Category: Technical Writing

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Molly the Urban Drug of 2016

Molly is the drug that is known to chemist as 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine. Molly is more commonly known as MDMA or ecstasy. This once legal drug, is alluring to youths not only because of its endorsements from the stars but because of its blissful effects, low mortality rate and lack of research of long term effects. MDMA related deaths are rare and typically occur in patients with cardiac disease[1].

Although MDMA made its mark in the early 1990’s, it was developed in 1912 in Germany as an antibleeding medication[2]. This drug, originally patented as an appetite suppressant[3], serves no medical use in the U.S. Although MDMA failed as being an appetite suppressant in the 1970’s medical MDMA was used to treat couples in therapy. The drug was then banned in the 1980’s because of excessive recreational use. In 2016 Molly is commonly found in after hour clubs and rave dances. This is due to the stimulant in the drug that allows the user to stay awake for prolonged periods of time.

MDMA is typically white, tan or brown in color and is commonly used as a stimulant. Molly is most commonly taken orally, although it can also be snorted, injected or crushed. Many drug dealers imprint designer logos on the tablets to entice their users into buying their brand of Molly. Ecstasy in its street form is usually laced with methamphetamine, tranquilizers, or PCP(acid) and sometimes it contains little to no MDMA.

Medicinal MDMA consists of three stimulants:

  • Dopamine which causes increased energy levels and euphoric feelings
  • Norepinephrine which causes increased heart rate and blood pressure
  • Serotonin which affects mood, appetite, sleep and sexual arousal

The side effects of MDMA could last anywhere from 3-6 hours[4].  Some possible side effects include:

 

  • Involuntary Teeth Clenching
  • Nausea
  • Muscle Cramping
  • Blurred Vision
  • Chills
  • Sweating

 

Some effects can last up to a week after ingestion. These side effects include:

 

  • Irritability
  • Impulsiveness
  • Aggression
  • Depression
  • Sleep Deprivation
  • Anxiety
  • Long Term Memory Loss
  • Decreased Appetite
  • Lack of Sexual Desire and Arousal

 

 

The medical form of MDMA has progressed as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)[5]. MDMA is classified as a stimulant, which is appealing to psychiatrists because anti-anxiety medication can cause drowsiness.  The drug is known to adhere to the amygdala which is the brain’s center for fear. The effects of the drug allow the user to exploit their worst fears without the urge of dodging the conversation or running away. When faced with a situation that reminds the user of the trauma MDMA allows the user to phase out of reality into euphoria to deal with the agony of the trauma and therefore allows for healing.

Rappers like French Montana, Lil Wayne and the infamous Miley Cyrus are of the many celebrities that are very vocal about their use of Molly. More often today’s youth hear about the euphoric effects of MDMA through lyrics and blog posts and they want to experience that feeling first hand. Celebrities have an impact on our youth and they often don’t realize how much of an effect they have until it is too late.

Although MDMA can have healing qualities it can only do so in its medical form. Street quality MDMA can contain an abundance of substances which have adverse effects on the body.

 Source References

 

  1. “Can a Single Pill Change Your Life?” http://www.oprah.com 15 Feb 2011. http://www.oprah.com/health/PTSD-and-MDMA-Therapy-Medical-Uses-of-Ecstasy

 

  1. “DrugFacts: MDMA (Ecstasy/Molly)” http://www.drugabuse.gov Feb 2016. https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/mdma-ecstasymolly

 

 

  1. “’Eve’ and ‘Ecstasy’ A Report of Five Deaths Associated With the Use of MDEA and MDMA” http://jama.jamanetwork.com 27 Mar 1987. http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=365202

 

 

  1. “Making a medicine out of MDMA” http://www.bjp.rcpsych.org Jan 2015. http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/206/1/4

 

  1. “Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, Ecstasy)” Http://www.nhtsa.gov http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/job185drugs/methylenedioxymethamphetamine.htm

[1] http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=365202

[2] http://www.oprah.com/health/PTSD-and-MDMA-Therapy-Medical-Uses-of-Ecstasy

[3] http://www.nhtsa.gov/people/injury/research/job185drugs/methylenedioxymethamphetamine.htm

[4] https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/mdma-ecstasymolly

[5] http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/206/1/4

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Corners on Main

The Corners on Main is a new condo development in the heart of old Ottawa East, located at 166 Main Street. The development of the project has been contracted to Domicile Developments. Roderick Lahey and John Doran are the lead architects of the buildings. The 3.5 acre site was purchased by Doran from the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2014 with the promise of preserving their convent. The two six story buildings consists of 140 customizable units and retail space on the ground floor. Sales of the condos have already begun with prices ranging from $150,500 to 594,500.

ssj_13

The Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus were sent to Ottawa in 1902 from France to provide scholastic and domestic services to the oblate Fathers. By 1910 the Sisters had established their own convent on Oblate Avenue. The convent is well known for their vegetable garden on the northwest portion of the property near Main St. The convent will remain beside The Corners on Main for the remaining sisters to live out the rest of their days.

0808-home-corners-caption-site-plan-for-the-corners-a-condFloor Plans for the Corners on Main Buildings

The buildings are conveniently located on Main Street between Oblate Avenue and Springhurst Avenue, just minutes away from the Rideau River and the Rideau Canal. There is a private park between the two pet friendly buildings where residents can bring their animals to enjoy a smoke free environment. The building amenities include a fitness facility, guest suits, and a rooftop terrace.

terraceThe Roof Top Terrace will be available to All Residents

Corners on Main will breathe new life into Main Street with the modernization of the building. Not only will it bring more residents to the street, it will also bring new retailers to the area sprucing up the economy. Sales for the units launched in early July. These upscale units vary in price starting at 150,500 for a 291 square foot pied-a-terre unit to 594,500 for a 1431 square foot two bedroom unit with a terrace. Each unit comes with a four year extended warranty and is backed by Enbridge savings by design. Parking spaces are available to buy for units other than the pied-a-terre units for $33,000.There will be parking available to rent for $33 a month. The development is scheduled for completion in 2017.

 

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Editing Tips

Tips

Style Sheet

A style sheet is a document that an author can create to give to an editor so there are no misconceptions of the style an author would like their document to have. Design changes, fonts, types of bulleting, numbering and other style preferences are usually documented in a style sheet. A document should not list every editorial change made in the document because it isn’t a transcript of the document it is more like a guideline on stylistic changes the author would like to have in their document. To be consistent in your work and to the works of your peers, you might want to record choices that are already covered in a published style manual.

Guidelines for Editing for Style

The purpose of editing style is to increase overall document effectiveness. The guidelines for editing style are as follows:

Situation                  Make style serve readers and purpose; consider the possibility of an                                                international audience; examine the text for discrimination.

Sentence structures Use structure to reinforce meaning.

Verbs                         Convey the action in the sentence accurately and forcefully.

Nouns, adjectives    Choose words that are accurate, concrete, and understandable

Make style serve purpose and readers

Editing text must suit the audience as well as its purpose so there should be variation in style depending on the situation.

If you are editing a journal article that will be read overseas you would have to make sure that the language is appropriate. You would have to check over the document and make sure that everything is defined correctly because what is common knowledge here may not be common knowledge there.

If you are editing a proposal you must first think of your audience and edit the paper appropriately. In most of these cases your approach will be formal as it is a proposal. Therefore you would have to make sure the wording is formal as well as the stylistic appearance.

For more editing tips visit this web address to access The Technical Editors’ Eyrie:http://www.jeanweber.com/newsite/?page_id=5

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DITA

DITA_finch

Darwin Information Typing Architecture

DITA stands for Darwin Information Typing Architecture. The purpose of DITA is to standardize the architecture of XML data modeling in technical writing, according to the OASIS DITA Technical Committee. In documentation planning it is important to have a standardize model of XML data especially when using XML languages with different programs.

DITA is not a tool but there are tools that support DITA. The use of DITA topic-oriented architecture may influence document planning because it is only accessible in certain programs. Therefore, if DITA is being used in a project this would mean that you may not be able to use Microsoft Word for the document because DITA isn’t available in that program. In choosing programs that enable DITA architecture three names come to mind, Adobe FrameMaker 9, DITA FMX and DITA for Publishers.

Why Use DITA?

Before thinking about the pros and cons of DITA, we, as a company must look at if we could implement DITA and reuse the contents of the documents. DITA’s reuse feature is key to many projects because, it will save us time in building style guides and distributing them. The content is built into the tool and can be built on and reused and even changed. DITA is uniform so it is great for multi-language and multi-format documents. In the long run using DITA will save the company a lot of time and money (Wlodarczyk, 2014).

Of the many reasons to use DITA out there, the main reason that would benefit our company would be that DITA supports information sharing. Some of the other reasons to use DITA are as follows:

  • DITA unifies XML Language
  • Topic-based DITA offers flexibility in content organization by allowing you to order, reorder and nest topics to create any kind of information product.
  • You can reuse the Modularity and topics can be used in more than one deliverable at once.
  • Topics can be presented one at the time in a simple flat online help system, or together in a complex multi-level book structure.
  • You can adapt the tag vocabulary to fit your own specific needs.
  • New topic types can be created from existing ones, which allows for evolution over time.
  • One of DITA’s main advantages is that adding new topics does not make previous projects incompatible with new ones(Baril, 2006).

When DITA Fails to Prevail

DITA, is reliable if the structure is reliable. The team has to be strong and have a fail proof structure for their content. DITA will fail only if the team isn’t being thorough with content or planning. Below are some of the reasons why DITA would fail:

  • Failure to plan:This includes charging ahead without requirements and an ROI framework, but also under-budgeting, not appointing a project lead, not setting aside time for meetings or training, etc.
  • Publishing:plug-in, publishing pipeline, and style sheet development all require skills that are not widely available, so to find someone competent you are almost required to work with a consultant or software vendor.
  • Bad, weak, or missing content strategy.
  • Misguided reuse strategy
  • Specialization too early in the project.
  • Failure to constrain DITA: Simpler is better(Wlodarczyk, 2014).

Analysis of DITA Tools

Adobe FrameMaker: FrameMaker also allows you to generate online output by installing the DITA Open Toolkit and the FrameMaker plug-in that adds the Generate Output menu option. Although FrameMaker is adaptable, there are errors in DITA topics. Sometimes, FrameMaker displays red text when it encounters something it can’t deal with in a DITA file. Usually, the problem is that you have opened a file that has been formatted to look pretty (“pretty print”) in an XML editor such as Oxygen. (Terry, 2008) FrameMaker allows you to insert elements where they are not allowed by the schema. Sure, it will raise a warning when you try to save a file that violates the schema. Then you can try to fix the issue, if Adobe doesn’t crash first, or if you don’t need to resort to editing the XML. Some other con’s to Adobe FrameMaker are:

  • You lose undo history after saving a file.
  • There is no raw XML view–the closest is an option to view the open file in Notepad.
  • It pollutes the markup. For example, it adds attributes for tables and images.

This tool is good for learning DITA because it forces you to fix all of the bugs before you implement the DITA. Otherwise, if you’re looking for a quick and easy DITA tool FrameMaker isn’t the one you need.

DITA FMX: . DITA FMX is a plugin for Adobe FrameMaker. Adobe is a trusted name when it comes to technical writing. This being said when using frame maker one of the best features, is being able to create PDF files. DITA FMX plug-in improves upon the DITA support provided with Adobe FrameMaker 8 and FrameMaker9, including increased coverage of the DITA 1.1 specification and improvements to the authoring experience. (Alan, 2010). It allows you to create PDF’s in FrameMaker. DITA FMX allows Frame Maker Users to enjoy using FrameMaker for all of your DITA needs without as many bugs.

DITA for Publishers: DITA for Publishers is a community forum to enable publishers to learn how to use and implement DITA. Some of the features of DITA for Publishers are:

  • Allows users to use the Toolkit plugins to process publication maps
  • Use the Word-to-DITA transformation framework to convert consistently-styled Word documents into DITA maps and topics.
  • Use the DITA-to-InDesign transforms to generate InCopy and InDesign documents from DITA source.(DITA for Publushers, 2013)

DITA for Publishers is a great tool for learning DITA and implementing DITA in maps and publications. This program provides a great start up for using DITA in all documentations not only technical writing. It is cost effective and a great tool for publications.

 

Choosing the Right Program

Looking at the three programs I have compared, the best option for our company to go with is, the DITA FMX program. Although, DITA for Publishers is a very cost effective program it isn’t a professional program. There isn’t the ability to reuse information or create Multilanguage DITA files. Adobe Frame Maker alone has a great DITA program but there are many bugs associated with the program that are easily fixed with the DITA FMX plug in. Since two of our writers are already working in Adobe FrameMaker the DITA FMX plug in will enhance the features they are currently using as well as enable them to create PDF documents. The PDF documents will enable quick viewing from portable devices and easy editing. Adobe Frame Maker has the capability of file sharing which will make sharing our work over long distance less complicated.

Works Cited

Alan. (2010, January 6). LEXIMATION RELEASES DITA-FMX 1.1. Retrieved from groupwellesley: http://www.groupwellesley.com/2010/01/06/leximation-releases-dita-fmx-10/

Baril, F. (2006, April 13). Benefits of using DITA. Retrieved from DITA XML . Org: http://dita.xml.org/benefits-using-dita

Colborn, B. (2012, January 10). FrameMaker is a Real DITA Editor.. A Very Poor One. Retrieved from Ditanaughts.org: http://ditanauts.org/2012/01/10/framemaker-is-a-real-dita-editor-a-very-poor-one/

DITA for Publushers. (2013, April 21). Retrieved from DITA 4 Publishers: http://dita4publishers.sourceforge.net/

Terry, S. (2008, November). DITA Authoring in FrameMaker 8. Retrieved from Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/Scriptorium/authoring-dita-in-frame-maker-presentation

Wlodarczyk, P. (2014, February 16). How to Decide if DITA is Right for You and Where to Learn More. Retrieved from Easy DITA: http://easydita.com/how-to-decide-if-dita-is-right-for-you-and-where-to-learn-more/