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Subject:RE: The Microsoft Style Guide is Online and Free From:"Wright, Lynne" <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- Kronos -dot- com> To:Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>, TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 20 Feb 2018 19:38:04 +0000
Yes, consistency is important... but the least of my concerns as a technical editor was getting the writing team to capitalize words consistently according to what was proscribed in the style guide... it was getting them to produce content that was complete, accurate, and written clearly without starting a passive-aggressive campaign of terror if I dared to suggest that their first-draft text needed some work.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=kronos -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Tuesday, February 20, 2018 2:30 PM
To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Subject: Re: The Microsoft Style Guide is Online and Free
Some customers will notice if you don't pick one and stick with it.
Inconsistency is unprofessional and reflects badly on the company's hiring choices and management.
There are lots of arbitrary style choices that aren't worth spending a lot of time discussing. That's one of the main payoffs from a style guide, you can just go along with their hundreds or thousands arbitrary decisions.
On Tue, Feb 20, 2018 at 10:52 AM, Wright, Lynne <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- kronos -dot- com> wrote:
> This is one of those issues that ultimately doesn't matter and isn't worth hand-wringing about... the only readers that are going to notice whether the word is capitalized or not are editors and the type of super-pedant amateur grammarian who feels that they need to point out typos in menus while their server tries to contain their eye-rolling and shifts from foot to foot wondering if this person is going to stop wasting their time and just give their order already.
>
> End-users, even if they notice the capitalization, aren't going to give a toss; they'll know what you mean whether its Internet or internet.
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