Download Technical Writing Style Guide
Transcript
Table of Contents Abbreviations & Acronyms......................................................................................... 5 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................................... 5 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Acronyms ................................................................................................................................................ 5 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 5 Plurals of Acronyms ................................................................................................................................ 6 Acronyms as Possessives ...................................................................................................................... 6 Capitalization ............................................................................................................... 6 About Capitalization ................................................................................................................................ 6 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 6 Capitalization and Punctuation................................................................................................................ 7 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 7 Names of Documents, Forms, and Reports .............................................................. 8 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 8 Names of Online Guides ............................................................................................. 9 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 9 Correct .................................................................................................................................................... 9 Names of Software and Systems ............................................................................... 9 Rules....................................................................................................................................................... 9 System Names........................................................................................................................................ 9 Names of Vendors ..................................................................................................... 10 Rules......................................................................................................................................................10 Examples ...............................................................................................................................................10 Names of Web Sites, Pages, Options ...................................................................... 10 Rules......................................................................................................................................................10 Publishing Content .................................................................................................... 10 Generating Web Help.............................................................................................................................10 Printing RoboHelp Reports ....................................................................................................................13 Publishing Content ................................................................................................................................14 Troubleshooting RoboHelp Links ..........................................................................................................14 Visual SourceSafe (VSS) .......................................................................................................................15 Front Matter................................................................................................................ 16 Discontinued Practices...........................................................................................................................16 Style Guide Sections..............................................................................................................................17 Recommended References ...................................................................................................................18 Requesting Changes to This Guide .......................................................................................................19 Grammar and Usage.................................................................................................. 19 Jargon ....................................................................................................................................................19 Nouns....................................................................................................................................................19 Person...................................................................................................................................................20 Plurals ....................................................................................................................................................20 Possessives ...........................................................................................................................................21 Possessives for Company and Organization Names ............................................. 23 Pronoun and Antecedent Agreement .....................................................................................................24 Smothered Verbs ...................................................................................................................................25 Subject and Verb Agreement .................................................................................................................25 Tense .....................................................................................................................................................26 Tone of Documentation.........................................................................................................................26 Voice .....................................................................................................................................................27 Wordiness ..............................................................................................................................................28 Hyphenations and Compounds................................................................................ 30 Hyphens.................................................................................................................................................30 Use of Hyphens with Prefixes ................................................................................................................31 Indexing ...................................................................................................................... 33 About Indexing .......................................................................................................................................33 Lists ............................................................................................................................ 33 About Lists .............................................................................................................................................33 Page 2 of 119