Re: Things not to put after a full stop.

[gururaj bs <gururaj_bs -at- yahoo -dot- co -dot- in>]

Keith,

This sounds right!
I think clarity takes priority over grammar in this
case -- just be clear about the context.

So my point is this -- I've never seen the issue  as
"My way is better than your way," but I see it as "If
it makes readers easy to comprehend things, do it!" we
might not conform to standards or style guides
though:)-
 
Let me just ask you a simple thing. Do you treat file
names in documents as proper nouns? for eg: if you're
writing about a file A or whatever, you would say
"Open A to do something" or "Open the file, A to do
something" or "Open the A file to do something".

Every writer knows that definite article "The" cannot
be followed by a noun. But if you just use "A", it
does not indicate if A is a file or script or
directory. So in the above examples, second one sounds
grammatically right. what would you use? I think the
third example is very clear from a reader's standpoint
albeit it violates the language rule.      
 
I think the real breakthrough is going to come when we
as technical communicators can acknowledge that we
should be presenting a uniform message to readers in a
repeated and predictable fashion.
 
Cheers,
Gururaj (Guru)
who thinks clarity takes priority over grammar 

 --- kcronin -at- daleen -dot- com wrote: > 
> Mark wrote:
> 
> >From my own memory/education, I never use And, As,
> But, Because...
 
> As many have noted in this thread, language is
> flexible. Context is
> everything, determining which usage is appropriate.
> You can start a
> sentence with any of the words you listed. But it's
> up to you to determine
> whether it's the most effective way to communicate
> your message.
> 
> Because most tech writing is not typically done in a
> casual conversational
> tone, you'll probably not find a lot of instances
> where starting sentences
> with these words is the best way to instruct and
> educate your reader.
> 
> But for marcom, and some of the more chatty tech
> writing situations (like
> the "for dummies" series of books), this sort of
> writing is not only
> appropriate, but required. And that's all I have to
> say.
> 
> -Keith Cronin
> who used each of those words to begin sentences
> within this post


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