Re: Preferred Sentence Structure

Subject: Re: Preferred Sentence Structure
From: Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 27 Dec 2018 12:36:11 -0800

25 years ago, when I had my introduction to technical writing in a technical writing course, I learned to avoid the "to be" sense and wound-up applying that to nearly every use of the word "to" and the future tense. Whether my instructor was right or wrong, the habit remained. I also look for ways to say things with the fewest words possible that convey all of the necessary information, like avoiding unnecessary repetition.

Is it important for you to repeat "A." If "A" is a long title, will the duplicity help or hinder?

Here, you can delete the word "to" and then fix your sentence. For example, "Learn more [at] A" or "See [A]" and leave out everything else.

Here are my examples with your examples for comparison using this link represented by brackets: https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution.

A: To learn more about The Constitution of the United States of America, see [The Constitution of the United States of America].

B: See [The Constitution of the United States of America] to learn more about The Constitution of the United States of America.

C: Learn more about [The Constitution of the United States of America].

D: See [The Constitution of the United States of America].

Perhaps you may want something that says "follow" [or click] this link." People are internet savvy now and can usually recognize that linked text provides more information about the text and do not need to be reminded to follow the link or that by following the link they will "learn more."

There are example of "See [link]" here, https://grammar.collinsdictionary.com/us/easy-learning/future-reference. Although many references on that page are self-referencing. Minor error...


On 12/27/2018 4:46 AM, Paul Hanson wrote:

I'm looking for a source to use in a style guide. Given these two options:
|
Option A: To learn more about A, see <hyperlink>A</hyperlink>.
Option B: See <hyperlink>A</hyperlink> to learn more about A.
|
I want to specify that Option A is the preferred sentence structure for the following reasons:
1) it doesn't make the reader choose whether to click the hyperlink or finish the sentence.
2) if the reader does finish the sentence, the eyes have to go back 5 words in order to click the hyperlink.

I can't remember where I read about this. It might have been mentioned in a WritersUA session or stated on this list - if *you* know and think, "Duh Hanson, it's in [source]" please tell me...



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Preferred Sentence Structure: From: Paul Hanson

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