Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label writing. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Ban abbrs!
So, maybe this is a little bit radical, but I think we should stop using abbreviations. We have the technology to automatically expand abbreviations in writing, so that advantage is pretty much lost. For anyone who is a nonlinear reader and writer, the rules create a huge waste of time -- you have to track the first use of an abbreviation in order to expand it and put it in a table of abbreviations. For a nonlinear writer, who might write the introduction after the body, this can get cumbersome. For a nonlinear reader, such as someone who uses SQ3R or similar method, it creates an irritation to have to thumb back to a table of abbreviations (and another huge waste of time).
So, how about it, style guide writers? Time to move grammar out of the IBM Selectric age?
So, how about it, style guide writers? Time to move grammar out of the IBM Selectric age?
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