Re: Report Report Report

[kmurri -at- comcast -dot- net]

I would drop all the extraneous reports, definitely. IMO - that kind of redundancy doesn't serve any real purpose. But that's a personal preference, not based on any firm tech writing best practice. (Or maybe it is and I just don't know it.)

-Karen


-------------- Original message -------------- 
From: Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net> 

> I'm working on a manual that describes the reports generated by the application. 
> The reports are provided in either Excel or PDF format, and indeed each report 
> is titled "Something Blah Blah Report." 
> 
> Therefore, formally, the title always includes the term "Report," which then 
> gets repeated ad nauseam throughout the document. Example: 
> 
> Chapter 7: Pie-Baking Reports 
> 
> There are five types of pie-baking reports: 
> 
> ---Apple Pie Report 
> ---Cinnamon Streudel Report 
> ---Pizza Pie Report 
> ---Clam Pie Report 
> ---Rocks 'n' Stuff Report 
> 
> Then, each subsection has the title of the report, including the word "Report," 
> and the first sentence of each section inevitably repeats the report name, 
> including the capitalized word "Report." 
> 
> Is it acceptable to drop "Report" from the initial bulleted list and the title 
> of each subsection, and lowercase it in the text where it does occur? Just to 
> give the reader a break? , So, the example would say, 
> 
> There are five types of pie-baking reports: 
> 
> ---Apple Pie 
> ---Cinnamon Streudel 
> 
> etc., etc. 
> 
> Or should I stick with the strictly accurate -- after all, no one is going to 
> read this document like a novel, so presumably no one will get sick of reading 
> the word over and over. Maybe I am aware of the repetition only because I'm 
> working on the doc. 
> 
> 
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