Re: Grammar?

["Wes Tracy" <wtracy -at- cfl -dot- rr -dot- com>]

This may be an unpopular opinion, but would it be possible to drop this
explanation piece completely?  I've always tried to discourage unnecessary
up-front explanations, and this sounds a bit like a lead-in to a description
of what a note is (i.e., When you see this symbol xxx, it indicates that the
author has placed a note here.  Notes are used to add additional
information...).  I know we see this a lot, but can we really expect the
user to either remember the distinctions between the different types of
attention icons, or to flip back to the front for an explanation each time
they run across one?  Rather, each warning, caution, or note used in the
document should speak for itself and sufficiently draw the reader's
attention.  As a user yourself, have you ever been reading along, and you
run across a picture of a bomb, or a lightning bolt, or something similar,
followed by the word WARNING!!, and had to flip back to the front to see
whether to read the paragraph, or how much attention to pay to it?  I'm just
guessing now, but does this document also have a section, immediately before
the actual Table of Contents, that says something like "This document has 17
sections.  The first section, Installation, tells the user how to
install..."?

<getting off my soapbox now, and into my asbestos suit...>

    ^ ^
    0  0          I got this powdered water.
       >           Now I don't know what to add.
     \__/              -- Steven Wright
       -

Wes Tracy
wtracy -at- cfl -dot- rr -dot- com


> --- Paul Kent <pkent -at- tripathimaging -dot- com> wrote:
> > I'm having trouble with my sentence mechanics.  Are there any
grammaticians
> > out there who can weigh in on this?
> >
> > Which of these is correct:
> > There are five notice types used in this manual: three types of warning,
a
> > caution, and a note.
> > There are five notice types used in this manual: three types of
warnings, a
> > caution, and a note.

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