Why Gerunds? (Was: Overuse of gerunds in headings)

[Steven Brown <stevenabrown -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

Hey now,

Will's question might prompt an interesting discussion
about why we insist on using gerunds in the first
place. Can we avoid gerunds and use more direct
language instead? Microsoft Word's TOC might look like
this:

Startup and Settings
Create a Document
View and Navigate a Document
Format a Document
Work with Text
Struggle with Autonumbering
Work with Graphics
Print a Document

It seems to me, these headings speak directly to the
reader (a good example of a more "engaging" or
"conversational" style that some of us advocate),
which I think is our intention as writers.

Steven Brown

P.S. As a side note, in a prior job, I inherited
responsibility for a manual whose headings looked
something like this:

How to Open an Account
How to Change an Address
How to Change Investment Choices
How to Close an Account

Ugh!


--- William Turner <wturner -at- force10networks -dot- com>
wrote:

> Whirlers,
> 
> I have worked in several Pubs departments where the
> standard heading
> style was defined as requiring gerunds.  That works
> fine for me when the
> subject is Installing, Configuring,
> Restoring...stuff like that.  
> 
> However, for an introductory chapter or section, am
> I breaking a
> well-established standard by calling it, for
> example, "Introduction
> to..." or "Overview of..."?  I usually see, in
> similar situations, that
> the author uses "Understanding ..." in order to
> conform to gerund
> orthodoxy.  For some unknown reason, that
> "Understanding ..." bugs me.
> 
> -- Will
> ~~~~~~~
>
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