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Subject:Re: i.e. vs e.g. From:Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Fri, 13 Apr 2012 15:23:48 -0700
OK.... after consulting the M$ Manual of Style, I capitulate.
Pg. 310 * i.e.* Abbreviation for *id est*, meaning "that is." Do not use.
Use *that is* instead.
Pg. 284 *e.g. *Abbreviation for *exempli gratia*, meaning for example. Do
not use. Use *for example* instead.
Not that this style guide is gospel, but it's worthy of consideration,
especially in view of all of the other comments.
> Chris
On Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 3:11 PM, Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net> wrote:
> 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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