This may or may not have been written by George Carlin. Since there’s no profanity, he probably didn’t write it. But, it’s still funny.
George Carlin: The English Plurals
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes;
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese;
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.
Technical Writers work with just about every department within a company. They get a feature description from a Product Manager, an implementation detail from R&D, and the terminology spin from Marketing. They may also deal with Support, Deployment, and whatever other deparments exist in their companies.
When dealing with all these different groups, especially when working in a large company, it helps to understand how the groups work together. This knowledge helps the TW more efficiently deal with his or her tasks, avoid hitting management walls, and know who they need to talk to. Unfortunately, it is only gained after working for the company for a long time.
Some illustrations, like the one below, of different org types were posted over at Bonker’s World.
Which one is your current company most like?
[Source: Bonker’s World]
You can make your life a lot easier by customizing the MS Word toolbar with functions that you often use.
Here’s how.
) in the toolbar.Add whatever commands you usually use. Note the following:
Phlogtastic 