[Fwd: Re: Avoid the Semicolon in Tech Writing?]
In my own style guides, there are even constructions that *require* a semicolon, particularly preceding "otherwise" and its variants:
In other words, you choose to use a semi-colon.
Obviously--that's why I started the sentence with "in my own style guides."
But English is a flexible language, and there's almost always several ways to construct the same sentence.
Of course there are, but that wasn't the point. All I said was that, if
you want to use "otherwise" in that construction in my department, it's
gotta look like that.
* Blah blah; if not, blah blah blah.
You couldn't change any of those to periods and still have good English sentences.
Sure you could. All you have to do is to watch the sentence structure to the right of the period.
Watch it? I'm not sure what you mean. If you mean "change the sentence
structure" you've missed the point, which was that--in my
department--"otherwise is preceded by a semicolon in constructions like
those I cited.
And if by "good" you mean "grammatically correct," why do you necessarily need complete sentences in technical documentation?
I do--at least in *good* technical documentation (and by "good" I mean
"grammatically correct"). :)
Semicolons are also required in lists in which any element comprises another list:
* Your choices are A; B, C, and D; or E.
You could easily write "A, B and C and D, or E. "
<gag>
You could also write "A, all of B,C, and D, or E."
You could also make it clearer by formatting it this way:
Your choices are:
- A
or
- B, C, D
or
-E
Admittedly, you may not have the option of a bullet list if space is limited, but the point is that you have alternatives.
I never said you couldn't rewrite the sentences. I said, if you want to
write them the way I showed, the semicolon is necessary.
You gotta admit that "Your choices are A, B, C, and D, or E" is simply
unclear. You need semicolons to write *that* sentence without ambiguity.
You have every right to use the style guides you choose, but don't pretend that your choices are necessities.
You missed the point. Again, I said there's no reason to avoid
semicolons, unless you don't know how to use them.
--David
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--
========================================================================
HTML Indexer 4 is still the easiest way to create and maintain indexes
for web sites, intranets, HTML Help, JavaHelp, and other HTML documents.
HTML Indexer 4 includes fully integrated cross-references, target frames
and windows, multiple-file output, "one-step accept" of default entries,
and more!
http://www.html-indexer.com/
Follow-Ups:
- Re: [Fwd: Re: Avoid the Semicolon in Tech Writing?], Bruce Byfield
- Re: [Fwd: Re: Avoid the Semicolon in Tech Writing?], Sean Brierley
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