but we are born knowing how to speak. Babies learn their local language, including grammar, syntax, and even word choice by listening to people around them talk. If you “goo-goo” and “gaa-gaa” to your baby, that’s the language he’ll learn. If you speak to him in proper sentences using “grown up” words, those are the words he’ll learn to use. But that doesn’t mean he’s literate. Literacy requires the ability to read.

It wasn’t until mass-produced books became available that literacy became important. Gutenberg starting printing on his press in 1436, but printing didn’t really go mainstream until the 1800s when iron presses were operated with steam power. At first, illustrations were a large part of the book (because the average person was not literate), and group reading out loud was the norm. You didn’t read a Bible passage and interpret it using your own view of the world; a priest told you what you should believe.

Unfortunately, many people in the US today, still, are only functionally literate. That means they can read just enough to get by. For example, immigrants and children of immigrants in the US are often considered functionally illiterate because of language barriers. They speak their native language at home, and then are expected to speak English in school and at work. My father quit school after the 8th grade so that he could work to help take care of his family. He was a hard worker and a talented artist, but I rarely saw him reading anything, not even the newspaper. Most parents expect the public school system to teach their children to read. I’m shocked when I hear people say, for example, their child is in first grade and still can’t read! Reading to your children early and often, and letting them “catch” you reading, is the best way to teach your child to read.

Give your kids a good reason to learn how to read, and they will. When my oldest son, Alex, was between 2 and 3 years old, my husband worked as a field service rep. He was home about 1 week out of every 4. He liked to play a computer game called “King’s Quest” that required the player to read something on the screen, then type a response or make his avatar do what the text said to do. Alex loved to play that game with his dad, and when his dad was out of town, he wanted me to play. I was working full time, going to school part time, and raising a 2 year old basically on my own, so I often told him he would have to play by himself. (Besides, I had no idea how to play the game.) He would cry and beg me to play, and I would often read to him what the screen said, but then I would tell him, “If you want to play that game when Daddy isn’t here, you’ll have to learn how to read.” And that’s exactly what he did! Before Alex was 4, he could read on his own. One night we were at the airport waiting for his dad and there was a newspaper on the seat next to me. Alex stood facing the seat, leaning on it with his arms folded, reading the paper. A man nearby chuckled and said, “That’s so cute; it looks like he’s actually reading it.” I was so offended that he would think my child couldn’t read! I didn’t realize at the time that reading at such a young age was not the norm.

But why is it not the norm? My youngest son, Jake, didn’t learn to read nearly as early, but certainly was reading by Kindergarten. He had three people helping him, so he never had a reason to learn to read (or walk) as early as Alex did. There is a term in psychology called “Learned Helplessness,” which is a perceived absence of control over the outcome of a situation. If someone is always doing things for you, you never learn to do it on your own. For example, suppose you ask your son to put away his toys, but he takes longer than you want or doesn’t do it as well as you want, so you do it yourself. Or you see that he’s struggling to read the cereal box before pouring himself a bowl, so you grab the box out of his hand and pour the cereal for him, because you’re in a hurry. Eventually he learns that no matter what he does, it’s not good enough for you, so why should he even try? And that carries over to his school work and, eventually, his adult life—unless he figures out that it’s not his problem, it’s yours. The problem is that you’re not patient.

Patience can be very difficult, especially when you’re watching your child struggle to learn something. When I would read to my kids at bedtime, I would point to a word and they would read the word instead of me. At first, it was words like “and” “if” “cat” and so on, eventually working up to the entire sentence, and then the whole story. You have to be patient, though, and let your child struggle with sounding it out and making mistakes, waiting for them to figure it out. (Meanwhile, you want to rush through the story and put him to bed, so you can have “me” time.) Of course, you have to also provide him with the tools to figure things out on his own, but if you always take over, he’ll never figure it out. Give him small achievements, eventually building up to bigger achievements, so that he knows he can do it without your help.

Knowing how to do a thing and wanting to do it don’t always go hand in hand. If your child hates to read, find out why that is. Maybe the problem isn’t that he can’t but that he’d rather be outside playing soccer than inside reading. Perhaps if he reads a chapter of a book on soccer skills tonight, he can go outside and practice those skills tomorrow. Maybe there is a movie that he wants to watch. Give him the book of that movie to read. Maybe what he’s reading is way too easy or way too hard for his skill level. Don’t just hand him a book to read. Sit with him and have him read it to you—you’ll see then if it’s too hard or too easy.

Whatever the reason, work together to find the solution. Reading is not instinctive, it’s a skill. Like any skill your children learn, it takes time (yours and theirs!) and lots of practice and patience.

‎We also have a problem of technical illiteracy in the US, for which technology itself is partially to blame. (More of that “learned helplessness” I mentioned earlier.) But that’s a topic for another article.

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” — Alvin Toffler

Large Wide Size Sofa Gel Comfort Style Bike Seat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I Want To Ride My Bike

I Want To Ride My Bicycle

I Want To Ride It Where I Like

…

Fat Bottomed Girls They’ll Be Riding Today

So Look Out For Those Beauties Oh Yeah

I just want to ride my bicycle without pain. I’ve tried a variety of seats and seat cushions, but none allow me to ride for any length of time. I often follow my husband on his marathon-training runs, which can last for hours. It has been two days since I followed him on a 13-mile run, yet sitting down still hurts! Bike seats are just not made for fat-bottom girls!

Bike saddle manufacturers seem to assume that everyone who rides a bike is rail thin with 32” hips or less. Those of us who are trying to lose weight aren’t there yet, and we certainly aren’t racing, so we don’t need a narrow racing saddle. What we need is a wider saddle to fit the width of our sit bones. Especially for those of us who have had children—the pelvis widens during pregnancy to accommodate the baby’s head during child birth. My widely spaced sit bones sit on the edges of my so-called women’s saddle. This position is not comfortable for long rides.

Ideally you’ll find a seat with a rear shape that fits the width of your ischial tuberosities…your sit bones. These are the 2 points you feel when sitting on a curb. The right saddle will support and cushion you in just the right spots.

– http://www.bicyclewarehouse.com/buyers-guides/are-you-riding-the-right-bicycle-saddle-pg481.htm

Ischial tuberosity pain is a “common occurrence in bicycle riders [resulting] from the weight on the saddle being born by the ischial tuberosity.” Bicycle shorts do not solve this problem. I’ve tried the ones with padding in the crotch area, but that’s not the area that hurts. Well, that area does get very numb if I wear padding there. The solution, therefore, is a wider saddle. Much wider. Maybe something like this:

That’s a seat for a riding lawn mower! Doesn’t that make sense? Something that you’re going to sit on for 2 hours ought to be fully supportive and comfortable. I just need to figure out how I would fit it to the stem that holds the saddle. (Yes, I realize people would point and laugh at me.)

Meanwhile, I’ve ordered yet another bike saddle from amazon.com that claims to be wide enough even for my widely spaced pelvis bones. I’ll let you know how that works out.

Why running?

My husband, Bill, started running 2 years ago. He weighed about 230 pounds. Now he weighs about 160. He did that by running. He used myfitnesspal.com to track his diet. He discovered that he never eats enough because he’s always running! He’s run 3 marathons and 14 half marathons, so he’s always training for something. I often follow along on my bike, but 8 mph isn’t much of an aerobic workout. (The muscles of my legs and butt get a workout peddling up hills, though. If you don’t believe me, try it. Park your bike at the bottom of a steep hill, then peddle up the hill.) Obviously, running has worked out well for him. Not only has he lost fat, he also lowered his total cholesterol, raised his “good” cholesterol, lowered his triglycerides, lowered his blood pressure, and so on. In other words, he “got healthy.”

Meanwhile, I’ve been watching what I eat (mostly), cutting simple carbs, eating more fruits, vegetables, salads, etc., and trying to exercise enough to actually raise my heart rate and burn some fat. But that’s not enough. After a woman gets to “a certain age,” her metabolism slows down, especially if she took a 25-year break from exercise and got a desk job! To get the metabolism started up again, I need to run.

Learning to run again

No one who hasn’t run for 25 years is going to run a marathon. Or even a 5K. First you have to walk. And walk. And walk. That takes time and is usually quite boring, unless you live near a nice state park or a beach board walk, which I don’t. Getting motivated to walk for 30 minutes at 6 am when I’d rather sleep for 30 more minutes is difficult. To help with that, I bought Run Your Butt Off! a book from the editors of Runner’s World magazine. In Run Your Butt Off!, Sarah Lorge Butler, Leslie Bonci, and Budd Coates take you from not running at all to running 30 minutes over 12 “stages.” (Not 12 weeks, because each stage might take you more or less than a week.)

In the first stage, you just walk non-stop for 30 minutes. If you can do that 3 or 4 times in a week, you’re ready for the next stage, which is walking for 4 minutes, then running for 1 minute, and repeating that four more times. In each subsequent stage, you walk less and run more (2 minutes, then 3, and so on), until the final stage in which you run non-stop for 30 minutes. They offer helpful advice for both weight loss and running, and “coach” you through each stage. Just reading the first few chapters is motivating and puts you in the “get healthy” mindset.

Finding the time to run

In the first chapter of Run Your Butt Off! they discuss the number one reason people don’t exercise regularly—no time! The author writes, “You don’t blow off going to work every morning, nor should you skip your exercise appointment.” That’s true—but I won’t get fired if I don’t exercise. (However, studies show that healthy, attractive people tend to get and keep jobs more than unhealthy and unattractive people. Not fair, but true.) The running coach in the book, Budd, comments that it drives him crazy when the parents at his son’s gym practice complain about not having time. He runs while his son is practicing and says, “If you’ve been sitting here for an hour, you have time to run!” He has the same mentality as my husband—“my run is more important than watching my son practice.” I never enjoyed sitting out in a field watching my sons’ soccer practice, but I know they appreciated my being there. Most moms can relate to this excuse, and instead we try to fit exercise into our time (as if we have any!), not our family’s time. And if that means getting up an hour earlier, then that’s what we have to do.

In conclusion…

I’m struggling with whether I want to post “before” pics and measurements—I wouldn’t want to gross you out and scare you off! Over the next 12 weeks, check in here with my blog now and then to see how I’m doing (and “Like” or “+1″ me to up my stats!). Maybe I’ll post pics and measurements. Maybe I’ll post some tips and tricks that I’ve learned along the way that might help you “get healthy,” too. Maybe in 2012 I’ll be running in the Las Vegas Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon! (OK, maybe just the Family Fun Run.)

“Sports Events Impacted by Irene”
“Business Impacted by Irene”
“updates from governors and emergency managers in impacted areas”
“travel impacted by Irene”
“millions could be impacted by Irene”
“How you can help turtles impacted by Irene”

I was taught that wisdom teeth can be impacted and meteorites can impact the Earth, but people are “affected.”

I think the problem comes from people’s confusion over “affected” and “effected.” (To review the difference, see http://writeriam.blogspot.com/2009/11/review-of-american-english-grammar.html.) Just like “who” and “whom,” no one is going to convince native English speakers that there is a difference between impacted and affected. And even the Chicago Manual of Style says that it’s OK to use impacted in this way. When it comes to informal speech or writing, pretty much anything goes, as long as your audience understands you. But formal writing is different. My definition of formal writing includes user guides, journals and newspapers, white papers, really any sort of business writing, and certainly academic writing.

According to most dictionaries, “impact” is a stronger word than “affect,” indicating “strike forcefully” (as in a meteorite) or to “fix firmly by packing or wedging” (as when a molar is unable to breach the gum surface). But they also list the definition “to have a direct effect or impact on” which is how most news sources and marketing writers use it. (Really? “Impact” means to have an “impact”?)

My main complaint with using impact(ed) in place of affect(ed) is that it is over used. While watching the news this morning, a reporter was describing an area affected by Hurricane Irene. She used impact and impacted in almost every sentence. At least change it up a bit and use different words to make it less grating on the ears.

Well, my ears, anyway. I know I’m unusual. When I write or edit for my job, I try to remove most of the instances of impact, simply because it sounds/reads bad if you use the same word over and over (unless you’re writing poetry or songs). Here’s an example of academic writing that overuses the word, from http://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/socasp/weather1/pielke.html

Most people wouldn’t notice that and couldn’t care less. However, when I read writing like the example above, the message is lost on me, because I’m focused on what I would consider to be errors.

You know how sometimes you’re reading something and you stop, then read it again, and maybe again, before you can understand what the writer is trying to say? That’s noise. When you write or edit, your mission is to generate a message that is clear and concise and has no noise that would distract your readers from the message. Impact screams out at me from the page, radio, or TV so loudly that I have forgotten what the story was about.

I decided I need a reminder to stop working, stand up, move around—and blink! Microsoft Outlook does not have a way to set hourly reminders, but you can click Snooze > 1 hour each time a reminder appears; however, I’m more likely to click Dismiss. I didn’t want to bring an egg timer to work and have a loud DING go off every hour (I work in a cubicle). And if I set my phone alarm to go off every hour, that would be just as annoying to those around me. (If I set the alarm on “vibrate only,” I would probably assume it was a text message and ignore it.)

After some Googling (and finding some unhelpful advice to install a free program—on my work computer), I discovered a sane and doable solution: Windows Task Scheduler!

Using Task Scheduler, I created a task to pop up a reminder message every hour. Task Scheduler allows me to define the text that appears in the message box, when to start the task, when to finish the task, and how often to pop up the reminder.

I’ve provided the instructions below (Windows 7) for my fellow zombie cubicle ranchers. You need the proper privileges on the computer, of course.

To create an hourly reminder in Windows Task Scheduler

1. Click Start, then in the search box type Schedule Tasks. (It will probably appear just by typing Sch.)
2. In the list of programs, click Schedule Tasks. The Task Scheduler appears.
3. In the Actions (right) pane, click Create Basic Task. The Create a Basic Task Wizard appears.
4. Type a Name and Description for the task, then click Next. The Daily page of the wizard appears.
5. Specify when the task it to Start and how frequently you want the task to Recur, then click Next. The Action page of the wizard appears.
   
6. Click Display a message, then click Next. The Display a Message page of the wizard appears.
   
7. Provide the Title and the Message that you want to appear on the message box, then click Next. The Summary page of the wizard appears. The Summary page displays the details of the task.
8. Select the Open the Properties check box, then click Finish.
9. Click the Triggers tab.
   
10. In the Start boxes, set the date (if different from today) and the time. I set mine at 9 am.
11. In the Advanced settings area, select the Repeat task every check box and set it to 1 hour.
12. Click OK.
13. Click OK again to complete the task. The new task appears in the list of tasks in the center pane of the Task Scheduler.
    

After you’ve created the task, you can make changes to it, test it, disable it, or delete it.
To edit, disable or delete the task

1. Open the Task Scheduler.
2. In the Active Tasks area, double click the task. A list of active tasks appears.
3. Right-click the task, then click the action that you want to perform:
   • Run—Allows you to run the task to ensure that it is working the way you want it (instead of waiting for the clock to run out).
   • End—This stops a task that is in progress. Won’t need it for timed tasks like this one.
   • Disable—Prevents the task from running until you enable it. (If you right-click a disabled task, this option changes to Enable.
   • Export—Allows you to save the task to a file, and then you can import it into another computer.
   • Properties—Opens a Properties dialog in which you can edit the task.
   • Delete—Permanently removes the task from the Scheduler.

And there you have it—an hourly reminder! Every hour on the hour a message pops up to remind me to get up and move!

He survived his second year–yay! Home for the summer and working/going to summer school. Good to have at least one motivated child!
——————

My son is in his second year of college at A&M. The second year seems to be the most challenging–that’s when Son#1 gave up and came back home. A lot of people that age are going through the same thing, so I thought I would write about my “college experience” (20 years in the making!). (This is the condensed version. I could write a novel series about it!)

I know you hate to hear “when I was a kid” but here it is anyway. When I was in high school, I wanted to be a translator at the UN. I did very well in Spanish (although you wouldn’t know it now) and thought it would be fun (except for the living in NYC part). My parents refused to pay for my college–girls who grew up in the 70s were supposed to get married and have babies, not careers!–so I joined the Air Force. In my senior year of high school, I worked as a janitor in one of the buildings downtown, and I cleaned the computer floor. At that time, computers were big behemoths (“main frames”) with keypunch cards, mag tape units, teletype machines, and huge hard drives called “RapidAccess Disk” or RAD, as big as a stove! (RAM was cabinets and cabinets full of cards with wire-wrapped magnets!) I often talked to the computer people on the floor who always worked late, so when I talked to the AF recruiter and he asked me what I wanted to do, I said, “Something with computers.” So I went to AF tech school to be a “digital flight simulator specialist” which is basically an electronic technician. I worked on the FB-111A simulator which was controlled by a 3 mainframe computers. Very fun job to have, because I also got to “fly” the simulator. I had to fly it to replicate whatever problem the pilot had written up. (e.g., if he said, “The BDHI sticks at flight level 3000 when I turn to heading 230,” I had to “take off,” go to 30,000 feet, and then turn to heading 230. Then fix whatever I thought the problem was, and try it again.) When I got out of the Air Force, I got a job at Hughes Aircraft working on a Navy system installed on aircraft carriers–which is how I met Bill. He worked on the same system. (They called us when the sailors couldn’t fix it–HA HA!) So, naturally, when I went to college, I thought getting a degree in Electrical Engineering or Computer Science would make sense, right? Every semester while I was in the AF, I was also in college, taking a class here and a class there–and letting them pay for 80% of the tuition. I got my general AA degree from UNH and an AAS in Training Devices (electronics and flight systems) from CCAF. But getting a BSEE meant a lot of math–PAST Calculus 3, etc. I had no problem with electronic circuits, binary/octal/hex, computer stuff, and doing the math if I had the formula written down, but I did have a problem remembering the formulas. I gave up and switched majors from BSEE, to BSCS, to BS Chemistry (I thought Environmental Engineering would be awesome), back to BSEE, then finally BA Communication. (BA, because I no longer needed math or science.) I also no longer needed any electives, because I had twice the credits I needed for my degree.

So what I’m saying is that MANY people change majors more than once. You just have to take the undergrad classes that can apply to about any degree, and hopefully during that time something will pop out at you that you’d really like to do for a career. For me it was writing–and I’m still doing “something with computers”!!

Why does documentation “always suck”? Below are several reasons:

8) Too many cooks in the kitchen. You’ve hired a technical writer who is both technical and a writer (yeah, doesn’t always work that way), and yet everyone wants to tell her how to write. Let her write it. She knows end-users better than you think and has experience writing to that audience.

7) Several different locations are available from which the end user tries to get help: in the application, online, PDF, knowledgebase, user forum…and that’s just the locations we can control! Something is bound to get lost in the shuffle—or too much salt added to the soup, to continue the “cooks” cliché.

6) Companies like to save money. Why would they hire a highly-paid programmer to spend his day writing documentation? And if he’s a programmer, why would he want to? Besides, developers tend to be very advanced in their field and talk way over the customer’s head. (“Everyone knows that!”) The customer wants to know “what grade of oil should I use in my car this winter?” not “how does the internal combustion engine work?” (Note: I have met programmers who write very well to an end-user audience. But they are rare. Many write “to please the teacher” rather than to have their communication understood.)

5) Companies like to save money. They are likely to hire “Bob’s cousin, Milly who’s really good with Word” as their technical writer. Sadly, Milly barely knows how to lock her keyboard, has never used a help-authoring tool, and certainly doesn’t know how to install beta, undocumented software on a virtual image. The developers then, begrudgingly, write most of the documentation—-which is way over the head of their customers and Milly.

4) And by the way, companies like to save money. They often hire someone who not only cannot install and use beta, undocumented software on a virtual image, but also cannot write complete, lucid sentences. At those times when the technology is way over her head, a good technical writer can identify the nouns, verbs, and objects in the sentence, put them in the correct order, and actually make sense of it; or she can bug the developer until he explains it to her in plain English.

3) Developers are busy and don’t want to document how to use their product. “Why, my product is very user friendly and intuitive! We don’t need a user guide!” This is where the technical writer’s interview and annoyance skills come in handy. A developer will eventually get tired of her questions and actually provide helpful information to a technical writer. (He would just blow Milly off, because she wouldn’t understand anyway.)

2) Sometimes (OK, usually), the release cycle is more important that the documentation. The documentation is delivered and signed with help content that is a week or more old. (A lot can change in a week of QA!) In my case, I update the online help and knowledgebase as new issues come to light. (See number 7.) But I’m occasionally left out of the change loop.

1) And finally, the number one reason documentation sucks is that it sits unused. The customer doesn’t want to “bother” to read the whole user guide, which could be thousands of topics. Average Joe Customer wants to click Help and have a window appear with a hand that reaches out from the monitor, types the information that he needs to specifically answer his question, and pats him on the back, telling him it will be OK. Dream on Joe. You have to work harder than that.

Here are a few Frequently Asked Questions about Help documentation:

Why did you put THAT in the help? Everyone knows THAT!
Nope, sorry, Mr. Engineer, but not everyone knows how to find the capacitive reactance of a parallel circuit, even if you think it’s a prerequisite to using our product. While we’d like to believe that everyone who uses our product is at least as smart as you, the truth is, we aren’t.

Why didn’t you put THAT in the help?
Because I document *our* product, not Microsoft’s, Oracle’s, and Java’s. Granted, there are some situations that warrant repeating information from their help in our product’s help, such as when configuring their product a certain way will make our product not talk to their product. But they have their own technical writers who have worked hard to make their help available to you at publicly available links, so you should use it.

Why can I never find anything in the help?
Let me state this as kindly as possible: you don’t know how to search. Before computers, searching talent was reserved for librarians, and we counted on them to find things for us. (Inside every good technical writer is the heart of a librarian.) Now we count on Google to find things for us. Sadly, Google has not penetrated every database in the world—yet—so until they do, we must use our own search skills to find the information we need. And, yes, it can be a challenge at times. If you have honestly searched every possible search word you can think of to find what you want (e.g., script, bat, VB, batch…) and still can’t find what you need, send an email to the technical writer of that Help documentation or the product’s user forum and say “I searched for “X” in the help using these terms ‘blah, blah, blah’ and couldn’t find it.” Then I can add those key words to the relevant topics so that next time you will be able to find the right topic. Another point: the application’s Help is written for the average user of that product. If you can truly “never find anything” then perhaps you are an advanced user and should instead search the knowledgebase or user forum, or call technical support?

How can I read the help before I install, if installing the product installs the help file?
GOOD question! I’ve been asking product managers that for years. Well actually what I ask is, why do I need to include installation instructions when no one reads them until after they install, if ever? In my case, the installation Help files are also publicly available online, so you can, if you were so inclined, read the installation instructions online before you install the product. (HINT: Put an “install.txt” file with the installer download!) If you pay extra for technical support, I’m sure the company will hold your hand while you install their product and help you avoid any bumps in the road.

There is so much repetition in this help file, it’s ridiculous!
OK, Grandma, calm down. This is called a “help file,” and the reader can jump into the story at any part in the story. In fact, it’s not a story at all. There is no beginning, middle, or end. It’s a collection of “how to” topics, not a novel. So when Mr. Admin is trying to create a user and starts banging his head against his desk because he can’t figure it out on his own, he can click “Help,” search for “how do I create a user?” and then read a topic called “Creating a User.” He doesn’t want to know why to create a user. He doesn’t want to know what happens at the application level when the user is created. He doesn’t want to know where in the database the user is stored. Right now, all he wants to know is, “how do I create the doggone user?”

(And while you’re laughing because I formatted a sentence in the helpwith red, bold text, know that I did that because when it was regular, black text, no one would read it. They would scan right past it. I have yet to make it blink, however.)

Introduction

My degree is in communication, so I’ll start with a basic theory of communication. In simple communication, there are a minimum of four components: sender, message, medium of transmission, and receiver. A fifth component is often, unintentionally, introduced: noise. Rules of grammar, spelling, punctuation, and usage are an attempt to reduce the noise in communication.

Note: Many “rules” that we learned in school were actually style choices that were printed in books and then set as “rules.” Feel free to break some of these rules in your writing, but never forget your audience.

American vs. British English

Why do I say “American English”? Aside from the commonly known differences in terminology (bonnet vs trunk, torch vs. flashlight, lift vs. elevator), American English and British English have several differences in basic grammar and punctuation. For example, in American English, a comma always, always, always goes inside the quotation marks (unless doing so would confuse the reader). Similar rules apply to other punctuation in or out of quotation marks, and the types of quotation marks used (single or double). In British English, you will also hear phrases such as “The team are meeting to decide on the next play.” In American English, group nouns such as team are treated as singular. So, the same phrase in American English is, “The team is meeting to decide on the next play.” (I hear the narrator on “Mythbusters” often saying, “the team are” and it drives me batty!!) There are numerous websites dedicated to the differences between American and British English, so I won’t provide all the gory details here; just be aware that the information below is reflective of American English usage.

Grammar is:

• The study of the way the sentences of a language are constructed
• The establishment of rules based on norms of correct and incorrect language usage
• Knowledge or usage of the preferred or prescribed forms in speaking or writing

Common Errors

• Relying too heavily on spell check
• Relying at all on grammar check
• Not reviewing your work
• Writing the way you speak
• Believing that since you’ve “seen it that way before” it must be correct

Spell Checker

Spell check only checks the spelling of words; it doesn’t know if you’ve chosen the correct word. I suggest leaving the spell check feature turned on, however, so that typos are underlined in red for your attention (in Microsoft Word). (When in doubt, use a dictionary–or hire a tech writer!) Below are several words that are often misused.

Grammar Checker programs

Here is an example of a sentence that was marked by grammar checker as having errors:

The managers of the organization meet each morning.

Grammar checker suggested the writer should use meets instead of meet; however, meet applies to managers, not organization, so “managers meet” is correct, not “managers meets.” Grammar checker assumes the writer will place modifiers next to the words they modify, which is normally a correct assumption.

Usage

Many words and phrases are misused so often, we sometimes forget which is the correct usage.

different from vs. different than

In formal writing, the preposition from is used with different.

• The fourth-generation computer is different from the third-generation computer.
• Different than is acceptable when it is followed by a clause.

Than vs. Then

• Than is used for comparison: One is smaller than two.
• Then is used for time: First I’ll go home, then I’ll put my feet.

Whom vs. Who

If you can use him/them, you should use whom:

• Do you need to call him?
• Whom do you need to call?
• You need to call them?
• You need to call whom?
• “Who ya gonna call? Ghostbusters!” s/b “Whom ya gonna call?” But in this case, its obviously informal communication.

Who, Which, That

Who refers to persons. That and which refer to animals and things. That, rather than which, should be used with restrictive clauses.

Hint: If you can surround it with commas, use which.

Compare:

After John left his house, which is on the corner, he went straight to work. (nonrestrictive)
A company that diversifies often succeeds. (restrictive)

Latin Words and Phrases

ad hoc (for this) no hyphen: The ad hoc committee will meet this Thursday.

per diem (per day) no hyphen: The field service reps will be paid $30 per diem.

i.e. (id est, that is): The big dog (i.e. the Golden Retriever) is sick.

e.g. (exempli gratia; for example, such as): Big dogs (e.g. Golden Retrievers and Great Danes) make great family pets.

sic (thus) verbatim: “I aint gonna (sic) do it!”

Mixed Construction/Parallel Sentences

Mixed construction occurs when a sentence contains grammatical forms that are inconsistent with one another.

• I will check your report, and then it will be returned to you. (active to passive voice)

To make it parallel, change it to:

• I will check your report, and then I will return it to you.

The bulleted list that follows is not parallel:

The following recommendations were made regarding the position statement:

• Stress that this statement is for all departments
• Start the statement with “If the company”
• The statement should emphasize that it applies both to department managers and staff
• Such strong words as obligation, owe, and must should be replaced with words that are less harsh

To make it parallel, make each bullet an imperative (do this, do that):

The following recommendations were made regarding the position statement:

• Stress that this statement is for all departments
• Start the statement with “If the company”
• Emphasize that it applies both to department managers and staff
• Replace such strong words as obligation, owe, and must with words that are less harsh.

Note: In a list, use bullets for steps that do not have to be completed in any particular order. Use numbers ONLY if the steps must be completed in that order:

1. Open the microwave door.
2. Insert food.
3. Close the door.
4. Select cook time.
5. Press Start.

Where possible, only put one step per bullet. If there is only one item, it should not be in a bullet. Either make it into a sentence or note, or add more bullets.

Sentence Structure

Identify the parts of speech in the following sentence: John often throws beach balls with his feet.

(Compare: The beach balls were thrown by John. Balls is now an indirect object.)

Conjunctions

Dangling Modifier

Phrases that do not clearly and logically refer to the proper noun or pronoun are called dangling modifiers. They are usually caused by overuse of the passive voice.

• While eating in the cafeteria, the computer malfunctioned. (Was the computer eating in the cafeteria?)

• While the operator was eating in the cafeteria, the computer malfunctioned.

• The man rented a house with his son, which cost $400 per month. (Did the son cost $400/month?)

• The man and his son rented a house for $400 per month.

Pronouns

Compare the following sentences that use personal pronouns:

Personal pronouns and gender-specific wording

There is no singular personal pronoun in English that refers to both sexes. He is traditionally used when the sex of the antecedent (the noun that he refers to) is unknown. The use of a masculine pronoun (he/his) to refer to both sexes can be offensive. It is better to rewrite the sentence in the plural or avoid use of a pronoun altogether. (Many American and English writers [Shakespeare, Shelley, Dickens] have used they and its forms to refer to singular antecedents, but it’s considered a “no-no” by many editors.)

• The engineer cannot do his job until he understands the concept.
• Engineers cannot do their jobs until they understand the concept.

• The technician should take care in choosing his equipment.
• The technician should take care in choosing equipment.

• If we hire another nurse, she could help us complete the task.
• Hiring another nurse would help us complete the task.

While we’re on the subject of offensive phrases…

Based on a survey of 7,500 managers and executives enrolled in writing programs, the following phrases were deemed offensive:

• “To be perfectly honest” suggests that everything else has been dishonest.
• “Needless to say” contradicts whatever follows, so skip it.
• “Enclosed herewith, please find” is wordy and dated; substitute “enclosed is” or “enclosed are”
• “As you know,” “as you are aware,” “as per our conversation” are unnecessary and may sound insulting; omit them.
• “I am writing this letter to inform you” states what is obvious to the reader.
• “Please rest assured” sounds “as if you’re asking the reader to take a nap,” said survey respondents.
• “Please be advised that” wastes time and says nothing.
• “At your earliest convenience” and “as soon as possible” are too vague; provide a specific date.
• “If you should have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me” is overused. Find a fresher expression, such as “Please call if you have any questions.”
• “For your perusal,” “review,” “consideration” are outdated and pretentious. All of these phrases should be avoided by contemporary business writers.

Adjectives

Anything that modifies a noun functions as an adjective.

Articles

Punctuation

Just as body language cues us in to what another person is saying, so does punctuation clarify what is written.

Commas are used to:

Introduce a word or phrase:

• He needed only one thing, encouragement.
• (Or: He needed only one thing: encouragement.)

Separate independent clauses:

• He did not like his work, and his distaste for it was evident to everyone.
• (Comma optional here. Since they are two independent clauses, they could also be two separate sentences.)

Enclose parenthetical words, phrases, clauses:

• Note, for example, the illegally parked bus.

Indicate omission:

• He takes his work seriously, himself lightly. (He takes is omitted in the second half.)

Make a series more clear:

• I request that all of my worldly goods be split equally between Jim, Jacob, Sarah, and Susie. (Each gets 25%, right? Well, maybe 20% each–the lawyer gets his share, too!)
• I request that all of my worldly goods be split equally between Jim, Jacob, Sarah and Susie. (Do Jim and Jacob each get a third, with Sarah and Susie sharing the other third? The law says, yes.)

Ellipses

Ellipsis dots are not used to introduce a series or a bulleted list. Do not use ellipsis dots for any purpose other than to indicate omission, such as when quoting a source from which you have edited words. Be careful when you do omit words to not change the overall meaning.

• The letter states “the programmer and the developer must create a system flowchart.”
• The letter states “the programmer … must create a system flowchart.”

Quotation Marks

Both double (“) and single (‘) quotation marks are for enclosing words, phrases, clauses, sentences, paragraphs, and groups of paragraphs. Quotation marks are used for:

• Direct quotations
• Lengthy direct quotations
• Change of speaker
• Titles and names (Underlining or italics s/b used in word processing)
• Quotation w/in a quotation

Place marks correctly with reference to other marks. (British usage is exactly reversed from American usage.)

The comma and the period always come inside the quotation marks.

• “Well,” he replied, “I’m not sure.” Then he inquired, “What do you think is fair ?”
• He referred to it as a “gentlemen’s agreement,” but to me it was sheer ” bunk.”

A question mark, exclamation point, or dash come outside the quotation marks unless it is part of the quotation, as in the first example:

• “What will my starting salary be?” asked the manager.
• Did he say, “I have enough money”?
• The performance was a “flop”!

The semicolon and colon come outside the quotation marks:

• Study the following in “Human Anatomy”: Bones

Colon

A colon is used for:

Introduction

• My goal in this job is simple: success.

Separation (as in subtitles)

• Education for College: Improving the High School Curriculum

General rules of usage:

• Never use a colon directly after any verb, or the conjunction that.
• Do not place a colon between a preposition and its object

Hyphenation

Hyphens may be used to avoid ambiguity and difficult reading, but if misreading is unlikely, the compound may be closed.

• re-create (vs. recreate)
• biomedical
• multifaceted
• interrelated
• anti-inflammatory (double vowel)
• co-opt

Compound adjectives should be hyphenated, as in

• labor-intensive report
• two-digit date fields
• on-staff engineers
• Y2K-Compliance Assessment (vs. Y2K Compliance)

New Words

Many words in common use today are relatively new, or are old words being used in a new way. Therefore, the “rules” for their use are not firmly established. Some examples are:

• Internet (capitalized)
• intranet (not capitalized)
• online
• email, e-mail, or E-mail (AKA “evidence mail” Keep that in mind when you send them!)
• Web page (capitalized)
• website
• browser, site, server
• protocols
• logon, log on: The Logon dialog box appears. (noun); Log on to the network. (verb)

Compound Words

• An open compound is a combination of separate words that are so closely related as to constitute a single concept, such as stool pigeon.
• A hyphenated compound is a combination of words joined by one or more hyphens, such as mass-produced goods.
• A closed or solid compound is a combination of two or more originally separate words that are now spelled as one word, such as notebook.

For some years now, the trend in spelling compound words has been away from the use of hyphens. This is a trend, not a rule. After they are in common use for an undefined amount of time (usually, after they make it into a dictionary), they go from being temporary compounds to permanent compounds. When a compound is used as an adjective before a noun, it is often hyphenated to avoid misleading the reader. For example:

• Bob’s first-floor apartment is hyphenated to make it clear that you mean an apartment on the first floor, rather than it was Bob’s first apartment.
• The phrase, sixty-five-year-old men is hyphenated to make it clear that the men are 65 years old, rather than there being 60 five-year-old men.
• However, the phrase much loved friend is understood as is and requires no hyphen for clarification.
• Note also that foreign words and phrases are usually not hyphenated, as in ad hoc reports.

There are pages and pages of rules and exceptions having to do with hyphenated compounds. For example:

• half-baked plan is hyphenated (as are most half compounds) but halfway house and halfhearted attempt are not. (These are examples of temporary compounds that have become permanent compounds through widely accepted use.

By the way, words ending in ly are not hyphenated since ambiguity is unlikely.)

When there are multiple adjectives in a compound, each is hyphenated, as in Do you manage other customer- or business-sensitive data, to indicate, in this case, that the data is both customer sensitive and business sensitive. Without the hyphen, the sentence is asking two separate questions: Do you manage other customer? (which makes no sense) and Do you manage business-sensitive data?

References

Most of the examples and “rules” in this presentation were taken from:

• Handbook of Technical Writing bySt.Martins Press
• Punctuate it Right! by Harry Shaw
• The Computer Encyclopedia by Alan Freedman
• TheChicagoManual of Style by theUniversityofChicagoPress
• “Don’t Use These Phrases!” Winning Strategies for Corporate Communication,Springfield,Virginia: Communication Concepts, 1991.

Update: I updated to RoboHelp version 8. So much improved over version 7! The Search improvements alone are worth the upgrade! (12-25-2011: Version 9 was released this year (?) and I’m told it has many improvements, but I have not tried it.
———————
The meat and potatoes of a “real” technical writer’s job is making context-sensitive help files that are embedded in software applications, often in addition to Web-based help and printable user guides. There are numerous “single-source” applications that you can use to, in theory, compose once and generate the several types of help you need (PDF, CHM, Web-based, JavaHelp, Oracle Help, etc.). I’ve used a variety of these so-called single-source authoring tools, and none of them is truly single-source. If you don’t have to meet any specific requirements, then RoboHelp, Flare, Doc-To-Help, AuthorIT, Notepad, and such will likely provide what you need. But if your output must meet specific requirements, that single-source authoring tool will need your creative and research skills to figure out how to “fix” the output.

For a help authoring tool, RoboHelp has notoriously bad help. Meaning, when you click Help in RoboHelp, I very rarely find the help I need. If you search the Internet for help, you will find numerous experienced RoboHelp users with awesome Web sites to provide some of the more common tips, as well as tips for very advanced users (e.g., Peter Grainge’s Site, RoboWizard, Google Groups).
Below are a few tricks I’ve discovered while using RoboHelp. Come back here from time to time as I find other stumbling blocks. Unfortunately, by the time I figure out how to fix the problem, I’m usually in a hurry to get past it and don’t think to document what I did. But it always manages to find me again. There are many, many, many more that I’ve never documented, but when I stumble across them again, I’ll add them here. :-/

Perhaps you have a better solution? If so, please let me know in the comments.
Below are real problems/needs that I encountered and the solutions that worked best for my situation. I encourage you to experiment with the code (after judicious backing up and copying) to find the solution that works for you.

Problem/Need: I had been fighting doing merged chms because it’s more complicated for print and I like having the WebHelp all in one project. But as the project got bigger, it became clear that it would be much easier to manage the project in pieces with merged helpsets, so I bit the bullet a while back and did it. Today I wanted to link topics between merged helpsets and FINALLY found a clue. The info I found online finally worked after I played with the link (based on what I knew from linked JavaHelp).
Solution: Without any help from RoboHelp’s help, I found that when you insert the hyperlink, in the Hyperlink dialog box, you can click the Link to arrow, then click Remote Topic. Then the Select Remote Topic dialog box opens, in which you can select the merged helpset’s chm (which you’ve already copied to the Source folder), then click the topic filename. The link is similar to a normal “a href” link, but with the filename of the chm, 2 colons, and a forward slash in front of the htm. The code looks like this:
<a HREF=”gs_com_api.chm::/Setting_the_expiration_date_for_a_user_account.htm”>Setting
the Expiration Date for a User Account (SetExpirationDate)</a>

In this example, the text the user sees look like this:
Setting the Expiration Date for a User Account (SetExpirationDate)
When I clicked the eyeglasses icon (preview) it didn’t work, but when I compiled, it actually worked.

Problem/Need: WebHelp does not appear correctly in Google Chrome (the TOC, Glossary, Index, Search tabs are blank)
Solution: Adobe posted a fix on their support pages (within ONE DAY of complaining!): Chrome fix

Problem/Need: A topic named “Using the Software with IIS” was not coming up in a search for “IIS.” I suspected the stop words were preventing it from appearing, so I deleted “is” from the stop words. Nope, didn’t fix it. Then I found RoboHelp’s stop words file and edited that. Nope, didn’t fix it. Then I edited the stop words file from the generated help. That fixed it. But when I regenerate, it will over write it.
Solution: I really hate it when apps try to think for me! I removed the stop words from the project FOR A REASON, and when I generated, the stop words reappeared in the project. So when I edited RoboHelp’s stop words file, the stop words had already been added back to the project. I saved my “clean” stop words file away from the generation folder, but it would be nice if RoboHelp just let me do the thinking.