Years ago, one of my colleagues’ status (on her chat window) read “WFH”. I did not know what it meant and asked around. Once I learnt that it meant that the person was working from home, I was envious. This select band of people did not have to tear out of the house at a given hour (or given minute), jostle for place in public transport or drive in crazy traffic, and suffer road fatigue to get to their desk or cubicle. They just had to open their laptop, log in, and they were ready to work! Right in the comfort of their homes. Wow! The new age was indeed here. I was part of it. How thrilling!

Cut to the present – I work from home. Not on two days of the week or anything like that. I run my own company and I work from home. Home, or rather, one room at home, is office. It affords the luxury of flexibility and it does feel good to work from the comfort of home. But, it’s not all silky and smooth. Just when I’m all set to take a client’s call on Skype, the twins suspect that I’m home and come banging on my door. And then they start hollering. Can I hear the client? Well, what do you think?

Worse. I've logged into a call and am straining to hear the client’s requirements. In the middle of this important discussion, I realize that I am talking to myself - the electricity has gone kaput. I’m chasing a deadline and my babysitters can’t come in that day. There is no backup – all supportive and kind-hearted people don’t mind having one fellow to look after. But two? They have the go take a hike look written all over their faces.

Balancing career and family makes for fine conversations, but I find that the practicality of day-to-day jobs is so much of a challenge.

Bottom line? If your office affords the luxury of WFH, do avail of it when you need it. If you can negotiate to WFH on say two days of the week, even better. But otherwise, my sense is that office has its own set of upsides – where else can you gossip about work in air-conditioned comfort with a hot cuppa chai in hand? Or for that matter, take your mind off work with a quick game of table tennis or snooker? 

In one of my earlier posts, I pointed out how as technical writers, we contribute to the product development process.  One of the important ways in which we make this contribution is to make common sense of the application by reviewing onscreen language. Mind you, we do these reviews as a feature is being developed by the technical groups – not after. I say we make common sense of the application because you will be amazed (read shocked) at the way products are developed and released to market. 

The following check list will help you when you do a language review of a product.

• Is the language consistent in tone and style with the rest of the product?
• Is the text grammatically correct? 
• Is the punctuation right? 
• Is the text as concise and meaningful as can be?
  
• Is the casing in the text consistent?
  
• Do all screen elements (headings, sub headings, instruction text, check box options, labels) follow standard user interface guidelines?
  
• Can the user complete the task on the screen intuitively? Does he or she need any help? If yes, what assistance can you offer? Is this assistance easily discoverable? That is, does the user know where to look for help?
  
• Does the workflow of the task (clicks to complete a task) make for a sensible flow? 
  
• Are there confirmation messages to tell the user that he or she has completed a particular task?
  
• Are there warning messages that alert the user about possible results of actions that he or she is about to take? If there are any actions that the user should NOT do, is that clearly called out?
  
• Are the error messages helpful? That is, do the error messages give a recommendation to the user as to the next course of action (instead of leaving him or her at a dead end)?

If your product is being translated into different languages, add these translation considerations to your check list – this will help reduce translation costs.

• Use simple sentences. 
  
• Use words that are familiar.
  
• Use the same word across the interface instead of using synonyms. 
  
• Use the same clause wherever possible. 
  
• Do not use jargon or slang.
  
• Do not use one word to mean different things.
  
• Do not use idioms.

Beyond these language-related checks, remember that as a technical writer, you are contributing to the User Experience (Ux) of the product. In this capacity, you can do some basic checks of the user interface.

• Are all the design elements consistent with the rest of the product?
  
• Is the spacing of the design elements appropriate?
  
• Is the design and layout of the page pleasing and professional?
  
• Is the text aligned properly?

I am sure you will feel empowered with these check lists that are by no means exhaustive. Go ahead and make a difference, dear technical writer!  

Back in the pre-Internet era, dictionaries were fat, unwieldy things that generally sat on shelves looking important. Once in a while they were taken down and a word was hunted for. There were also smaller, transportable dictionaries that one took to school. If you didn't have it in English class you could well spend that half-hour outside the classroom. And then there were those cute little 'pocket dictionaries'. Their size was small, but they managed to pack quite a punch with a surprising amount of words. The slightly less popular cousin of the dictionary was the wordy and wise thesaurus. The thesaurus was very useful when you were using the word 'nice' in your essay for the fifteenth time.

Dictionaries and thesauruses are the ox and mule of the book kingdom. They may not be beautiful, and don't get all the attention, but they are a loyal, hard-working bunch that humans greatly depend on. The modern day descendants of these useful books are available online. Merriam Webster, Dictionary.com, Cambridge, Oxford, Longman and just about everyone has transformed themselves to the web.

If you think looking up word meanings or synonyms is boring, have a look at Worknik. It's got a delightful bunch of features for those of you who like spending time with words.

Another very interesting place to visit (for us Indians only please) is Samosapedia. A rib-tickling combination of fun, nostalgia, dictionary and Indianisms all rolled into one, it really doesn't get any better than this. Rest assured, words and their meanings will no longer be a 'botheration'.