Intro of Elizabeth Ann West

[Elizabeth Ann West]

Hello all,

I am Elizabeth Ann West, a new contributor to the Fedora Documentation
Project recruited by David Nalley. I am the Chief Data Collector of the
Charleston, SC Linus Users Group. I met David Nalley when he represented
Fedora at our Linux Demo Day last weekend. It was pretty successful as
our first one, we had about 60 people show up, and we had a number of
computers setup for visitors to play with hands on.

I made the switch to Linux in April, using Ubuntu. I have the Fedora 9
CD and like what I saw. In the next few days I will be triple booting my
computer. I have to keep XP on my laptop due to work, as it is the only
machine in the house with Windows.

I am a professional web content writer by trade. I am a Tech Jock at
filetonic.com where I answer general and Microsoft computing questions.
I try to write in a way for all to understand the more technical aspects
of computing, while also empowering them to take more control over their
systems. Though I hold a degree in Political Science with a minor in
English Literature from Christopher Newport University in Newport News,
VA, I have a strong math and science background. I broke my Dad's heart
the day I told him I wasn't going to become an engineer.

I will be mainly focusing on editing the documentation in existence,
bringing it up to a more professional publishing standard. I would like
to say if I happen to change your document, I do my best to explain
every change in comments so you understand it is nothing personal. I
notice the most common communication barrier in the documentation is
just a lack of editing for clarity. I see many sentences with dead
weight words muddling the original message of the author.

I edit from a mechanical point of view. Every word in a sentence to me
is a mechanical entity, linked together to make the sentence train. If a
word isn't pulling its weight, it's cut. I also look for crutch words
and phrases--repeated use of the same words through out a page. All of
these things I do myself whenever I write a first draft, and I must
force myself to go back through my own writing with my red pencil.

I do want to say overall the content in the Fedora Documentation Project
is impressive. I wouldn't be able to make many of the edits I have so
far if the original content was not of a robust, high quality. Right now
I am working on the style guide to become immersed in the overall
writing style. 

Thank you all for having me as part of the team. Please do not hesitate
to ask me any questions about specific grammar rules or writing
questions. I am more than happy to help where I can, and I am thankful
to finally have a way to contribute back to the open source community I
have grown to adore.

Always Smiling,
Elizabeth Ann West


Always Smiling,

Elizabeth Ann West

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