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Principles
Glossaries help readers, particularly those not expert in the subject matter, to understand our reports. They complement but do not replace the practice of defining and explaining terms in the main text when they first appear.
Glossary entries should be short, jargon-free explanations to help non-experts with EU-specific or technical terms. They do not provide official definitions, which are often found in regulations, treaties and agreements.
To ensure the consistent use of terms in ECA reports, as well as clear explanations for them, the DQC and ELS have established a termbase. This is a database of glossary entries from annual, special reports and review reports.
A termbase team, staffed by the DQC and ELS, maintains and manages the termbase. The team supports the production of clear explanations of terms in a standardised format. It meets regularly to expand and update the termbase as new terms arise or are refined.
Instructions
When preparing glossaries, report drafters should:
- check in the termbase and use any explanations that already exist;
- send the termbase team a list of terms that need explaining and any draft explanations they have already prepared. Reference the terms to the termbase where appropriate and to the corresponding paragraph or illustration in the report.
Report drafters should send draft glossaries or lists of terms, as well as a copy of the draft report, to the termbase team as early as possible. They should consult the termbase team again before final approval of the report if any additions or changes are made following chamber or adversarial meetings.
Unless terms are highly specialised and therefore unlikely to be used again, the termbase team enters them into the VocBench application. This is the Publication Office`s web-based platform for managing and publishing multilingual collections of terms and concepts, such as glossaries. It will eventually provide the basis for an online resource to allow active links to terms in our reports.Resources
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