Re: "Following" - Choice of words

[Bob Morse <morse -at- GLOBALDIALOG -dot- COM>]

John Bell wrote:

> One software guide I have uses this construction quite often.
>         "Following are description of the fields in the Positioning tab:"
> Every time I read a sentence like that I have to stop and re-read it.
> It seems so awkward. I would rewrite it as "The following" and I would
> also use "descriptions". (And a few other changes.)

I've been waging a one-person campaign to eradicate the word "following"
from all such contexts.  I think it's utterly unnecessary, trite, and
simply adds numbing verbage.  For example:

   The following are the primary features of BlahBlah:

      ... or ...

   The primary features of BlahBlah are the following:

      ... can always be easily recast as:

   The primary features of BlahBlah are:

      ... or simply ...

   The primary features of BlahBlah:

Please join me in this noble crusade.

===================================================================
Bob Morse <morse -at- globaldialog -dot- com>, Badger SoftWerks, Mt. Horeb, WI
Badger SoftWerks ======> http://www.globaldialog.com/~morse/bsw.htm
InfoJunkies Anonymous => http://www.globaldialog.com/~morse/ija.htm