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Subject:Re: What's a widow? or not? From:Iain Harrison <iharrison -at- SCT -dot- CO -dot- UK> Date:Tue, 17 Sep 1996 15:34:57 GMT
Alexander von Obert writes, inter alia:
>>
Therefore you should not blame others for using
their well-established language you do not understand.
<<
The use of 'widows' to describe a short measure line at the end of a
paragraph is not 'well-established language that I do not understand'. It
is use of a term that can have two meanings, in my view is being
incorrectly used here, and clearly has confused more than one person on
this list.
Having only been personally involved in typesetting over the last 26 years,
I checked with a friend who has been in the typesetting and printing
industry for considerably longer. He has <I>never</I> heard of the term
being used this way, even in error. His view concurs with mine that ...
Well, I won't labour the point. Possibly the Atlantic is relevant.
If technical communicators are unable to communicate technical terms
between themselves without introducing confusion, where does that leave Joe
Public reading their work?
Iain
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