Re: English 101

Subject: Re: English 101
From: David Neeley <dbneeley -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 21:42:35 -0500


So far, everyone seems stuck on splitting the infinitive. John, it
should either be "...To Develop..." or "...to develop..." but not as
stated, IMNSHO.

In the sentence as given, "to" is not an article but part of the verb
form; thus Chicago Manual style would be to capitalize it along with
the "develop" part.

However, usually it is fairly bad form to head a section with "it" as
the subject...even if you are beginning a section following another
one dealing with the same subject. Since it's a headline, using the
preposition rather than the actual "thing" being discussed seems to be
overly awkward: what we aim for is aiding the reader who is skimming
through the text to find just that one particular topic he or she
needs. This may be perfectly clear in context, however, so there
should be some discretion going on here.

Also consider that quite often the headings are collected to be part
of the ToC listing...so again, usually they should stand by themselves
without forcing the reader to look to other topic headings to
determine just what you're getting at.

Thus, as a general proposition, I would try to avoid the preposition
in the headline, e.g.:

"How to use the data dictionary to develop new ASPX pages"

or, Chicago style: "How To Use the Data Dictionary To Develop New ASPX Pages"

Occasionally, it is kind of fun to get a little picky, now isn't it? 8:)

David

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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: English 101: From: Barbara G. Devney

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