Condensing Techniques in Tables

[Hollie Knight]

This is sort of a three (?)  part question.

In braille formats 11.7.1 it states "Headings/entries may be condensed, abbreviated, or keyed to fit the available space in the column."

It also says this is preferred over keying headings/entries and a transcribers note should be used.

1. Are whole words considered abbreviations example- using the whole word Motivation as an abbreviation to Motivation to Learn the New Skill. OR are abbreviations considered mo as an abbreviation to Motivation to Learn.
2.  If whole words are acceptable as abbreviations is it permissible to list them as they are in Example 2 of the attached document? Or should they be listed as is in Example 3?

Keying whole words

1. In the attached document the in Example 1 the transcriber chose to use a whole word as their keyed item. I did not think this was acceptable until i saw the Example 11.6 which uses the whole word Yes and No including capital indicators as the keyed item. Is this acceptable

 

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[claurent]

Yes, you can use whole words as abbreviations and they should be listed in the key as in your example 2.

For me (this is NOT a rule), I always make my abbreviations as lower-cased words which (to me anyway) make it a bit easier to distinguish the abbreviation from the actual table heading. And, in the key, I would say:

[begin TN] Key to abbreviations used:

motivation Motivation to Learn the New Skill

strategies Strategies I Used to Learn This Skill [end TN]

If you used mo for Motivation to Learn the New Skill, that is a key - not an abbrevation.

Cindi

[Hollie Knight]

Thank you so much Cindi.

 

[Hollie Knight]

One more thing

Keying whole words

1. In the same attached document the in Example 1 the transcriber chose to use a whole word as their keyed item. I did not think this was acceptable until i saw the Example 11.6 which uses the whole word Yes and No including capital indicators as the keyed item. Is this acceptable?

Also in your response you said if you used mo for Motivation to Learn the New Skill, that is a key not an abbreviation. But in BF 11.7.1h na is used for nanosecond. I'm trying to understand why that is called an abbreviation and not considered a key.

Thank you.

 

[claurent]

Hmmm. Well I was going to say that na is the "official" abbreviation for nanosecond but when I looked that up on Google the abbreviation is ns...so that didn't work. 🙂 Although I'm pretty sure that was the intent with this example.

According to 11.8.1 a key consists of two or three letters (or numbers or a combination of letters/numbers). But really, abbreviations and keys are the same concept - a shortened version of the material within the table which will not fit as needed on the braille page. In my head, if I shorten the heading and it is more than 2-3 letters/numbers, it is an abbreviation. Otherwise it's a key. But I can see how that is not clearly demonstrated in BF.  Whether you say Key or Key to abbreviations it's the same thing - an explanation for the reader of what the braille represents.

Cindi

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