Re: Out of style?

[Christine -dot- Anameier -at- seagate -dot- com]

"Longtime tech writer" objects to title case for chapter headings, and some
needlessly restrictive rules on colons. So do I.

To me, title case Makes Everything Sound Like a Book Title. Listen to the
voice in your head when you read that phrase: did it change when you hit
the title caps? Is your attention 100% on the meaning of the phrase, or are
you at least partly distracted by the caps? This drove me nuts during my
brief stint in advertising. I just could not convince the powers-that-be
that when you're trying to communicate with an audience and sound like a
human being, You Do Not Want to Sound Like An Automaton Bellowing a Book
Title to a Slightly Dimwitted Crowd.

Maybe the voices in my head are just off-kilter. :)

And I agree with LTW on colons. I use them the same way. I've had perfectly
correct, helpful instances of colons "corrected" by folks who were
enforcing a misguided style guide. I un-corrected them and explained.

Christine



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

Sponsored by Cub Lea, specialist in low-cost outsourced development
and documentation. Overload and time-sensitive jobs at exceptional
rates. Unique free gifts for all visitors to http://www.cublea.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.