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Subject:RE: To Cc or not to Cc From:Robert Heath <rheath -at- eGain -dot- com> To:"'techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 23 Nov 1999 11:44:23 -0800
Thanks for taking the time to help me on this minor issue. I didn't know the
background behind the term "Cc" and thought it meant "carbon copy" rather
than "carbon copied." Though usage may change over time so that a term can
have a meaning different from the one it began with, the history of the
term, its awkwardness, and the fact that many readers may not know what it
means (and I don't imagine it translates well!) all convince me to use "send
a copy to."
I suppose these minor details are the mortar that holds the bricks together
in tech writing, though I wish they often wish they weren't. In my first 10
months of tech writing, I have had a two-hour discussion on how to format
index entries, a minor skirmish on whether to stick a hyphen in "email,"
wholescale violence on how best to format a Java applet on a Web page, and a
absolute riot on whether to allow numbered steps under a numbered step.
Well, perhaps I exaggerate about the stubbornness of both sides, but not
much.
Occasionally afraid to step out of his cubicle,
Robert