US and UK Spoken English

Writing technical information in US English is one thing. However, over the past few days, Baxter, a hula-hooping expert from North Carolina, USA, has been staying with my family.

This is Baxter:



This led me to recite my two favourite observations about the difference between UK and US spoken language:

Communication can be one way at times
Because films and media generally flow from the US to the UK but not back the other way, North Americans generally do not understand our idioms although we generally understand theirs. This can lead to blank stares during normal conversations or snorts and gurgles as they try to get their head around our anglicisms.

The richest field for alternative words is the automobile, sorry, car.
Starting from the front we need to translate:
Bumper  > Fender
Headlamps > Headlights
Bonnet > Hood
Windscreen > Windshield
Gear stick > Stick shift
Boot > Trunk
Rear lights > Tail lights
Exhaust pipe > Tail pipe

If you have any more for my collection then do let me know.

I'll finish with one final anecdote:
A few years ago I was getting out of the car with my Texan friend who shrieked with delight when I exclaimed, "Oh no, I've trodden on a boiled sweet" as I got out. She just didn't know what I meant. It turns out that, actually, I'd "stepped in a candy".

Second guessing what the user needs

I often say that my job is to be an advocate for the user within an organization. I shouldn't just document the tasks that the user wants to achieve, I should also push back to the development team to explain when the software presents barriers to achieving tasks.

However, how do we know what real users are trying to achieve with the software? We can make a best guess based on previous experience but, new features are new features and don't necessarily have a precedent. What then?

I've heard it said several times recently that we should be writing the bulk of the user documentation after the product is released and that we should base the tasks we document on needs identified from technical support calls.

Indeed, several large companies are already doing this.

Skype online help

This has parallels with the release early and release often of Agile and Scrum software development where features bubble to the top of a list. I get the feeling that post-release documentation will be the hot topic of 2012.

Nobody's talking about it

The circles I move in so far aren't considering the implication of the movement of English language technical communications to lower-cost India. However, in the UK there has been a dip in contract rates and writing rates have remained more or less static for perhaps 10 years.

The list of panelists from the tcworld India 2012 conference makes interesting reading:

1. Ken Chu, Senior Director of Information Development, Server Technologies, Oracle Corporation, USA
2. Suneeta Aggarwal, Director of Technical Publications at TIBCO Software Inc, USA
3. Sonali Natarajan, Director of Documentation, Cisco Corporation, USA

So Oracle, TIBCO and Cisco now write their content in India do they?

I read a while back that by working with India from the UK, both economies would grow. If that is true, what we need to do, rather than burying our heads in the sand, is embrace that idea and start working together.

For many businesses in the UK, success can only come by working in the team with the developers and engineer subject matter experts (SME). Writing requires understanding and expertise but, which bits of the process could you share with a lower cost colleague? How does your organization aid you in forming those relationships? It's time to start thinking about these issues.