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Subject:Re: Correct Wording for Examples From:"Thiessen, Christopher E" <Christopher -dot- E -dot- Thiessen -at- CDEV -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 22 Nov 1996 18:44:53 -0600
Steve, I think you want to replace that semicolon with a colon when citing a
specific example:
"...named by group: staff.grp and library.grp."
Use the semicolon to conjoin two similar or related thoughts. Of course,
that could be an Americanism...
Chris Thiessen
christopher -dot- e -dot- thiessen -at- cdev -dot- com
----------
From: Stephen Victor
To: Technical Writers List; for al
Subject: Re: Correct Wording for Examples
Date: Friday, November 22, 1996 4:16PM
Gillian McGarvey wrote:
> Is it correct that we generally shouldn't use abbreviations like "e.g."
> and "i.e." in order to avoid giving the user any extraneaous terms that
> cause the reader to process more info than they must already?
Some consider these abbreviations difficult for non-native speakers of
English to understand. They might also be a problem for translators, who
often are themselves not native speakers of English. Instead (so the
story goes), we should use their full English equivalents ("for example"
and "that is").
> And, if the answer to the above is yes, what is the correct punctuation
> for the following sentence? (pls ignore the yucky wording of the example)
> "Below admin.ini are the Group INI files which are named by the group,
> for example, staff.grp and library.grp."
This sentence should be punctuated as follows: "Below admin.ini are the
Group INI files, which are named by [delete "the"] group; for example,
staff.grp and library.grp."
Regards,
Steve
--
Stephen P. Victor Phone: (713) 513-2552
Technical Writer, Software Training Fax: (713) 513-2019
Schlumberger GeoQuest svictor -at- houston -dot- geoquest -dot- slb -dot- com
5599 San Felipe, Suite 1700
Houston, Texas 77056 USA
