FW: DISCUSSION: Style Guide Use

[Hilary Phillips <hilary -at- CYGNUSPR -dot- DEMON -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

Please,

What is CMS and what do you get hold of it?

Thanks,

Hilary

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From:  Michael A. Lewis[SMTP:lewism -at- BRANDLE -dot- COM -dot- AU]
Sent:  15 November 1997 06:22
Subject:  Re: DISCUSSION: Style Guide Use

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 :
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