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>What I'm getting a in a round-about way is that CMS and all of its
>brothers are only guides. You ARE allowed to do things differently, you
>ARE allowed to use your imagination, and not everything that CMS states
>is law. Yet I see too many instances where our audience may have
>benefited from a particular form of unorthodox presentation, but because
>it isn't in the CMS (or APA, you take your pick), we don't take
>advantage of our experience to create truly useful material.
>
We at Simply Written like to use the CMS for our basics, because it's
well-considered, time-honored, and widely available. But there's no doubt
that much of what's in there is just the publisher's preference. We change
the CMS guidelines quite merrily when it's merited.
As John P. points out (that I cut out, unfortunately) by the time you've
gotten your wings in this business, you should be able to break rules when
the situation demands it. For Simply Written, the only ironclad guideline is
that once we've settled on something, we stick to it throughout the project.
Consistency is real big around here.
Tim Altom
Vice President, Simply Written, Inc.
317.899.5882 (voice) 317.899.5987 (fax)
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