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Subject:Re: To Space or not to Space From:Amelia DeLoach <deloaa -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 5 May 2004 06:33:34 -0700 (PDT)
This raises and interesting issue. How often do the
technical writing "rules" go "out the window" when
writing for internal groups? If a group has trained
themselves to follow certain conventions, I usually
just go with the internally accepted convention for
internal documentation instead of pushing for cultural
change. (Of course there are some exceptions.)
However, if the document will be available to an
external audience, I tend to follow the tech writing
"rules."
How often do y'all let the culture drive editing and
writing decisions verses the "rules?"
Amelia
> Yes. I was in an engineering environment, writing
> engineering doc, with
> highly decimalized heading styles out to the
> 1.1.1.1.1.1.1 level, mixed
> with specifications full of decimal numbers and
> miscellaneous
> abbreviations requiring periods; and I had a number
> of engineers comment
> that the double space after a period was the cue
> they used to
> distinguish the end of a sentence. I was able to
> wean them of the
> practice, but they did seem to care.
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