Re: Grammar?

["Michael West" <mike -dot- west -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com>]

"Paul Kent" <pkent -at- tripathimaging -dot- com> wrote in message
news:117532 -at- techwr-l -dot-  -dot-  -dot- 
>
> 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.


Grammaticians?! Are you sure?

Neither sentence is incorrect, but both are muddy and
unfocussed.

Why give the *number* of types the most important
place in the sentence?  Does it matter how many there
are? Is it the number that you want the user to remember?
If not, you're wasting the user's time (and yours).

Which do you think matters more -- *how many* notice types
there are, or *what* they are and why they're important?

Consider delivering just the important facts and omitting
the counting game:

    The following types of special notices appear in this manual.

    Warnings
        Bla bla bla

    Cautions
        Bla bla bla

    Notes
        Bla bla bla


--
Michael West
Melbourne










^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

*** Deva(tm) Tools for Dreamweaver and Deva(tm) Search ***
Build Contents, Indexes, and Search for Web Sites and Help Systems
Available now at http://www.devahelp.com or info -at- devahelp -dot- com

A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and 
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe.  http://ieeepcs.org/2001/

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit 
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.