I. Simplified English: An FAQ
1. What is Simplified English?
Simplified English is a controlled form of English used by technical and professional writers worldwide. Simplified English was originally developed by the aeronautics industry. However, now forms of Simplified English exist in many different fields. Simplified English is often called basic English, global English, plain English and controlled English. The form of Simplified English used in this document is WSUer-Friendly Simplified English (WFSE). This form has been developed to teach university-level ESL students how to simplify their technical and website writing.
2. How is Simplified English “controlled”?
All forms of Simplified English use a restricted vocabulary and a set of proscriptive grammar rules. The original form of Simplified English had 1000 words and 57 grammar rules. WSUer-Friendly Simplified English uses the Longman Defining Corpus of 2000 words and about thirty rules.
3. Why do writers use Simplified English?
Writers use Simplified English to
- edit complex text, especially technical text;
- communicate with people who do not read English as a first language;
- help themselves understand complex text;
- prepare text for machine translation;
- save money.
4. What does Simplified English look like?
A text in Simplified English is easy to read. The text may be longer or shorter than the original text, but it always has one important characteristic: it is easy to read. Here is a sample of a text, a rewrite in WSUer-Friendly Simplified English, and an analysis and explanation of the problems.
ORIGINAL TEXT SAMPLE:
Why did Becton Dickinson develop the Accu-Beep feature?
With nearly 100 years of temperature taking experience, Becton Dickinson understood that most temperature taking problems are caused by technique errors, rather than thermometer malfunction. By beeping every 4 seconds, the Accu-Beep Digital helps reduce technique errors. (Taken from: Instructions for the B-D Flexible digital Thermometer).
REWRITE IN WSUer-FRIENDLY SIMPLIFIED ENGLISH:
Why did Becton Dickinson develop the Accu-Beep feature?
Becton Dickinson has almost 100 years of experience with thermometers. The thermometers rarely malfunction. However, people often use thermometers incorrectly.
What is the purpose of the Accu-Beep?
The Accu-Beep Digital beeps every 4 seconds to reduce technique errors.
Analysis and Explanation of Changes
There are a number of problems with the text:
1. Focus of the question and answer. Only the first sentence answers the question. The second sentence answers a different question: What is the purpose of the Accu-beep? (WFSE rule: stick to one topic per sentence/instruction).
Rewrite #1:
Why did Becton Dickinson develop the Accu-Beep feature?
With nearly 100 years of temperature taking experience, Becton Dickinson understood that most temperature taking problems are caused by technique errors, rather than thermometer malfunction.
What is the purpose of the Accu-Beep?
By beeping every 4 seconds, the Accu-Beep Digital helps reduce technique errors.
2. The first answer is too long -25 words.
(WFSE rule: Keep sentences to 20 words or fewer).
The first answer has two three-word compound nouns -- temperature taking experience/ temperature taking problems.
(WFSE rule: Avoid compound nouns of three or more words)
The first answer has a passive -- are caused by.
(WFSE rule: Avoid the passive wherever possible).
The first answer has a noun that comes from a verb - malfunction.
(WFSE rule: Avoid nouns that come from verbs)
Rewrite #2
Why did Becton Dickinson develop the Accu-Beep feature?
Becton Dickinson has almost 100 years of experience with thermometers. The thermometers rarely malfunction. However, people often use thermometers incorrectly.
3. The second answer has two ideas in the sentence - how often it beeps/ why it beeps.
(WFSE rule: Keep sentences to one main idea per sentence).
The second answer has an -ing form - beeping.
(WFSE rule: Avoid -ing forms if possible).
Rewrite #3
What is the purpose of the Accu-Beep?
The Accu-Beep Digital beeps every 4 seconds to reduce technique errors.
5. How does Simplified English help you to prepare text for machine translation?
If a text has been simplified, it will be easier to translate with a machine (Internet based) translator. No machine translation is perfect. A human being must always make some corrections. But the number of corrections can be reduced by entering the original in a form of Simplified English.
Here’s an example:
The following extract is from the written guarantee for Swarovksi jewelry. This guarantee is provided in a document called the Swarovski certificate. The guarantee is translated into a number of languages.
This extract is from the English language version:
Only when the jewelry is judged to be of the finest quality does it receive the stamp of perfection in beauty and workmanship: the Swarovski Swan.(Swarovski AG, 2001)
This is the Spanish language version from FreeTranslation.com. Compare the underlined part to the underlined part shown in the actual translation:
Sólo cuando las joyas se juzgan para ser de la calidad más fina lo hace recibe el sello de la perfección en la belleza y la habilidad: el Cisne de Swarovski.
This is the actual Spanish language version in the certificate. Notice the difference from the FreeTranslation.com translation:
Solo cuando se juzga que la pieza es de la mas fina calidad , recibe el sello de perfection y belleza: el cisne Swarovski.
This is the WFSE version:
The company judges the jewelry.
Only the most beautiful and well made jewelry receive the stamp of perfection: the Swarovski swan.
This is the FreeTranslation.com version. Compare the underlined parts:
La compañía juzga las joyas. Sólo la mayoría joyas hermosas y bien hechas reciben el sello de la perfección: el cisne de Swarovski.
This is the actual translation of the WFSE English version:
La compañía juzga las joyas. Sólo las joyas mas hermosas y bien hechas reciben el sello de la perfección: el cisne de Swarovski.
6. How does Simplified English save money?
A company that uses a form of Simplified English on its website and in its documents, does not have to worry about translating the original into multiple languages. A company that uses Simplified English to prepare documents for translation can use free machine translators to do most of the work.