Re: Comma splices -Reply

[Bill Sullivan <bsullivan -at- SMTPLINK -dot- DELTECPOWER -dot- COM>]

I haven't paid a lot of attn to this thread but I've got a minute to
kill so I'll chime in.  You have options, in addition to the good
suggestions of Mateosian and others that I have seen.  You could go
with:

1.  Choose Edit.

2.  Choose Cut.

Or:  Choose Edit, and then choose Cut.

[I don't know if anyone has hassled the original writer's choice of
the verb select rather than choose, but hey, what are these thread
sessions for?]

I would reject the use of quotation marks, but if you must use them I
would put them outside the punctuation if the manual is for use in the
US by ordinary citizens with family values.  In other countries and in
writing for long-hair scientists, it could be the other way around.
(I am not going to say how it should be done in all countries, but I
do know that in some conservatively edited scientific prose they
cling to the old English way and put the punctuation inside the
quotes.)

Rather than set your commands in quotes (if setting commands is the
purpose of this exercise), I would consider setting them in bold.  If
your body text is in a serif font like Times, you might change the
commands to a sans serif (helvetica or arial, for example) and bold,
if you want to take the time.

Bill Sullivan
bsullivan -at- deltecpower -dot- com

>>> Richard Mateosian <srm -at- C2 -dot- ORG> - 1/8/96 9:51 AM >>>
>                First select "Edit", and then select "Cut".

OK, but wordy.


>                First select "Edit", and then "Cut".

Not OK, unless "Cut" has suddenly become a verb.


>                First select "Edit", then select "Cut".

If you feel like being formal, change the comma to a semicolon, but
the comma splice is fine in sentences like this.  ...RM

Richard Mateosian        http://www.c2.org/~srm/   President,
Berkeley STC
Freelance Technical Writer     srm -at- c2 -dot- org        Review Editor, IEEE
Micro