80 likes | 196 Vues
Designing Safety Instructions for Foreign-Language Audiences. Jack Crawford LCC 3403B Training Module. Overview. Benefits Goals Guide. Benefits of a Language-neutral Approach.
E N D
Designing Safety Instructions for Foreign-Language Audiences Jack Crawford LCC 3403B Training Module
Overview • Benefits • Goals • Guide
Benefits of a Language-neutral Approach • (Obviously) a larger audience can be reached since the instructions aren’t just targeted at those fluent in a specific language • It leads to simpler instruction sets, meaning everyone is more likely to pay attention to them
Goals • To minimize amount of text • Replace text with recognized symbols where possible • Replace text with images where possible • When impossible to replace text, repeat in multiple languages • To avoid culture-specific terminology
Guide for General Safety Instructions • Since communication is about risks, make an effort to avoid scaring the audience • No “horror stories” • Avoid statistics (i.e. __% of workers die from __) • Minimize ambiguity (very difficult when trying to remain language-neutral)
Guide for Safety Instructions for Foreign-Language Audiences • Make a list of symbols that are universally understood in each targeted audience’s culture • Research the audiences’ preferred rhetorical styles – when text is necessary, write in a form more likely to be understood
References • Anderson, Paul. Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach. 8th ed. (Cengage, 2013) • Evia, Carlos and Ashley Patriarca. (2012). Beyond Compliance: Participatory Translation of Safety Communication for Latino Construction Workers. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 26(3), 340- 367. http://jbt.sagepub.com.prx.library.gatec h.edu/content/26/3/340.full.pdf+html