RE: User's Guide or User Guide (was RE: Technical Writer orDocumentation Writer?)

["Keith Hansen" <KRH -at- weiland-wfg -dot- com>]

Yves wrote:
<<Is it a case of proper English---Microsoft (User's Guide) or
geekspeak---Adobe (User Guide)?>>

I've pondered this question too: User Guide OR User's Guide.

* On the one hand, you could argue that "User's Guide" is correct:

--It is, after all, the guide for the user. It belongs to the user,
hence the possessive; rather like "Jim's book." 

--"User Guide" almost sounds like a guide ABOUT the user (comparable to
"Microsoft Word Guide").

* On the other hand, if we have a handbook for employees, we say
"Employee Handbook" all the time. Why not "User Guide"? Does the
possessive add anything or make a difference?

I lean on the side of "User Guide." Just to be concise and save the
space consumed by the apostrophe and "s". But it probably makes no
difference to any actual user!

Keith

P.S. To add a wrinkle, should we consider "Users' Guide"?! I assume most
of us have more than one user?

--- Yves JEAUROND <jingting -at- rogers -dot- com> wrote:

> 
>   Is it a case of proper English---Microsoft (User's
> Guide)
>   or geekspeak---Adobe (User Guide)?
>    
>   Does it feel like proper English to use a person
> or a person's trade
>  as an adjective?
>   Sure there are cookbooks and style guides, but
> these don't feel right:
>   Mechanic Guide, Chauffeur Guide, Cook Guide,
> Employee Guide?
>    
>   Having the "a guide to..." understood, helps: 
>     [A] Mechanic's Guide [to...], and so on.
>    
>   A query on Amazon for "user+guide" lists both,
> with more cases of User's Guide than the other.
>    
>   Thoughts?
>    
>   YJ
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