Re: Punctuation and Hypertext

[Michael Keith Anderson <mka -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

Suzanne and Techwriters:

I have been discussing this situation with many people recently. Just =
last week, my copy of Arcada Backup for Win95 threw up an error message =
which was a comma splice. I have recently heard people state that =
on-line documentation does not go through the same editing process as =
hard copy.

Is that common? I agree that I wouldn't read a novel on-line, but give =
me soft copy reference any day. I think more and more people are doing =
this, too. With the growing importance of on-line docs, it seems to me =
there should be great care and concern for their place in the editing =
process. If there is a grammatical error in the help or in a dialog box, =
does that mean there is carelessness in the code, also?

Keith Anderson

mka -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
mkanderson -at- msn -dot- com
mkanderson -at- ualr -dot- edu




----------
From:  Suzanne M. Faubl[SMTP:tscom002 -at- DUNX1 -dot- OCS -dot- DREXEL -dot- EDU]
Sent:  Thursday, November 16, 1995 11:38 AM
To:  Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject:  Punctuation and Hypertext

Techreaders -

Most of us read hardcopy more quickly (and with greater comprehension) =
than
we read from the screen.

I don't know about everyone else, but I find myself "excusing" =
punctuation
and spelling errors when I read online stuff.  I think it is because I =
have
a difficult time editing on the screen.  (I NEED the hardcopy.)

Does anyone think that hypertext may be making us lazy in our use of
punctuation?  Are we lowering our expectations?

Maybe we don't mind sacrificing the richness (and grammatical =
correctness)
of language to get our info "off the line" quickly.

After all, whose counting on apostrophe's, anyway? ;=3D>

Sue     tscom002