Re: cross section vs cross-sectional - what about cross sectionedandcross sectioning

[Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>]

My goal is that anything I write for publication will sail smoothly
across the desk of any copy editor or proofreader who might at some
point enter the editorial chain. Their standards are considerably
tighter than the average technical publications reader.

If I find that Google hits for a particular usage appear in board
posts, blogs, and other casual writings, but not in professionally
edited publications, such as technical documentation, and my instinct
is to avoid it, I do, at least in formal contexts. Google indexes an
enormous amount of stuff that's not in the public domain, including a
high percentage of software and other documentation, including most of
my own work product. I think Google offers a large and fairly
representative sample of real-world usage.

On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 2:32 PM, Combs, Richard
<richard -dot- combs -at- polycom -dot- com> wrote:
> Ah, but a Google search doesn't find the writings of people who use
> computers or people who use Google. It finds the writings of people
> whose words somehow ended up on the internet -- bloggers, forum posters,
> reporters, opinion columnists, narcissists, people selling something,
> authors of books in the public domain, ...
>
> There is a very small overlap between the people whose writings are on
> the internet and the audience for which I'm writing, and determining
> whether a word is widely used by the former is not a sure-fire way to
> determine whether it's understood and accepted by the latter.
>
> OTOH, since I almost never meet any of the latter, I tend to rely on
> instinct, online dictionaries, and tea leaves. :-}
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