Re: Lurker wants opinions...

Subject: Re: Lurker wants opinions...
From: JMT - Guru Kamath <guru -at- ITE -dot- NET>
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 20:47:14 +1000

Hello all!

I had a similar dilemma recently when I did a user manual for a SEI-CMM
Level 4 Company (meaning they have standards for everything!). Of course,
I knew my suggestion would not be accepted. What I did was to create a lot
of filler items like tips and help to put on the blank pages. This is
typical technique which magazine and newspaper editors do to fill in the
"holes" -- quotes, blurbs, statistics, illustrations, cartoons.

I have seen several books and manuals using this technique effectively and
consistently. Say a cartoon as the last item to fill the empty page. It
not only lightens the page, but shows some creativity. I would go in for
items like Tips & Tricks, sales pitch for Service, Reminders about the
Software, etc.

To cast my vote: I would definitely not put the legend "This page
intentionally left blank". I think the best practice is to leave it blank
-- with or without the headers/footers. Anyway, your writing should be
such that a close is indicated for the end of the chapter.

Good to be back on this list folks.

Guru (in Guam)
guru -at- ite -dot- net

http://members.tripod.com/~Kamath (TWIN site -- India's first site on TW)
TWIN - Technical Writers of India mailing list (120 members strong!)


At 09:30 AM 4/30/98 GMT, Iain Harrison wrote:
>If you write
>"This page intentionally left blank"
>on the page, it isn't blank, is it?
>
>A better solution would be to write
>"This page intentionally left almost blank"
>but in my view this is just as stupid.




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