Do not turn nouns into verbs

Nouns are nouns and verbs are verbs, and never the twain must be swapped.

Here are some examples where these roles have, indeed, been swapped. These sentences mutilate the English language and are, besides, difficult to understand by non-English speakers and by the automated translation tools that they might use to understand (or translate) a web page.

• Before you configure the feature, ftp to the server and download the customization.ini file.
• After the table is DROPped from the database, delete the index.

Here are the sentences, reworked.

• Before you configure the feature, connect to the server by using an FTP client and download the customization.ini file.
• After the table is deleted from the database by using the DROP command, delete the index.

Do not turn machines into humans

Computers can sort, find, add, read, and delete stuff but they cannot understand, think, want, care about, or assume anything.

Here are some examples where the computers have taken over the humanly functions.

• If you do not log on to the workspace, the system thinks that the entire stream is restricted for you.
• The application asks you for a numeric value and tells you the square root.

Here are the sentences, reworked.

• If you do not log on to the workspace, the system operates as if the entire stream is restricted for you.
• The application prompts you for a numeric value and displays the square root.

About the author

Anindita Basu is an editor at IBM.  She champions DITA; she also worships Hindi films.  She can be reached at anindita_basu@shortmail.com.

Acknowledgments

The comic strips were created at http://www.makebeliefscomix.com.