TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Parcell, Michelle" <Michelle_Parcell -at- G1 -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 1:55 PM
Subject: First Thing's (?) First
> A couple of people in my department are debating the correct spelling of
> the phrase "first things first." One thinks it's as I just wrote, as an
First, you must consider the obvious "first things"--
Do you think there is a right version? You may have another think coming.
Are there regional variations? In spite of jet travel and mass media,
regionalisms do exist. You might be able to conclude that the majority in a
region say it one way, but in another region you'd have another thing
coming.
For a measured approach to researching the question, you could google both
phrases and count the unique hits that show a preference for a usage. This
is a descriptive technique, and it offers no assurances of linguistic
correctness according to a stock phrase as it entered the language, but I
feel that most of us would go with the google test, if it mattered at all.
You might get stronger direction from copyediting-l.
Ned Bedinger
Ed Wordsmith Technical Communications
ROBOHELP X5: Featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author
support, PDF and XML support and much more!
TRY IT TODAY at http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrl
WEBWORKS FINALDRAFT: New! Document review system for Word and FrameMaker
authors. Automatic browser-based drafts with unlimited reviewers. Full
online discussions -- no Web server needed! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.
