Re: i.e. vs e.g.

Subject: Re: i.e. vs e.g.
From: Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:11:57 -0700

On 4/13/2012 1:08 PM, Bruce Megan (ST-CO/ENS2.5-NA) wrote:

Could you expound ;-)

For technical documentation, it may be better for me to use the abbreviations, due to the length of the documents.

That is a good consideration for word counts and printing costs, but the abbreviations may be more awkward to read than whole words. What does the voice in your head tell you? Not like voices, but the reading voice. One test for readability is to read a document out loud and see what feels better to say. When I see, "i.e.," I wonder what to say, since I speak English and i.e. is not English. Do I say the letters? That always seems wrong to me. I want documents to clearly say what they mean.

I avoid using abbreviations and say things like, "like," "for example," "similar to," "such as," "that include," and a few others depending on what is appropriate for the document and whether the document requires repetition of the same phrase or a variety of phrases to state the same thing to avoid monotony.

"Like" is generally informal and "such as" is generally overused, but each has their place in documentation at times. I do avoid using "including," and instead state "that include."





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Follow-Ups:

References:
i.e. vs e.g.: From: Bruce Megan (ST-CO/ENS2.5-NA)
Re: i.e. vs e.g.: From: Chris Morton
RE: i.e. vs e.g.: From: Bruce Megan (ST-CO/ENS2.5-NA)
Re: i.e. vs e.g.: From: Chris Morton
RE: i.e. vs e.g.: From: Porrello, Leonard
Re: i.e. vs e.g.: From: Chris Morton
RE: i.e. vs e.g.: From: Bruce Megan (ST-CO/ENS2.5-NA)

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