Re: Style guides?

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

"Elements" is the only style guide I actually own, though I often consult
others.  If you are working in a non-software industry, this and whatever
documentation standards are in place for that industry may be all the
external style guidance you will ever need.  Ultimately, however, the
most "essential" style guide is the one you create for your dept and/or
company based on your real-world sales, service and user satisfaction
track records.  Sure, it's nice to be able to point to some "authoritative
source" when someone says "let's change this to...," but being able to 
say, "we were doing it that way two years ago and changing to the 
form it is now cut down on service calls by 20%" trumps anybody's
book on style any day of the week.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Nuckols, Kenneth M" <Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com>

Each industry (and often times each company) will have its own preferred
style guide. As a general guide, the first best source that should
always be your guide when any other source fails to provide an answer is
"The Elements of Style" by Strunk & White. It's the essential handbook
for any writer of the English Language. Interestingly enough, in his
autobiographical book _On Writing_, Stephen King cites Strunk & White as
the only essential handbook for writing that any author needs. 

And it's hard to argue with that kind of success...


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Now Shipping -- WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word! Easily create online
Help. And online anything else. Redesigned interface with a new
project-based workflow. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Doc-To-Help 2005 now has RoboHelp Converter and HTML Source: Author 
content and configure Help in MS Word or any HTML editor. No 
proprietary editor! *August release. http://www.componentone.com/TECHWRL/DocToHelp2005

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com

To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to lisa -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.