#20468
When we are trying to communicate complicated ideas, it is important to be specific. One way to ensure that you will not be misunderstood is to look at your use of 'scope'. 'Scope' refers to which words go with which to form a 'sense unit' in a sentence; for example, which nouns are covered by a particular verb or preposition. Often, poor punctuation or poor sentence construction messes the scope up. Scope isn't easy to explain, but you can get a handle on it once you have seen a few examples of how it works.
#28361
This chapter ventures deeply into Microsoft heresy. A heretic is someone who preaches heterodoxy, or mixed doctrines. Unlike a lot of official MS and MVP speak, this topic advocates the usage of a certain feature that can be said to be generally considered as broken - Master Documents, or Masters. As so little information is forthcoming on this subject from other sources, yet many writers use them regularly because there is no other choice, it is fully covered here.
Hudson, Steve. TECHWR-L. Articles>Software>Style Guides>Word Processing
#18471
Review: A Matter of Style: On Writing and Technique
Many editors and writers will find A Matter of Style useful, but as readers, most will find it frustrating. Matthew Clark, a professor of classical literature and a musician, addresses the book to editors and writers, both creative and non-fiction, and especially to academic writers. The book is not an introduction and Clark assumes that his readers “already have a good grounding in the basics of grammar and style” (p. iv). He skips quickly through a chapter called “A Few Points of Grammar” to get to his real target, “questions of artistry” (p. 1). So far, so good, but problems soon develop around many of these nodes. The level of audience assumed by the book frequently varies. The book functions in many passages as an introduction to various classical arcana of questionable utility. Even more than questions of artistry, Clark deals with “questions about style” that are “questions of taste” and so “do not have definitive answers.” As many critics before him, he claims that “taste can still be discussed” (p. 14). The question is, “How?”
Thurston, John. Writer's Block (2002). Articles>Reviews>Style Guides
#26068
Review: Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications
Microsoft is one of the largest software companies in the world. Thus, with their rich experience in documentation it is only natural that they share it with the rest of the IT industry. The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, Third Edition (MSTP) is the latest step in this direction and takes care of latest technologies and technical terms.
Sharma, Sangeet. Indus (2005). Articles>Reviews>Style Guides>Technical Writing
#19636
The Most Obvious Fault in Technical Writing 
The most obvious fault is wordiness. Fortunately, long-windedness is something that editors are particularly well equipped to fix. Take a look at our manuals. They are huge, and their very bulk can make them inaccessible, especially when they are not equipped with a good index or adequate indicia in the corners of each page.
Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2003). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
#20470
Misplaced modifiers are usually obvious and easily fixed.
#24042
As writers and editors, we understand instinctively that readers need transitions, but we also work at getting rid of unnecessary words.
Dahl, Elisabeth. Editorial Eye, The (1996). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
#20455
Nonstandard Quotes: Superimpositions and Cultural Maps 
We regularly chastise students for placing quotation marks around words that are not direct quotations. Yet, as this research shows, professionals use nonstandard quotations routinely and to rhetorical advantage. After analyzing the various purposes nonstandard quotations serve, I argue student use of the marks jars us not because it departs from good practice but because, through them, students invoke voices we do not want to recognize.
Schneider, Barbara. CCC (2002). Articles>Style Guides>Standards>Rhetoric
#25029
Not a Style Guide: Creating a Quick Reference Grammar Guide for Writers
When approached by a group of curriculum design specialists to develop a job aid that would help analysts and trainers solve some of their most common writing problems, the Multinational Customer and Service Education (MC&SE) editing group from Xerox Corporation went to work to produce The Write Stuff: When to Use a Comma and Other Writing Rules. This paper focuses on the Leadership Through Quality process the editors used to develop this reference tool. It also describes how The Write Stuff addresses some of the most common writing problems editors encounter in the course of a working day.
Cowan, Elisabeth J.S., Raymond J. Doughty Paul F. Ferguson, Ted Moss, and Karen Sliva. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Editing>Style Guides
#10234
Online Style Guides: Getting Past Caps and Commas
Style, and style guides, are perennial hot topic in the online content business. Many content professionals seem preoccupied with finding the ultimate, authoritative source with the final word on whether 'Internet' should be capitalized, or whether 'Web site' is one word or two. But in reality, such questions are among the least important concerns of online style. Where you put the punctuation doesn't matter nearly as much as how you shape and deliver your messages.
Gahran, Amy. Contentious (2001). Articles>Style Guides>Online
#20799
Painless Ways to Improve Colleagues' Grammar
Instead of confronting individuals, raise all staff members' awareness. Use humor to help people recognize errors and remember correct usage.
#13975
The Passive In Technical and Scientific Writing
Almost every discussion of technical or scientific style mentions the passive voice, usually as a stylistic evil to avoid. While I doubt that many of us would endorse such extreme prescriptions as 'Always use the active voice,' or 'A writer will almost automatically improve his style when he shifts from passive to active constructions,' we may be more ready to accept Freedman's position in 'The Seven Sins of Technical Writing.' His Sin 6 is 'the Deadly Passive, or, better, deadening passive; it takes the life out of writing, making everything impersonal, eternal, remote and dead,'3 but he adds that 'frequently, of course, the passive is not a sin and not deadly, for there simply is no active agent and the material must be put impersonally.'
Rodman, Lilita. JAC (1981). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
#24421
Polished Panache: The Empowered Corporate Style Guide
A customized style guide is a document that defines the specific formatting, mechanical, punctuation, and spelling standards for your department or company. When you decide that you need a customized style guide, many questions arise: Where do you start? How do you get there? Exactly where is it you want to go? Are there more issues you need to define? Deciding that you need a customized style guide is the first hurdle. Persuading upper-level management to fund the guide is the second hurdle. And then it’s off to the races...
Corbett, Lori. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Style Guides
#24162
Reconsidering Some Prescriptive Rules of Grammar and Composition
Technical writers and editors are beset with rules. As authoritative as they are, published style guides such as The Chicago manual of style, MLA, APA, and Gregg do not address reading theory but hang their prescriptions on the flimsy mantle of tradition. This article challenges some putative rules of grammar and mechanics in an effort to improve technical texts for the people who read them.
Connatser, Bradford R. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Style Guides>Grammar
#20002
The Reference Book That Editorial Eye Built 
About three years ago we were asked whether we would be interested in writing a new and different kind of style manual: * In addition to covering all the traditional style topics, such as capitalization and punctuation, it would have chapters on grammar, confusable words, usage (including bias-free language), and all aspects of production, from design and typography to desktop publishing and printing. * Its audience would be the vast majority of working writers and editors, not just those who work with scholarly manuscripts. * It would be written and organized in a friendly, easy-to-read style and reflect the impact of the computer on every aspect of the publishing process. Although we were a bit cowed at the thought of tackling such a big project -- it turned out to be 836 pages -- we didn't see how we could turn down the chance to create a guide that was truly useful.
Sutcliffe, Andrea J. Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Style Guides>Writing
#20474
Reported Speech: a Tense Issue
The tense of the verb in a statement is, as a general rule, shifted back in time in reported speech.
#13976
The Rhetoric of the Paragraph: A Reconsideration
Efforts to define the fundamental structures that enable meaning in discourse have a long history, beginning with ancient speculation. Classical logic, rhetoric, and grammar imposed restrictions on the processes of composing, as well as the shapes of finished texts, in order to safeguard the truth by attending to prerequisites for its effective communication. From earliest times, a concern for vindicating some larger moral order, and for teaching others to appreciate it, has often motivated pronouncements on the nature of verbal form. From Quintilian to the present, for example, teacher-scholars have striven to insure that logical and aesthetic values celebrated in the classical doctrine of decorum are made suitably manifest in student performance, as though to enforce publicly accepted styles of thought and action by reference to acceptable forms of language.
Knoblauch, C.H. JAC (1981). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
#10272
The Scientific Style Manual: A Reliable Guide to Practice?
Is the scientific style manual a reliable guide with regard to the organization and content of the typical scientific article? The answer is, yes and no. Style manuals do provide much sound advice based on their authors' personal experience. However, they also pass on some advice at odds with recently published literature regarding how scientists actually conduct research and write up their findings. This article presents a revised model for the scientific article, a model base don information in recently published research on communication in science.
Harmon, Joseph E. and Alan G. Gross. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Style Guides>Scientific Communication
#20467
A simple definition of a sentence is: a set of words that expresses a complete thought and contains a subject and a predicate. Let's look at this.
#20004
Decide where to place the adverb in parentheses in these sentences to best advantage -- for the sound of it and for best sense. That is, place it near the word in the sentence you wish to emphasize. One sentence doesn't involve a decision about placement next to the verb at all.
Stoughton, Mary. Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Language>Style Guides
#26744
Social Rules for Creating a Style Guide
Creating a style guide may initially seem like a terminology affair ('option button' or 'radio button' - pick one), but the real challenge lies in persuading the department to adopt new style principles. Some writers will feel threatened by change, and respond in bizarre and unpredictable ways. Whisper campaigns and ambushes may lie in wait for you. Beware, innovative editor! Before you even think about the literary details of style, prepare to do battle with the true Goliaths and Grendyls: the department itself. By following these five rules below, you can avoid an unexpected apocalypse when you reveal the new guide.
Johnson, Tom H. TECHWR-L (2006). Articles>Writing>Style Guides
#23396
There are several ways of spelling English – the English/Canadian style, and the American style. Both are correct.
Dobsen, David. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Style Guides>Standards
#26128
Standards for Online Content Authors
The standards on this page include non-technical standards relevant to all web authors and technical standards relevant to some web authors.
McAlpine, Rachel. Quality Web Content (2005). Articles>Web Design>Style Guides>Writing
#14660
Bush questions the wisdom of rigid grammatical rules that do not take into consideration the complexities of English.
Bush, Donald W. Intercom (2000). Articles>Language>Style Guides
#20003
The Struggle for Gender-Free Language: Is It Over Yet?
All current style manuals address in one form or another the need for bias-free, inclusive language. Most writers and editors deal with this issue regularly — we've installed mental alarm systems that go off when we sense bias or something that can be construed as bias. In fact, some commentators say we've gone too far toward what social commentator Christopher Cerf calls, with grave facetiousness, 'content-free writing,' lest language offend anyone, anywhere. Does gender-free writing still present problems, and if so, how are most of us resolving them? After all these years of practice at being evenhanded, consider several litmus tests.
Rea, Jane. Editorial Eye, The (2003). Articles>Style Guides>Discrimination>Gender
