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Subject:Re: Use of a slash (/) From:Kathleen Thompson <katht -at- MICROSOFT -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 25 May 1994 09:12:55 PDT
I had an instructor a while back who gave a very good reason for not
using a slash.
She said that when people read, their cognitive process turns the words
into narrative (or something like that). Because the slash is not a
word, it's disruptive to the reading process and slows people down.
Technical writers must convey information as clearly as possible and in
a way that requires the least amount of work by the reader. If you put
in words or symbols that the reader must use extra effort to interpret,
you are violating this technical writing creed. She said we should
never never use it, and that we should always spell it out as "or".
