Re: Blank pages

[Beverly Parks <bparks -at- HUACHUCA-EMH1 -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL>]

Tammy Hale wrote the indented excerpts--

    >I think many manuals have blank pages that read "This page
     intentionally left blank" so that  readers do not wonder
     if a piece of information  (sentence, paragraph, section,
     graphic) is missing.  Some documents I've  read have been so
     poorly written that I appreciated at least that much
     assistance in figuring the text out.

I agree. Even in well-written documents, if the last page of the
chapter (before the "blank" page) is full, the "intentionalism"
of the blank page may not be so obvious. It's best to just not
use the blanks, IMO.

    >However, I'm assuming that your document is *not* poorly
     written. In this  case, I think the "blank" pages (which are
     NOT blank after you've written  "This page intentionally left
     blank" on them) are distracting, and humorous  at best.

Government readers of government documents are probably so used
to seeing them, that I don't think the "blank" pages are distracting.
However, they are humorous.

    >I also do not agree that the environmental impact is slight, as
     someone stated.  The number of customers who will receive your
     document, multiplied by the number of "blank" pages you use is
     quite a number of pages.  (You will also save your employer
     some money by having fewer total pages.)  And most importantly,
     it will not affect the quality of your document.

And multiply that by the number of people/companies who think
the same way. No, the environmental impact is probably much more
than slight.

    =*=  Beverly Parks =*= bparks -at- huachuca-emh1 -dot- army -dot- mil  =*=
   =*=  "Unless otherwise stated, all comments are my own. =*=
    =*=   I am not representing my employer in any way."  =*=