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Subject:Re: Wordiness and Complete Sentences From:Kat Nagel/MasterWork <katnagel -at- EZNET -dot- NET> Date:Thu, 20 Jun 1996 15:46:38 -0400
John Russell wrote:
>I am leaning toward reworking a significant portion of the manual in
>favor of incomplete sentences where appropriate/useful/necessary.
>What would/do you do? Agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Comments?
Personally, I -like- bulleted lists, numbered lists, and task tables for
any type of instructional material (and I consider manuals to be
instructional materials). BUT there are certain chunks of manuals that
don't conveniently fit into such rigid, step-by-step structures. And
-any- formatting trick becomes very boring after a few hundred pages. Why
not use a combination approach like this one?
This is a description of the task and what it is used for xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.
To get from point A to point B:
o step 1
o step 2
o step 3
o step 4
Procedure X is also useful for xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx (see Section YY).
@Kat _______________________________ katnagel -at- eznet -dot- net
Kat Nagel MasterWork Consulting Services, Rochester, NY
Technical writing / Document design / Information services
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