Re: verb to use with plural in parentheses

[Nancy Smith <smithcds -at- ICI -dot- NET>]

Personally I detest the use of (s) and find that it is frequently an excuse
for lazy writing or lazy ifnromation-gathering.

I say that because I see it used all over the place, usually by content
experts or programmers rather than writers.  I've even seen Comment(s) as a
table heading. Did the author really think that users would feel obligated
to write more if the heading were simply Comments???

When I get a source document that contains the (s) expression, or when I
update a document with that expression, I change it to plural.  If the
result is unclear, I might say "one or more...."

Guess this is just a pet peeve of mine...

Nancy

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues
> [mailto:TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu]On Behalf Of Kathleen Holscher
> Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 1999 11:42 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
> Subject: verb to use with plural in parentheses
>
>
> Which is correct?
>
> The downtime will be extended while the application(s) is installed.
>
> The downtime will be extended while the application(s) are installed.
>
>
> Thanks
> Kathleen
>
>
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