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.
Re: My Editor Forbids spaces, apostrophes, punctuation, etc
Subject:Re: My Editor Forbids spaces, apostrophes, punctuation, etc From:"Alexandria G. Khalil" <akhalil -at- SUNGARD -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 25 Jul 1996 09:14:49 EST
Randy and Cathy,
Excuse me if this sounds stupid, but is some supposed to read these
documents that contain no punctuation, or spaces? Randy, If so, have
your higher up's read them? If this is a manual, how do you think your
customers are going to use them?
Alexandria Khalil
Doc. Manager
SunGard Capital Markets
Phila., Pa
akhalil -at- sungard -dot- com
______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: My Editor Forbids spaces, apostrophes, punctuation, etc
Author: Cathy Krusberg <ckberg -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM> at Internet
Date: 7/25/96 8:19 AM
Randy Grandle <randy -dot- grandle -at- corp -dot- sun -dot- com> said:
>My editor has convinced my manager that spaces, apostrophes,
>and punctuation marks in general are outmoded relics of an era
>when typewriters were commonly used for technical documentation.
>Moreover, my editor has pointed out that eliminating spaces,
>apostrophes, and punctuation marks will save disk space
[snip]
Your editor is not alone. For a good scare, read the following
post (slightly edited for length from its original appearance
on misc.writing):
>I had thought to become a Web designer last winter, and soaked
>up HTML like a sponge. When I noticed that designers are a dime
>a dozen, and hundreds, if not thousands, were several jumps
>ahead of me in CGI and Java, I rethought the situation.
> Many of the most sophisticated sites had typos, misspellings,
>and jarringly bad grammar in the text. I think some of the
>designers have a pschological problem with spelling checkers.
>Where there's such a need, there's an economic niche.
>Some writers (and a good many Web designers) question the need
>for editing to conform to all those stupid rules. One person
>whose files I offered to fix up sent me the following, a perfect
>example why we use conventions:
>At first I opposed these new style guidelines that eliminate
>all instances of spaces, apostrophes, and punctuation marks.
>It meant I would have to work around the clock for the next
>10 years to make our documentation conform to the new style
>guidelines.
Surely you've got something that can search/replace a few gigs
of documentation faster than that?
I can't decide whether any of this is funny or not. Back to
studying Japanese (which uses punctuation but doesn't put
space between words). (Hm, maybe we *can* learn from them....)
Cathy Krusberg
Internet: ckberg -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send administrative commands
ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-
TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send administrative commands
ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-
