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I first ran into this convention when working on classified documentation
for the U.S. government (mumbledy) years ago when we used typewriters and
phototypesetters (yup) and wax to do paste-up (look them UP if you're too
young to remember). Sometimes pasted-up pieces could slip off the page, due
to hurry or to abuse or to aging wax.
Few people (if any) work this way anymore. I doubt any letters or words can
fall off the page in Word or FrameMaker. So why on Earth is anyone doing
this anymore?
Anybody have a justification for the "page left blank" convention any longer?
<snip>
The main reason people continue to use this blank-page note is because that's the way they've always done it. From what my retired navy co-workers have told me, the original intent of using "This page intentionally left blank," was a security measure for military training manuals on classified subject matter areas. Rather than leave blank pages blank, the note was meant to prevent some lowly sailor or soldier from removing a page from the manual and replacing it with a (literally) blank page. I think military training manuals continue to incorporate this convention.
Wasn't the following from a TECHWR-L posting a few months ago:
"This page intentionally left blank."
(Well, not completely blank, since the above non-empty disclaimer
appears on the page. What is meant is that this page is devoid
of meaningful content related to the rest of the document. This
page serves only as a separator between sections, chapters, or
other divisions of the document. This page is not completely
blank so that you know that nothing was unintentionally left out,
or that the page is not blank because of an error in duplication,
or that the page is not blank because of some other production
problem. If this page were really blank, you wouldn't be reading
anything. This page has not been left blank by accident, but is
left non-blank on purpose. The statement on the page should say
"This page was intentionally left non-blank".)
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