Date: Wed, 01 Jan 1997 07:13:57 -0700 From: Sean Kelly <kelly@fsl.noaa.gov> To: Peter Dufault <dufault@hda.com> Cc: Mike Pritchard <mpp@freefall.freebsd.org>, chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/share/doc/handbook ctm.sgml current.sgml cvsup.sgml dialup.sgml firewalls.sgml hw.sgml install.sgml isdn.sgml k Message-ID: <32CA7125.41C67EA6@fsl.noaa.gov> References: <199701010037.TAA20268@hda.hda.com>
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Peter Dufault wrote: > I'm not sure. I checked Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" > (ISBN 0-02-418200-1) and nowhere do I see "Avoid the use of > contractions". Avoiding contractions usually makes for writing that sounds stiff and is somewhat harder to follow. I remember when I got my BS degree in Technical Writing studying writing styles and seeing that, especially for technical documentation, contractions make the material much more approachable, readable, and memorizable. I seem to remember asking John Fieber about this guidline and his response was that it would help us write documentation better understandable by our international audience for whom English wasn't the first language. -- Sean Kelly NOAA Forecast Systems Laboratory Boulder Colorado USA
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