RE: If you were asked to design a course for undergradengineeringstudents...

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Ladonna Weeks wrote: 

> I would like a course (or preferrably a document) that had 
> nomenclature in various engineering fields! Recently someone 
> asked me if the word "bus" (as in the part of a computer that 
> boards connect to) should be capitalized. I looked on the Web 
> and saw it all different ways. I finally asked one of the 
> engineers and he thought it didn't matter but I'm still not 
> sure whether there is a convention and if so, what it is. 

The convention is: If you're writing in German, capitalize all nouns,
common and proper. If you're writing in English, capitalize only proper
nouns -- that is, names. 

The word "bus" -- regardless of whether it's in a computer or on a city
street -- is a common noun. 

Never rely on engineers (or lawyers, or marketing people) for advice on
capitalization. They all have a streak of German in them, and they tend
to capitalize nouns at random or to emphasize their importance. ;-) 

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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