Language policy briefs for govt offiicials

[Damien Hall]

On Feb 23 2009, tricento at ucalgary.ca wrote:

>To Don Osborne,
>    When I click on the links you provide, I get an Error message or it
>says the link no longer exists.
>
>Tom Ricento

I would imagine that (in all but one of the cases below) that's because 
these links go over more than one line, so, when one clicks on them as they 
appear in the e-mail, the browser is trying to read only the first 
line's-worth of the URL as a complete URL, and of course it is not 
complete.

Below is the rest of Don's message, with shortened URLs for the pages which 
still exist. All the shortened URLs begin with <http://tinyurl.com> and 
point at the same web-pages as the original, longer URLs that Don posted.

In general, if a URL looks like it goes over more than one line, or even if 
it doesn't but it is longer than twenty characters or so, it's useful to 
assume that most browsers will find it too long and will display it on more 
than one line, which will mean that it is not clickable, since most 
browsers don't pick up the bits of URLs that are on the second line. In 
such cases, you can put the long URL into this site:

http://tinyurl.com

and it will make a short one for you (for free), pointing at the same page, 
which will never be cut by a browser. The short URL will never run out, and 
the original long URL, of course, continues to exist too. You can 
optionally put a few characters into the short URL (as I have below) to 
serve as an _aide-mémoire_ to what it refers to; if you don't opt to do 
that, TinyURL will fill out the short URL with a random (but unique) set of 
letters and numbers.

Damien Hall

>> Has anyone done any work producing policy briefs/memos relating to
>> language
>> for people in government who are in a position to influence language
>> policy
>> and its implementation?
>>
>> By policy briefs or policy memos I mean information presented in a
>> succinct
>> way for an educated audience not specialized in the topic addressed.
>> Commonly these are used to advocate a position on the topic described.
>> I'm
>> particularly interested in the form used, purpose or agenda promoted, and
>> evaluations.
>>
>> I have found few instances on the web. A couple of examples:
>>
>>  
>> http://www.aera.net/uploadedFiles/Journals_and_Publications/Research_Points/ 
>> RP_Winter04.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/AeraNet

>>
>>
>> http://www.language-policy.org/content/features/EPSL-0509-103-LPRU.pdf

http://tinyurl.com/LangPolDotOrg
 
>> (a 61-page document which was described at as a "policy brief" at 
>> http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509

This one really doesn't work.

>>  
>> <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0509&L=lgpolicy-list&P=61 
>> 32> &L=lgpolicy-list&P=6132 )

http://tinyurl.com/WayneWrightLangPol

>> In other domains, such as ICT policy, briefs are also used. An African
>> example is:
>>  
>>  
>> http://www.apkn.org/areas-of-activity/information-and-communication-technolo 
>> gy/ict-policy-briefs-for-mps

http://tinyurl.com/APKNOrg


-- 
Damien Hall

University of York
Department of Language and Linguistic Science
Heslington
YORK
YO10 5DD
UK

Tel. (office) +44 (0)1904 432665
     (mobile) +44 (0)771 853 5634
Fax  +44 (0)1904 432673
http://www.york.ac.uk/res/aiseb/