Re: Numbering

[Beverly Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH1 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL>]

Loren Castro <lfc -at- SOL -dot- CHINALAKE -dot- NAVY -dot- MIL> wrote
> I identify Section 2 (for example) as 2 (or 2.0) <SECTION HEADING>,
> and I have no text under this heading if I can help it.  That means
> that I must have a paragraph 2.1 if I want to write anything even if
> I don't have a paragraph 2.2.  This might conflict with what we learned
> in grammer school, but I like it.  It's consistent, and it complies
> with the standards.

I disagree. What I would do, using the particular example you
provided, if I had one and only one paragraph in a section would be
to not number the paragraph:

2  SECTION HEADING

Text text text text text text text text text text text
Text text text text text text text text text text.

Having come up through the clerical ranks 20 years ago, one of
the first things pounded into my head was that in government
writing, if you have a paragraph 1 (or a.) you *must* have a
paragraph 2 (or b.). As someone else alluded to in a post, this
is probably an archaic rule begging to be broken.

I guess it's like looking at the numbered paragraphs as a
numbered list (the paragraphs being the list items); you
wouldn't have a one-item numbered list.

   1. Item

My discussion, I know, does nothing to solve the original issue,
which was more deeply embedded in the numbering structure.

2.0
2.1      -- the problem para
2.1.1
2.1.2
3.0
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