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On 4/14/05, Martin Bosworth <martinhbosworth -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> I've been pondering whether or not I should create a style guide for
> the department to refer to, both to improve their skills and free me
> up to concentrate on more creative projects. But I have never done
> this before. Is it the right course of action to take, and if it is,
> what're some good suggestions or resources I can use in its creation?
In most cases, I'd think it would be a lot cheaper and faster to have
a skilled writer do a quick cleanup than to try and upgrade the second
language skills of developers. No matter how much energy you put into
it, they probably won't reach the stage where it doesn't need review.
And they probably have more important things to worry about than
whether the style guide says to cap a certain word. I'm not saying a
style guide is not an excellent idea, but I doubt that it's going to
make a difference to people who are using ESL and are not professional
writers.
My other question is whether their writing is not good enough as it
is. If the audience is other internal developers, fussing over style
wouldn't have much business value unless it was unclear.
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