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Subject:Re: Out of Style? From:"Kelly Williamson" <kwcwtech -at- iwaynet -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 12 Jun 2001 15:13:26 -0400
"Longtime Tech Writer" wrote (several days ago) that his/her company makes
him/her do the following:
> 1. In chapter titles, all words longer than three
> letters are set in initial caps. This includes
> prepositions. Has anyone ever heard of this style
> before? FYI, we use common sentence-style
> capitalization for headings within chapters.
(Sorry if someone already made this point)
This style leaves out certain verbs, such as "is", and you should capitalize
all verbs in title case, no matter how short. (That Subway commercial always
bugged me: "Where Fresh is the Taste")
As Clinton would say, I guess it depends on what the meaning of the word
"is" is (hehe, just had to throw that one in there.)
As far as their rule about the colon after "follows", that's pretty darn
silly and arbitrary. Using a colon has nothing to do with the word
"follows". If they really want to use it correctly, they would say only use
it at the end of a complete sentence when a list follows.
As far as some folks saying you're getting all bent out of shape over
nothing, I would probably have the same issues you are having if faced with
this situation. No, you shouldn't sweat the small stuff, but you should also
educate your co-workers and show them why you don't like it (maybe they just
really don't know any better). It makes them look bad IMO. If someone who
does knows better ever sees the style guide, they're going to think the doc
group is a bunch of amateurs! (If, after having educated them, they still
outvote you, then you can decide not to sweat it.)
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