Never Mind Your Diet, Cut the Crap From Your Vocabulary

hello everyone I I'm going to get going I know people are still trickling in from the KE know that's cool um so um try to think the best way to start so sorry I'm a little nervous um uh how many people uh feel like they need to read between the lines when reading or listening to what people have to say thank you hey good response ever feel like it is all GRE to you there you go um when trying to convey a message especially one that you feel is important um why would you ever choose words that aren't commonly used and can be interpreted various ways for example um I know a few people that like to use

like five cage instead of split like really when I first heard it didn't even know what it meant I think I looked at Andrew and I said what um so just something to keep in mind um the this talk is called never mind your diet had the crap from your vocabulary um welcome to bides and the improving ground um sorry I know I'm shaking um uh over the years I've read various articles posts to send several talks and listen to people and to be honest tune them out cuz I get to the point where they speak they say so many big words fluffy words and I'm like what are you really trying to say and uh same

with blog posts I get to a point where they're so long I stop reading them um so this morning I'm just looking to address your vocabulary how to clean it up be precise uh when you're speaking and writing presenting training whatever meeting you choose um I um my name is Kelly hay I've been um been in tech for about 20 years now um my first job out of college actually my last year at College was working with a tech writing group transitioning them from Max to PCS training them and from then I've done work at ISP doing tech support um like my my gift is really translating what developers create into what people can consume either through technical writing

training course development uh whatever the case may be uh last 7 years my focus has been training um I'm currently at fire eye my specialization there is certifications exams and Labs um I co-authored a book with my husband Andrew who's sitting over here some of you may know him may not um no there's a chance um what else can I tell about me um when not working well it's what anything I like I like sports a lot like to sit at a bar and drink beer and watch sports Pocky rugby you know that rugby there you go uh so in the talk today my my goal is to cover clear focus training content whether it's presenting

documentation um yeah presentation on online communication of course than need Twitter blog whatever the case may be and even error messages cuz we know all know how good error messages are um here has anybody here heard of Bloom's taxonomy Wendy yay I don't remember what it is remember what it is well blooms and I will I'm going to have to go to my notes a little bit about this CU it's very focused on training so the idea of blooms is to classify education levels and there's so there's six levels knowledge is sort remembering previously learned content so it's recall type questions um comprehension is more demonstrating the understanding of the fact so think of like could Define um

explain something so somebody gives you a term you should be able to Define what it is exactly um application so actually applying your knowledge so like a lab type setting where you know go and install a product actually testing you in the application of doing that analysis this uh would be more about breaking down objects um or ideas into simpler parts and finding evidence to support them so troubleshooting scenarios would be an example of that um then just simplis I could say it um it'd be compiling component ideas into whole or or new sorry or or proposing new alternative Solutions so Advanced thinking deduction um based on providing content stuff like that and finally evaluation so making a defending judge

judgments based on evidence or external criteria um the reason I bring this up it is very training focused but I find when when helping people giving like presentations similar to what I'm doing I find this really helps in developing content and presentations because I like to sort of test people as I go with with things in my presentation so it's just something to think about um as you go forward as said more training focused um than anything but I find it's very helpful to follow and I will be cly back to this by the way um so when it comes to training sorry I'm going to say clear communication I am going to break it

down between two what when where and why and even how um some of it's a little sketchy it's hard to map back but follow along speak up if you have anything to add by the way I know I'm going to be trying to lecture mode I'm going to try and break that as I go CU I said speak up any input any comments always appr apprciated um unless it's sarcastic so who it's well you're both back there together now so I can just look that way and I can get two of you at once um CL hanging back here maybe maybe um so when it comes to training who should attend um do you know who's using your

product do you know do you know exactly using your product I guess or your service because when it comes to training even presenting your audiences are going to be very different you got managers you got your developers you got your administrators and end users everybody is very very different and you really need to recognize the differences between each so you can communicate effectively with with each role um this sample list in particular a previous company that I worked for they had a defined education department they had a defined list of roles and so this list is from one course these were the roles they said were were to be part of this um particular course that I P the sample

from um So within this course everything is written around these roles and even the labs there scenarios written around the roles so that when they're going through the motions they can relate it back to what they do in their in their work space um what else can I add here oh yes one thing that I I find very interesting when when people speak when they they think of who they think of general who um they they'll think okay I'm speaking to room as CEOs well CEO at a bank is going to be very different from a CEO University and um it takes a I think it takes a real c special person really to understand the differences between those

roles and the the different sectors that people are in so it's very important to know exactly not just the role but even the industry they're in and be able to speak and relate to them um just something else to keep in mind um this is actually a marketing example I don't know if anybody in this in the room works for this company but I came across this Bri up and there there was a three paragraph write up this was submitted to RSA last year three paragraph right this was one sentence as to what they do and I thought it was really funny cuz I thought it was very wory and I am very bad now cuz I'm very

precise in my writing I read marketing and I to be honest I just like what like what are you saying seriously like when I read this I thought I totally rewrite it to our company resources are Security Experts who have identified some of the most critical critical Compu computer security vulnerabilities and help secure critical infrastructures and data assets of large Global organizations as opposed to this which I Ser I read it twice and I thought what and then I then I was able to sort of start shorten it up a little bit um and I found that I thought it was pretty cute I love that um when it comes to content in general um When developing any type of

content you must be really careful with what you say too reread and constantly revise your words to make sure what you say is clear and easy to understand uh remember to indicate your objectives at the beginning um of whatever you're communicating even though your slide title might be clear it might might be best to just clarify a little bit more um just so people know exactly what your focus is um this presentation alone Brian helped me I think I revised it three or four times because my trainer thought oh I can go this way and then I thought I can go this way and then I came back and said no that's not my focus I'm I'm trying and I brought it in

a little bit you'll see I go off a little bit but there's reason for it um also when when um communicating best to really uh write in plain English now might sound really funny some people um but when you think of translations um it's amazing the words that can be misconstrued and they don't translate well at all um even something as simple I had it up before the word since a lot of people will get into as um because and it's just it's words like that it's little words that make a huge difference when it comes to translating and also just um it need to be careful of uh trying to Fig the best way to say

this um clearness also to avoid colloquialism is because you want to make sure that everybody can relate and understand so somebody might be sitting in here that there their native language is in English um and if I through in something that you know was I'll say it an americanism that you guys would all get it might they might take offense to it so it's just something to keep in mind as you go um oh yes I have a bunch of examples here give me second here um so when putting formal communication together constantly ask herself what am I trying to say what is my objective what do I want everyone to remember and finally like what is my true message so what is

the takeaway so this sentence here is actually from this was actually taken from a guy that some people know I don't see him in the room which is really annoying me but there's words here that he really likes so there's this or there's this and my next one which I'm sure everybody can relate um when I'm doing training I worked with a lot of product experts in the past that love to take like 20 words to explain one step for oops for example this which I put to this just very clear precise you know here's what you got to do here's how you do it maybe some formatting in there but yeah there's there's a huge difference

like even it's not so much big words but even taking stuff like in order to just say to try s nuts I hear people say it I'm like say too um and fundamental of course everyone knows that that I just that out there because I've heard it already today um she has a personal hatred for I hate it but I I worked for a company where we had a huge company meeting and I swear whatever SE level was every other sentence had fundamental in it and I listen to it for an hour so kind of St um what else oh yes for what this is just from that same course where I had the who who 10 this is just a sample of

what the person will learn in the course so you can see they're they're very precise they're going to install a product they're going to perform operational verification to qualid systems so this this is very very precise they're they're um meal verbs and what I mean by that is you can test them so when this training is done the idea is that they can sit and they can install a product and they can be tested on that um this just very high level um else I oh yes when when defining training actually something to think about if you ever do training try to use avoid the words understand learn and know because you can't measure them you

cannot test somebody's ability to understand you can teach them how to perform a function but you can't teach them to understand how per does that make sense you know people don't think stuff like this but when you're when you're when you're evaluating and even when you're doing like certification exams it's something to keep in mind you've got to make sure everything Maps back so everything has to be clear and precise and you have to be able like anybody's taken like written CIS anybody in this room I'm sure has all those objectives everything you've done has to be measured back and the the the board behind it has to be able to document everything that you've done

everything you've written it has to Happ exactly so they have to have precise um objectives rep um in addition I'm I training is more my specialty so I tend to go that way but this really does hit um across writing and pres presenting in general um so what what here when it talks to um This is the End by the way um when considering the what aspect of training documenting your presenting you need to know what people know you need to know what other people need to know to use a product your service um so for for example in training what they need to know becomes your prerequisites um and then this comes into so these are from that course I

just picked a course from a previous client these were their modules and here were the the the flushed out objectives or lesson titles in the objectives so everything Maps back and everything again is written around this so prerequisite here is knowing distributed environments it's all pulled through the labs and everything's tested and you know what this is saying how's everyone doing by the way hidden message there you go W see I I can't be only get so creative and here just some more words kind break it up a little um and I know I'm going to say this wrong because I pick some funky words up I normally say but has my specificity mated your thinking around

how you communicate can you prognosticate my next move sounds really funny to me um this was actually taken from another company website I don't know if they're here I don't think they're represented here the company but um no I know I think I think Andrew found this but and he found it cuz he said well this is great what are they measuring it [Music] next 25% greater than what familiar yes I think we've seen slides like this yeah I I I love picking of par marketing which I should one of my best friends be a marketing somewhere but yes I love doing this marketing CU I just don't get it like they don't know me they don't

know where I work on they don't know where I work um but yeah I just don't know what they're measuring against I stand up to me here so when when this was a really tough one when it came to clear communication um but when it come when it comes up to me is thinking what you're saying with with a product or service um especially training and documenting um how many people here actually work for a company that will not release a product if their docs and training are not ready anybody I actually worked I I work for a company that wouldn't they stopped their GA date because training wasn't done they actually have put that in place um

it's very very rare um but it's effective it's amazing how quickly the product experts are willing to help create training content help the tech writers when you tell them they can't release and it's it's it's not only is it really effective to keep everything in sync it makes everything a lot more accurate um is there anybody here that's a developer that actually does help writing group or or train or is the writing group well that's awesome because then you should be well versed um in um in one of my roles it seems many moons ago um I did support I did training I did writing I did troubleshooting and it was the best job I ever did it was 13 years

ago yeah 13 14 years ago and I can still tell you what the product did and I can probably still troubleshoot it not that it exists anymore but I remember it like it was yesterday because I was so involved in it I whenever they had a release coming out I did the test cases and ran them and then I also did support and it's I don't think a lot of people realize how what the true benefit of pulling in a writing team I honestly if if if I was running a I was my boss I would be taking test cases and giving them to the training team and the writing team and say here you go and

then report back because then they not only will they find bugs they'll actually come up with questions I'm sure that will help them in the long run and help them learn the product better um yeah it's It's amazing And as said a lot of people don't think about it um but it's truly beneficial and I think it's a smart move by any company to to incorporate um trading teams and also back and forth how many people would you say need to be in the content or the document through uh based on the overall size of the company depends on the product um yeah to me it really depends on prod and the the state of the company like a

startup I mean I was at a startup recently and I was the writer and it took me 3 months to get everything high level done and they're still flushing at the didy gritty um but long run I guess it depends on service offerings too um like at fire ey right now I know they have two writers in one group that's one product so and I think it works I I don't know cuz I don't know them I it I I really say it's Case by case um I would think one for one would be tight like when I was at storm path which is where it was before here uh before fire eye I was low

but it was still small company and they're still developing so I was able to script what they had done in like 2 months and then it was just keeping up with them um and ideally like any company that's been around for a while and has documentation in place I think they get to the point where they start cutting Tech writers really um I think some companies get to the point where depending on how they're delivering their Tech writing they'll actually turn to a product experts updated especially when they're using like HTML and stuff and that's it like anybody can go update that once it's in place in theory I mean you might still want somebody to like do a copy at on it

make sure still reads okay but yeah it really depends I would think at Le two and then pull them around like my ideal job is everything I like to touch everything but I like to break things too so that's one thing I'm really good at apparently um know what else say about this I think I have anything else um well from training when when when it comes to conferences exactly right everybody laughs but it's true cuz you know there's a CFT on right now for August 6 the date conference is until February so when do you sit down write up your your thoughts what are you going to say like I don't know what's going to

be worth talking about in 6 months I mean I can rehat this stuff and update it find some more marketing samples but there's a lot of technical content out there that you know you're thinking 7 months in advance um I know to be honest I think it's kind of a turn that they're asking for stuff so early I don't know if I want to go to the talks I want new stuff I I'd actually like to challenge a conference to organize cfp and everything in three months because then it's current they're fairly current like I look at it like what's being called for now for for August 6 being presented in February so if anything happens between now and

February but your talk submission doesn't match something new that comes out well then you're going to present it the next talk so it's going to be old by then or going to find another conference in the middle and it's going to be still kind of new but not over I don't know I think I think conference is taking these slides is pretty good but the big ones like when that's too early talking about RSA I'm not taking anything I'm not you know you know who I'm talking about everybody knows who I'm talking about I don't even have to elaborate but yeah um oh yes so I'd like you just to read this I got this I did find from RSA

I will say that much so thank you so the first sentence says email fishing attacks are on the rise hitting hundreds of hundreds of Major Brands across nearly every sector of the economy yep combating these threats requires a coordinated effort for both security and marking teams working together uhhuh and then last and security teams bring expertise about cyber crime and threat factors while marketing ofy keys to email systems that require new authentication protocols so can anybody tell me what what guess what this is actually from where I made have F this from it's actually a description of a panel an RSA panel I'm serious like I would looking I would looking for examples and I'm like

what what is this panel about I honestly thought it it readed me more like an email about you know fishing how they're going to attack fishing but it didn't read as a panel to me I guess when I when I think of panels or even talks you're going to say you know in this panel we will or this panel will'll discuss but there's nothing this was the blurt and I just kind of an accepted an accepted one yes that's and it was the only one I read like I read a lot that had like those Buzz buzzwords that some other You' like to use um um but you know what it madees sense this just didn't make sense to me as a

panel like it didn't draw me in it didn't say what they'd really be talking about it's just more sa fast I don't know my alone I don't know who is in it but yeah seem kind of ly content R so when when it comes to developing training you need to figure out where you're going to place it right are you going to go online um or you going to travel and send out instructors um which can be very costly of course um when you're reaching a global audience with limited resources perhaps online is the best um perhaps you want to go customize training um and sending somebody on site is a way to go um regardless of how it's delived though

you really have to keep in mind a global audience um right even right now at fire eye we have three trainers that are just on the and we have one that we're hiring in the Philippines and she we don't know if she can train in some of the places because she's a woman so it's a challenge for her to deal with she we know she's an expert she we know she can do it but we just don't know how well she's been to be received um so just something to keep in mind it's a shame but it's part of what you deal with of course Jack so when you're presenting where do you present I chose B sides I like bides

sides I like I like the community I like everything it does um I'm also not true Tech so I don't fit in really the other conferences Le they don't think I do um but yeah it's it's where do you where do you present but also how often do you present um like so a lot of people will take a talk and Pitch into four talks in a year at what point does it get old um at what point does the audience don't even make sense anymore um yeah I think a I think people need to take a step back instead of trying to get into every conference get a little more greater with their talks and truly mix it up gets a little

I I haven't been to many conferences but I've seen same talk still to times and I count on one hand up so that says a lot um when it comes to why so up at the top I actually rehashed what I at the beginning of my talk which was you will see how to get your mage message across effectively engage others by so I have my what in my why covered and then how creating clear focus training content using online Communications which we'll get you and providing effective air messages which we'll get to at the bottom this is just back from that course that I pulled from previous client where there so the idea is this

is the what's in it for me so when you're developing training you you really want to pull people in you want to give them reasons right why why do I care about performing an operational verification so so still sure that problems don't arise from improper application configuration for example um there's many ways you can go with it um the important thing when it comes to anything content though is really to give a person a reason you got to motivate them training presenting even documenting you can get to a point where you just ramble and ramble and ramble and people lose interest I do and I'm a writer uh this so here's another company right up which I thought was kind of

funny again I it just I pick on things because I I just see the fluff words or I see the ramble and I sort of Interest so this one I guess what stood to me here was this you know it sounds like they have a great product and service but I think they can really shorten what they're saying um because you know when you think about what go on a company website too I think a lot of people forget about that you know you go on a company website and depending on your monitor resolution this could this if this is on my my iPad that's how my my resolution is blur I mean this is something to keep in mind

when you get into too many words and try to ramble um Tesa that's French for those who don't Canadian so you know I P in French when I can and if you didn't notice Canadian play um just little things um um when it comes to how when delivering content with training I mean you can do a standard instructor-led training um you can go do an online offering of course um when it comes to training or presenting you can also throw in pretty graphs and lots of colors makebe be beautiful or maybe none of these people are here well Wendy is Wendy's here Wendy's got a cameo um um but it's also how like what makes

sense to deliver your message is it worth standing up so like I'm doing is it worth pulling up some buddies and doing a panel I know people bash panels a lot but sometimes it's good it's just you know way to just to talk about things and you know expose a topic of course you can stay on topic that's a full of all La so I've was said in a couple panels where they definitely steer different directions um but you know sometimes it makes sense to do that too like the burnout panel they like talk burnout in I don't think somebody wants to take that by themselves really um so here I actually have a little little sample training content

that I did for my previous job just to show what exactly precise training is very clear um this was just registering for storm paath account don't know how well it's it's big it's just kind of small here everything's very specific you know clean the fields pressing the T to move between the fields that's it very clear what if any differences need to be between like internal training and external training customer that you know depends on the company I work for a company where the view is a course is a course is a course so you're training content just written to a general audience and you you rely on your instructor to run with it depending on the true audience um

what're what I'm trying to do this is my big project to firey I'm trying to come up with these cases for every Vector so that when it's go out they have labs they have demos and they have just stuff to run with specific to training um but yeah really it com be the budget um like I'm I'm a I'm a full-time employee at fire my previous job I was a full-time employee for that company but I was outsourced into companies so they would come to us with budgets so um one of the biggest clients they were the view of course of course of course and it truly it so we were it was very precise what you're saying similar to

here is what I did I mean that's great I me in six years um because it had to be um it had to be specific their budget was always so much and we' come up with stuff to help the instructors either typically just notes like um and examples Labs were Labs I found labs are the best way to people in the different um sectors giving examples trying to come up with a scenario know a guy's going into a bank he's been hired to do something so give him a scenario you know you've got it if you're doing like um like an identity type product you know here's your here's your sample use case you know you've got these guys

theying this access blah blah blah but you also wrap it into a contra that a bank say yes that's where that's why I find the labs come in better um you can really tailor those but like to to something to keep in mind too when you when you're delivering training especially instructor LS um if you go to print and give a hard copy you can pay $400 one book for colored print so budget such plays a huge Factor um and also how you want to deliver it too um a lot of people are trying to go to PDF but then you go to PS one I put pranking and chairing yeah lots to consider ation

when it comes to to training money being so any that was just a little blurp um just a little break something different I love doing e learning um online communication this I find the funniest because I how many people are on Twitter I I love but some people are like no not me well one thing that SS out to me with Twitter is there's people that like to ramble on Twitter and there's what 140 character limit um there's one guy in particular again is not in this room but he'll take three to five tweets to share his thoughts well I followed I only follow 200 people and I say only because I know that's not many

but his tweets are never sequential in my timeline ever so if I see one I might see the second and then I just give the next three because honestly I I don't look I I truly don't look um so maybe you know when you're thinking of communicating online you really got to be precise especially with Twitter I mean you can always do a Blog I have one which I haven't updated since I start firey but um you really need to think about what you want to say and who you're trying to attract and what you're looking for if you're really looking to engage I'd say vog with comments even comments are tricky but at least it's a

little more open and there's it's I guess it's easier or better more effective I think than Twitter and I'm on Twitter I don't tweet a whole lot see I I I worry I worry about what I say I'm That Kind of Twitter user so I'll type and then I delete and delete and then I thought again like delet CU I I do worry about what I say and how it comes across and perception of me um I know a lot of people don't don't care and that's cool like your husband like my husband he has a bit of a filter he has a bit of he'll Liam instead of tweeting if he Li me which is

protected um just trying to think what else to say um I mean everybody knows what's out there online but again I this is this is all I have for online because I look at online like everything else you really have to think about your who your what you're when where you why and your how um but truly makes sense for what you're to share um so I did very brief and there's error messages these are just some I found online I wanted to actually to pick apart some some website errors but I couldn't find some good ones without upsetting somebody so the top one says proceeding with the operation delete will erase the contents of your hard

drive do you wish to proceed or delete which I thought and of course one one one I didn't put up here which everybody knows is key for not press f2 to continue or F4 to continue I didn't put it up there but that's always a good one um the bottom one says cannot delete 6620 there is not enough dis space delete one or more files to free dis space and then try again to free space on this drive by deleting all their unnecessary files click just clean up or okay so it's it's basically they're both Loops right they're doing the same thing um and then just a couple more there's an air opening this message in air has

icage fantastic and the last of the day do you know the tips bot is missing or you're Miss yay um any comments it's hard to catch every error I know I know this is I love finding this stuff people hate me sometimes I haven't done a lot of testing yet but I love it I love testing especially when I that job I Tom like 14 years ago I love nothing more than testing cuz then help me troubleshoot too and I was on I was on the phone 3 days a week two to 3 days a week depending on how the shift went and those days when I wasn't on the phone I was testing I was documenting

training did ended up do train the trainer but it's amazing how much you learn by thinking of like everything breaking things but as in storm path they're like they're like just log in and find out what you need d I'm like okay and then I'm like and I clicked something and then I send an i and like this did this he's like you found it thank you I'm like great no problem what else can I find for you it's fine how else do you learn and I think I I don't think it a lot of people realize that writers and PRS really benefit from Hands-On throw them into a lab throw them into um anything and just left them

with their hands dirty um so the end here so remember who what when were how basic English clean and simple um so remember who you were writing for speaking for um what your message or rule is um when your message is worth sharing keep that in mind um where um why the the biggest thing I find lacking is why a lot of people forget that they need to motivate people like people will put in a talk submission with what they want to say but they don't include that motivation I read many talk descriptions I'll be like okay so that's what you have to say but why do I care people just don't think about that

um and actually growing up with mentioned this earlier I grew up in a family where where if they got really sick and tired of listening to you ramble they were notorious for saying spit it out already like get to your point so this is this is what I've grown up with so writing techical writing is um where you can find me I'm on Twitter Kelly hey as I said I don't say a lot but I like to interact with people and I like to bug people especially when they ramble on Twitter over 140 characters um Vlogs hasn't been there in a while but it's outside looking POC and what I talk with there is well stuff like this

because I'm not considered tax or infosec normally I don't follow fall under it I do I have worked in infosec Bas for a few years now now so I WR to with stuff from my perspective being that nontypical Tech person um and Linkedin you can find me there as well um and I'm at firey that's what I do where I am uh any any comments questions am I full of crap call me out sir or Wendy who doesn't matter how do you how do you address the use of Jaron especially speaking in non techical terms I cut it out I don't at all how do you how do you dress these to jargon I just cut it out

you I yeah I I've Tak I've taken uh sales presentations and taken them from like 20 slides to 10 because it's rambling and it's JK and it's stuff that you you really shouldn't be saying or or it doesn't convey well it it yeah I don't know howse to say other than that it's just cleaning up cleaning the crap Yeah Wendy uh somewhat related when is it okay to use lead speak and documentation use you looking for an your AUD Des um yeah well you know when Andrew was an analyst I used to read his reports I'll just she was the one it's funny cuz actually when we did the book together I think it was an eye

opener for Andrew is to be like very specific very clean um a lot of I said people forget motivation is huge especially when you're doing a little blurp B talk I I I can't emphasize that enough when it comes to training you got to motivate people they're not going to show up um and when it comes to writing and communicating general clean simple basic English you got to you got to figure especially if you're you're traveling and you're doing conferences you're going to have an international audience they've got to understand what you're saying don't be throwing in those crap words like seriously bate I'm like really that trust me nut but simple keep it really simple I don't to say it

simple sweet effective it took this is like 27 slides I could not do more yes orange sh when you're when you're working with somebody to like condense their how do you um depends on my working relationship and he's asking how to address um basically work with somebody that tends to like ramble or to put it how I over over over over complicate things um yeah it really depends on the person I've had people just I've had like managers come to me and say just clean it do what you have to do I've had um people that you know well this is what I want to say I'm like well this is what you're going to say because they're

standards like a lot of companies will have standards like the the company that I pulled from all those examples they have when I started working with them they had a standards guy 140 pages that get follow so it really helped guide and structure like they even had a word list that we couldn't use like you never use the word insure for example because you cannot you cannot no oh you don't even use should technical documentation never use word should never use should never use insure you can use helps insure um cuz you cannot sure you you cannot guarantee anything you don't use should you can you don't say need to you say must for emphasis like there's a slw

stuff I can tell you to avoid um and it's just brain um yeah so it depends on the person like I've had I had one guy where I just pick up the phone be like look really you like I know but you know like so we just it's working together more than anything the cool implement the grandmother rule or possible the grandmother yes if you think your grandmother would say what are you saying then redefine it yeah that's true if your grandmother doesn't get it well I'm I'm also the type of person I'll read things like three times if I still don't get it then I reach back to the person if I can't rephrase it after two

or three reads then I contact them for clarification of course we there you go at the back grandmother rul second language rule assume your audience does not speak English well yeah that's what yeah exactly you mentioned it earlier I I work in a place where people are usually function Tri English is the third language so you know expect they don't understand what you're talking about and they don't understand you're talking Eng yeah i' I've heard of a situation through somebody in this room and I don't know the situation CU it wasn't there but they had a colloquialism in their in their delivery and they went to another country and it was wrong in that country they said

so is that what it was yeah to talk here in the US and they but yes see I mean so you know it's all well and good to have fun in talks but you really got to be careful um yeah other guy that went to Asia and called his audience too polite in the first like 2 minutes say I'm not sure how many talk to you guys are too Pol they really didn't expect Spanish Inquisition nobody expect anyone else any coms yesen to difficulty of the grandmother rule the language rule particularly for those of us that are I'm an engineer and so I like to express things precisely sound love you call what do you mean by that Tak a lot

of words sure and sometimes it can't be avoided it's it's it's to avoid it's to be as simple as possible we possible really um and you even get into Tech terms that don't translate you can't avoid them so I found this this great quote um from the 18th century Scottish guy said there's no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge the ambiguity of Words which as an engineer I love because that need to be precise there's a in over the years there's there's a huge difference between sales gues and Engineers but then you get the Sal engineers te sales or you know they they occasionally they've done both and you're like what are you because

it's you can't no um but that's that's when like it somebody like me who can at least come up with the presentation that's clean with help speak with as you want I mean as pres as a presenter you need to be aware of things but um I think the biggest thing for any company is to to find somebody like me that can take the engineering speak and put it to basic English and then let's s run with it by all means they can spin it their own way as long as they keep certain things in mind right yeah exactly he no evil see no evil uh yes orange shirt again my name isad Chad so add

okay this is this I'm going to wrap it up now because I have to cut it um honestly it it's it's tough it's something that's just been ingrained with me and a lot of the stuff that I write around is provided by the clients have written for in the past um but outside of like client providing stuff the Microsoft manual Stu when especially when it comes to Labs it's amazing like um just simple things like instead of doing like greag and drop if you say Greg drop is implied for example so that like when you're playing steps stuff like that Microsoft manual style is very good when it comes to doing the construction steps and guiding how you phrase things

like frames and pains and stuff like that yeah I think that's it got a wrap give it up to the next person Mr [Applause] Corman Corman