Right-o, Bill. I had neglected to notice the full context of the construct, and issued my first response too hastily. My bad.
However, in the case of a conditional construct, I stand by my statement and conviction that most readers could not care less whether we say, "If such-and-such is true, then do this," or "If such-and-such is true, do this." Chuck -----Original Message----- From: Bill Swallow [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Thursday, June 29, 2006 2:09 PM To: Beck, Charles Cc: Tammy.VanBoening at jeppesen.com; framers at frameusers.com Subject: Re: Syntax for if/then statement > Bad news: At least one major style guide and my own experience are on > your new editor's side on this one. In fact, the _Microsoft Manual of > Style for Technical Publications, Third Edition_ takes it even further: > That style guide states that you should avoid the "if...then" > construction altogether and not use the word "then" at all in such > situations. That is, you should simply say something like "If > such-and-such is true, do this." Right, but the recommended construct is "if A, do B" not "if A, and do B"... > Somewhat ironically, the only people who care passionately enough > about such matters to discuss, debate, and defend them vehemently and > endlessly are the documentation folks, typically. Our readers could > probably not care less. Actually, in the case of a "if/and then" construction, I'll bet the readers would care and be just a tad bit confused. -- Bill Swallow HATT List Owner WWP-Users List Owner Senior Member STC, TechValley Chapter http://techcommdood.blogspot.com
