Cisco Networking Academy - Fundamentals of Web Design
7.2 Localization and Translation
7.2.12 Avoiding ambiguity
By its nature, the English language can cause confusion for a global audience. Consider the following guidelines to avoid ambiguity. Disambiguate Strings of Modifiers Modifier strings are phrases with two or more nouns or adjectives strung together. In such strings, it is sometimes difficult to determine which word is modified by which adjective and which nouns form a stand alone phrase. For example:
Cisco's new virtual private dialup network session counting software...
A translator could interpret this sentence in at least two ways.
Cisco's new virtual private dialup counting software for network sessions... or Cisco's software for a new virtual private dialup network session counting...
Avoid modifier strings by breaking them into several smaller phrases, limiting the number of adjectives to no more than three, or by adding hyphens to clarify compounds. Hyphens indicate what words form a combination, as in "user-friendly project-management software." A good fix for the above example is:
Cisco's new software for counting sessions of virtual private dialup networks...
Avoid Words with Multiple Meanings Many words have multiple meanings. Eliminate ambiguities whenever possible. The key linguistic principle is "one word = one meaning." An example of a word with a multiple meaning is "run." A person can run down the street. A software program can be run from a remote location. A print run can consist of 500 copies of a book. Beware of Words Ending in ING Verb forms ending in "ing" that are used as nouns and verb forms ending in "ing" that are used as adjectives are often difficult to distinguish. Consider the following phrase:
Searching the database
This phrase could mean either "How to search the database" or "A database search is in progress." When using a gerund or participle, ensure that your meaning is unambiguous. Look for possible misunderstandings and rewrite to avoid them. Avoid Ambiguous Conjunctions The conjunctions "and" and "or" can cause confusion when it is unclear how much of the preceding text is being joined together. See the examples below:
Ambiguous: No translation attempted between frame header bits and ATM layer EFCI bits and DE bits. Clear: No translation is attempted between the bits of the frame header and the EFCI bits and DE bits in the ATM layer.
To avoid confusion, use parallel construction and break up long or very complex sentences into simpler sentences.