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Subject:Re: DISCUSSION: Style Guide Use From:"Michael A. Lewis" <lewism -at- BRANDLE -dot- COM -dot- AU> Date:Sat, 15 Nov 1997 17:22:06 +1100
Beth Agnew wrote:
> ...Sometimes we need guides and rules to help us get
> started, but once we've seen what's possible, it's up to us to take those
> ideas, add our own, shape the whole thing into something that works for the
> type of publication and the audience, and do the best we can. "Technical"
> writing doesn't mean that everything has to be, um, by the numbers. There
> is indeed room for creativity and imagination. (Just don't sacrifice
> accuracy!)
The benefit of a style guide like CMS is not that it forces everyone
into the same mould (mold for you colonials out there), but that it
provides a set of fundamentally sound guidelines. Every time I've been
involved in setting up a house style manual, I've made the second item
something like "Where this guide is silent, refer to [eg, CMS]". But the
first item is "This is a guide, not a standard; feel free to deviate
from it if you have a good reason for doing so".
--
Michael Lewis
Brandle Pty Limited, Sydney, Australia
: PO Box 1249 : Suite 8, The Watertower :
: Strawberry Hills, NSW 2012 : 1 Marian St, Redfern 2016 :
: Tel +61-2-9310-2224 : Fax +61-2-9310-5056 :
