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Subject:FW: rules From:bcsmit - Bill Smith <bcsmit -at- ACXIOM -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 14 Aug 1997 12:02:49 -0500
I do own my own style guide. Don't you? And my bottom-line dictum has
always been, "Do what works."
Bill Smith
Acxiom Corporation
Conway, AR
>-----Original Message-----
>From: DIGEST Deborah Snavely [SMTP:dsnavely -at- SAVI -dot- COM]
>Sent: Thursday, August 14, 1997 12:43 PM
>To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject: rules
>
>From their beginnings, English-language dictionaries have recorded current
>usage. Only once they existed did there begin to be rules. Me, I like using
>such
>rules, but I note that succeeding editions of dictionaries record the growing
>ignorance of the writing and printing public, post-desktop publishing. Any
>year
>now, I expect to see Webster or Merriam-Webster claim that "it's" and "its"
>are
>interchangeable. (It happened to imply and infer decades ago.)
>
>For that matter, orthography is similarly slippery. Anyone else here still
>prefer the simple spelling rule that you double the consonent when adding a
>verb
>ending? Nowadays dictionaries give the nod to this simple and memorable rule
>by
>listing "canceled," "labeled," and similar pronounciation-neutral spelling
>shifts as the first (preferred) spelling, and only including "cancelled,"
>"labelled," in second place. Sigh. One can't fight published authorities,
>unless
>one owns the style guide.
>
>Deborah Snavely
>Lead Technical Writer
>Publications, Software & Systems
>Savi Technology / a Raytheon TI Systems company
>dsnavely -at- savi -dot- com
>
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