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I totally agree that when "numbering is expected" you have to do it. If your
system of providing feedback demands section numbers to quote then you
*must* include them.
However, there are many ways of highlighting information that needs
changing, and section numbers are not *essential* to the task (while good,
clear headings *are* essential to all technical documents). If, however, a
reviewer *must* return a list of required changes to the writer, I concede
that quoting numbers is probably neater than saying "...in 'User Interfaces'
on page 29". But when working with *directly* marked-up paper or electronic
drafts, for example, the existence of *any* type of heading is irrelevant to
the task of finding and applying the comments.
Looking closely at the various replies I have received to my e-mail, I get
the feeling that section numbers are actually more useful to the *writer*
than to the user who - I still maintain - couldn't care less whether "User
Interfaces" is a main heading, a sub-heading or a sub-sub-heading, or even
whether it is part of Chapter 1 or Appendix D. Users are far more interested
in the information being available and correct (and easy to find by heading
and page number).
I suspect that a lot of the disagreement may stem from the different tools
we are using for writing. Using something like FrameMaker, where the
insertion of automatically updating cross-references is a breeze, there is
no need to make the heading easy to find *by the author*. I don't know much
about other tools, but I guess things are not always this easy?
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