Localization and writing for a new medium a review of digital…本地化和写作一个新的媒体审查数字.pdfVIP

Localization and writing for a new medium: a review of digital style guides Miguel A. Jiménez-Crespo Rutgers University, USA Abstract Over the last two decades, an increasing number of publications have described the differences between print and screen writing, both from prescriptive and empirical perspectives. These recommendations are of paramount importance to localizers, as the ability to adjust their writing style to different mediums, genres and communicative situations is one of the essential skills these professionals should acquire. This paper offers a review of recommendations in web and software writing style guides in order to provide a concise summary for localization professionals and trainees. The overview encompasses guidelines from language, localization type, company-specific style guides, and usability publications. Keywords localization, style guides, technical writing, digital texts, multimedia translation Plain text is the foundation of most web information […] (Nielsen y Tahir 2002: 49). 1. Introduction Localization is rapidly becoming one of the sectors with the highest volumes of translation and an increasing number of professionals are becoming experts in software, videogame or web localization (Mossop 2006). Among the many technological, communicative, textual, and pragmatic challenges that localizers face, adapting their writing style to the demands of screen reading is an essential skill that needs to be acquired. Usability studies have shown that reading on screen is normally 25% slower than on paper (Nielsen and Loranger 2006) and, in general, users do not read but scan through screen texts until they find what they are looking for: simply what interests them (Nielsen 2000). The interactive nature of screen texts demands a specific writing style in order to reproduce