Re: Subject: Misuse of 'quotes'

Subject: Re: Subject: Misuse of 'quotes'
From: "Jody R. Lorig" <jlorig -at- KAVOURAS -dot- COM>
Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1998 11:20:00 +0000

Simon

You expressed concern with the overuse and misuse of quotes.

Try explaining to the offender that everything in the document is
important. If it isn't important, then why is it there? Also point
out that when reading, the average user is distracted by unexpected
changes in the presentation method of material. These changes will
oftentimes cause the reader to stop, try to determine why this break
occurred, forget what the sentence has said up until that point, and
often require them to re-read the entire sentence again.

If the marketing director uses the old argument that this is meant to
place "emphasis" on the item, point out that it doesn't place
emphasis, only confusion by the reader.

You could also try to explain that the reader isn't scanning the
document to find key terms or titles. The reader is trying to
understand the material. Take a sample manual from some appliance, do
the same thing to it that he is doing to your documents, and ask him
to read the manual to get the "how-to-use" part for readability.

In the Shipley Associates style manual, the following statement
appears:

Use quotation marks to indicate that a word is used in a special or
abnormal sense:

The 1990 study suggested that NASA's definition of "suitability"
contradicts the goals of the program.

They also go on to state that italics can replace quotation marks
when a specific reference to a word has a specific meaning. As their
example they refer to the word <ital>boundaries</ital> as meaning the
property line of land surveyed after 1990.

HTH

Jody Lorig
JLorig -at- Kavouras -dot- com




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