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	<title>David Farbey, Technical Writer &#187; language</title>
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		<title>A custard cream? That&#8217;s neet!</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/07/a-custard-cream-thats-neet/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/07/a-custard-cream-thats-neet/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:24:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[English]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OED]]></category>
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		<description><![CDATA[The latest edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (OED) was published this week, and there have been a spate of articles about some of the new words that are in the dictionary for the first time, including custard cream and neet. The OED is a repository of the words we use &#8211; it&#8217;s a [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Reading by numbers</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/03/reading-by-numbers/</link>
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		<pubDate>Sat, 15 Mar 2008 19:29:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[readability]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[reading]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[usabilty]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[I am indebted to Karen Schriver, author of Dynamics in Document Design, for posting a note to the Info-Design Cafe mailing list about a recent article in the Wall Street Journal about readability formulas.
In his article &#8220;Can you read as well as a fifth-grader? Check the formula&#8221; columnist Carl Bialik discusses the readability formulas included [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Apostrophe overload</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/02/apostrophe-overload/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/02/apostrophe-overload/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 11 Feb 2008 12:58:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[apostrophe]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grammar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[technical writing]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[I am currently revising some user-facing documentation for a new client. The existing documents were prepared by a member of staff, no longer working for the company concerned, who had never had any training in technical writing skills. There&#8217;s a series of about a dozen Word documents of about 20 pages each. All the formatting [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Why &quot;correctness&quot; matters</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/01/why-correctness-matters/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2008/01/why-correctness-matters/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2008 09:20:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[English]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[grammar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[usage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Native speakers of English &#8211; or any other language &#8211; seem to know how to use their own language, and what is correct in language use, even without formal study of the rules of grammar. People just seem to know &#8220;what sounds right&#8221;. Many very wise people have written about this at length and I [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Worse than hieroglyphics</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/worse-than-hieroglyphics/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/worse-than-hieroglyphics/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 May 2007 14:33:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[jargon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plain English]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[An article by Sam Dunn in today&#8217;s Independent on Sunday compares the user information that accompanies financial products to Egyptian hieroglyphics, and unsurprisingly, the hieroglyphics come off best.
For some unscrupulous companies, jargon and obscure language can help to sell products or services. Customers cowed or dazzled by technical or impressive-sounding language will be reluctant to [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Difficult decisions and hard choices</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/difficult-decisions-and-hard-choices/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/difficult-decisions-and-hard-choices/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 11 May 2007 18:41:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Blair]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[euphemism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Tony&#8217;s Blair&#8217;s announcement of his departure from No. 10 Downing Street has naturally dominated the headlines today. There has been much written about his &#8220;legacy&#8221;. I want to draw attention to one less  discussed aspect of that legacy &#8211; his deliberate misuse of words.
On many occasions in the last decade Blair has declared himself [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Invented English: &quot;smokefree&quot;</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/invented-english-smokefree/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/05/invented-english-smokefree/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 09 May 2007 08:19:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[grammar]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[plain English]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[usage]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[In order to create publicity material to accompany the implementation of a law making it illegal to smoke in enclosed places, the UK Department of Health (DoH) have invented a new  word: &#8220;smokefree&#8221;. 
In fact they have an entire campaign going on about &#8220;Smokefree England&#8220;.
I am in despair about this. Not, let me explain, [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Learning from Jane</title>
		<link>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/04/learning-from-jane/</link>
		<comments>http://www.farbey.co.uk/index.php/2007/04/learning-from-jane/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Apr 2007 10:46:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>David Farbey</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[etymology]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[films]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[jane Austen]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[language]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OED]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[pedantry]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[I have always enjoyed citing Jane Austen&#8217;s use of &#8220;their&#8221; with a singular antecedent in rebuttal of the pedants who claim it must only be used with the plural (see the reference on Henry Churchyard&#8217;s Linguistics page, and many other citations on the Internet). As a technical writer using &#8220;their&#8221; in the singular is particularly [...]]]></description>
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