TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:forbidden to apostrophize From:Michal Lastman <michall -at- AKS -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 16 Jul 1996 14:23:32 +0200
My editor wants me to remove every apostrophe from my manual. This means
replacing not only all contractions (something I could deal with) but also
recasting any sentence that uses an apostrophe to form the possessive.
This involves a lot of work and will most likely make many sentences longer
and unnecessarily complex.
I'd like to be able to convince my boss that this change is unnecessary but
the editor has convinced her that technical writing standards forbid
apostrophes. Is this true? I learned the exact opposite in the technical
writing course I took. And I haven't pulled a manual off the shelf today
that didn't contain both contractions and possessives formed with
apostrophes. Any advice?
Michal Lastman
Technical Communications
E-mail: michal -at- aks -dot- com
Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. Ph# +972 3 6362222
P.O.Box 11141 Tel-Aviv 61110 Israel Fax# +972 3 5375796
TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send administrative commands
ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-
