Re: Numbering the headings. What is the point?

["Russ & Evelyn Griechen" <russgri -at- netbci -dot- com>]

Bravo !!!
I think a lot of people go to a new organization/endeavor with the express
purpose of leaving their imprint in the form of re-organization.
That is the last thing that these people need or want.
If you have any improvements in mind...just prepare a well-organized paper
and let them adopt it as their idea.

Russell Griechen
----- Original Message -----
From: Smith, Martin <smithmr -at- encorp -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: Thursday, October 21, 1999 4:45 PM
Subject: RE: Numbering the headings. What is the point?


> In regards to the appropriateness of numbered heads Tom Murrell writes, in
> part: ...Does anyone have actual analytical data to support their
position,
> though? Has anyone actually done an unbiased study? If not, I nominate
this
> question as another one for our wish list to the academics.
>
> Forgive me, but I am not sure that I would trust an "academic" with a
degree
> in "Two Spaces After Periods" with special emphasis in "Font Selection"
from
> STC U to decide whether or not numbered heads are really of any value in
> highly technical, procedural, military documentation.
>
> The helicopter mechanic who wrote earlier in regards to this thread was
> right on when he mentioned that he always knew that ..."11" was flight
> controls, "4" was rotors, "3" landing gear, etc. The point of these
> elaborate numbering schemes isn't merely to indicate one's location in the
> document. The numbering scheme ensures that one can always find the same
> information in the same place. As a technical writer I was not allowed to
> restructure the manual each time I updated the depot repair manual for a
> hydraulic actuator. Once written, the structure of the manual was
> permanently fixed. In fact, the organization was preordained by the
MIL-SPEC
> that governed all documents created for a given aircraft.
>
> If technical writers were biblical scholars, then John 3-16 in the NIV,
King
> James, and other versions of the bible would either 1) all refer to
> completely different passages, or 2) wouldn't be numbered in the first
> place. Just imagine trying to follow along during the Sermon on Sunday
> morning. "Now lets all turn to the passage where, let's see.., I know,
look
> in the index under sin..., looking, looking, looking... sins of the flesh,
> sins of the heart, no that's not it, let's try evil, looking, looking...,
oh
> hell it's after 12:00 already, dismissed..."
>
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