Did you know that SAS users from over 200 countries visit communities.sas.com? And of course, not all of them use English as their native language.   Countries with SAS communities visitors   Understanding Global English is essential for writers and editors at SAS, so we thought it would be helpful for our community members, as well.   We've listed 10 guidelines that you need to know to write for translation and for nonnative readers.  These come from a handy book by former SAS employee John Kohl.    Use short sentences Use complete sentences Untangle long noun phrases Expand -ED verbs whenever possible Always revise -ING verbs that follow nouns Use "that" liberally Choose simple, precise words that have a limited range of meanings Standardize your terminology and phrasing Don't use slang, idioms, colloquialisms, or figurative language Clarify which parts of a sentence are being joined by "and" or by "or."  These guidelines are based on John Kohl's comprehensive The Global English Style Guide, which enumerates the Global English principles and provides discussion, analysis, and extensive examples. ... View more

Hello, all! I’m Shelley Sessoms, your new Community Manager. SAS has created an Online Community group that is responsible for communities.sas.com. My first assignment as a Community Manager is to look after the Administration and Deployment Community. And I’m very happy to be working with you all.   Some of you may be wondering about the role of a Community Manager. What does that mean? What does a Community Manager do?   The core responsibility of a Community Manager is to ensure that the community is meeting the needs of its members. I plan to do this by encouraging peer-to-peer help, by sharing helpful technical content, and by helping members stay up-to-date on the latest software techniques and features. I also want to find ways to keep membership growing and engaged.   Basically, I am here to help you all gather and share information. I’ll do my best to keep things running smoothly and make sure you have the information you need to do your job.   Now that you know what I’ll be doing, let me tell you a little about myself. I have been at SAS since 2002. I started out in the marketing group writing and editing many of our e-newsletters. If any of you have been long-time Tech Report subscribers, you may remember me as the editor for that publication in the mid-2000s. I moved from marketing to SAS Publications in 2007. In that group I worked as an Acquisitions Editor, adding hundreds of new authors to the SAS Press library. Late last year I decided it was time to make a change. I still wanted to work with customers and I still wanted to make sure you found the information you needed. So coming over to the Online Community group was a natural fit for me.   If you have ideas for how to make this community more useful, please don’t hesitate to contact me and let me know. ... View more