Lin M. Hall wrote:
Hi Janet Swisher,
Hi Lin,
Thanks for catching these issues, and for posting your self-intro.
Then on a number of pages there seems to be a good number of commas that cannot be justified by my reading of Webster's 20 rules for commas. I'm a New Zealander working in Australia and I'm fairly sensitive to the way Americans sprinkle commas about, but going beyond Webster seems too much.
I haven't heard of "Webster's 20 rules for commas". Can you share a reference? (There are multiple Webster's-es, as the name is not a trademark.) I generally follow Chicago Manual of Style when punctuation questions arise, but frankly, for commas I usually just use my "ear", and don't bother looking up the rules. Granted, it is an American ear. (And CMS has 39 comma rules! ;-)
In the Tips for Authors, page 7, you mention Michael Bremer's /Untechnical Writing,/ did you think about including it in the Technical Writing and Editing resources on the next page?
I thought about it, but I didn't want to overwhelm potential authors with too many references, and I like the ones I listed better overall. I suppose it's silly to mention it, and then not give info on it in the Resources. Also, if you or anyone else has resources (books or websites) that you'd like to add, let me know. I listed my favorites, but they are far from the final word.
-- Janet Swisher --- Senior Technical Writer Enthought, Inc. http://www.enthought.com
