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Technical Writing Glossary - A
 

a.m.

before noon; e.g., 9:30 a.m.

administer

not administrate; what a system administrator does

affect

verb; to influence. Not to be confused with effect - noun; the result of an action

allude

verb; to refer to ; not to be confused with elude

ALT key

a keyboard key that is pressed with a letter or digit key to command the computer.  For example, in Windows, holding down the alt key and pressing F displays the File menu.  Pressing Alt-Tab toggles between applications.

among

used with plural objects including collective nouns. As a general rule, use among with objects denoting three or more (a group), and use between with those denoting only two

angle brackets

< > used to enclose an internet address to avoid interference from sentence punctuation

ANSI

American National Standards Institute

anti

prefix, generally not hyphenated

appendix

pl: appendixes  supplementary material usually attached at the end of a piece of writing