TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: There must be some kind of standard.... From:quills -at- airmail -dot- net To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Wed, 24 Feb 2010 18:47:12 -0600
On 2/24/10 5:27 PM, Janet Swisher wrote:
> On Wed, Feb 24, 2010 at 5:06 PM, jopakent<jopakent -at- comcast -dot- net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Has anyone seen a written standard that provides a justification or
>> explanation for this kind of writing?
>>
>>
> If you're editing a legal document, and the term is defined in a
> "definitions" section, then it may need to be capitalized in order to
> signify that it is officially "one of the things defined as a Document in
> the definitions section and not something that just happens to be called a
> 'document'." But I more often see this sort of thing either from programmers
> because there is a corresponding "Document" object in the source code, or
> from over-zealous marketers indulging in what Lyn Dupre calls "Pooh-bear
> capitalization", "in which Everything takes on Great Importance".
>
> --Janet
And they may be one of those "educated" people who subscribe to the 17th
Century method of capitalization. Perhaps they studied under Alexander
Pope? In any case it is usually wrong to accomodate random
capitalization in documentation.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Use Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word, or HTML and
produce desktop, Web, or print deliverables. Just write (or import)
and Doc-To-Help does the rest. Free trial: http://www.doctohelp.com
Explore CAREER options and paths related to Technical Writing,
learn to create SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS documents, and
get tips on FUNCTIONAL SPECIFICATION best practices. Free at: http://www.ModernAnalyst.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
