atw: Re: Time for another debate?

Gerunds are present participles used as nouns,
not nouns taking an "-ing" ending.  Gerunds have
also been called "verbal nouns" 
(Oxford English Dictionary,vol. Vi, p. 473).  

The examples given, "entering" and "using",
are also found in the list of chapter titles 
earlier in the email, where they are used as 
present participles 
("present participle + noun").

Perhaps a good test would be whether there is
a gerund whose stem or root is not also a 
verb. Taking the cases cited, for "entering" 
there is "to enter", and for "using" there is 
"to use".  The stem or root verb may be archaic,
and not used in its own right today.
 
The word "gerund" itself derives from Latin,
which presumably also created nouns from parts
of verbs. 



--- On Sat, 23/5/09, Geoffrey Marnell <geoffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> From: Geoffrey Marnell <geoffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: atw: Time for another debate?
> To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Received: Saturday, 23 May, 2009, 1:57 PM
> 
> 
>  
>  
>  
> Hi 
> austechies,
>  
> This list has gone 
> deadly quiet of late, so how about a new debate? What about
> one on the format of 
> chapter titles in user guides.
>  
> Although not 
> universally the practice, it seems that most technical
> writers (TWs) cannot 
> resist constructing chapter titles in the form
> {present participle + 
> noun}. For example:
> 
>   Entering 
>   bookings
>   Using 
>   reports
>   Working with 
>   tables
> The
> first word in these 
> examples is a present participle (the -ing form of
> an underlying verb: 
> enter, use and work). Some folk
> call these 
> introductory words gerunds, but gerunds, although also
> taking an -ing ending, 
>  are formed from nouns, not from verbs. The gerund
> equivalents of the 
> examples given above are "The entering of
> bookings", "The using of reports" and 
> so on.)
>  
> Happily, TWs don't 
> use the excruciating gerund form for chapter titles, but
> why do we feel the need 
> to include the present participle? Why don't we just
> call these 
> chapters:
> 
>   Bookings
>   Reports
>   Tables
> I've asked a couple 
> of senior TWs this question and their view
> is that an action word in 
> the title makes it clear that the chapter is telling us how
> to do things, not 
> just giving us facts. But the fact that the entire document
> is called a user 
> guide or user manual is already telling us
> that it is primarily 
> about how to do things, namely, using a product. It might
> have some referential 
> material in it (say, a list of error messages) but such
> material has a 
> traditional and expected place in a user guide: in the
> appendixes. Referential 
> material goes into appendixes; procedural material goes
> into chapters. That's 
> been traditional publishing practice for yonks. No TW
> following standard 
> practice sandwiches a chapter of referential material
> between two chapters of 
> procedural material. Hence there doesn't seem to be a
> need for any special flag 
> in the title of a chapter to tell the reader that this
> particular chapter 
> is about how to do things. The context, and traditional
> publishing 
> practice, says it all. 
>  
> So the {present 
> participle + noun} form seems unnecessarily verbose in a
> user guide. 
> (What does "Working with tables" tell you that
> "Tables" doesn't?) Further, it 
> forces the TW into either truncated specialisation
> (calling  a chapter 
> "Entering
> bookings" when it is also about 
> changing, cancelling and printing bookings) or imprecise
> abstraction (what 
> does "using" or "working with"
> really mean?: just doing things with?). In a 
> manual that is primarily about how to do things, it seems a
> waste to keep 
> reminding the reader that a chapter is about how to do
> things. 
> 
>  
> Moreover, does anyone actually
> read chapter titles? I 
> doubt if more than a few do. The way a typical user
> typically uses a user guide 
> is to consult the index and then jump straight to the topic
> or task they need 
> help with. A chapter title is at most a blur during
> thumbing. Why, then, do we 
> fuss over something that most uses never read and, for
> those who do, the meaning 
> would be quite clear without any leading participle or
> participle 
> phrase?
>  
> So, is there any logic
> to our practice of 
> naming chapters in the {present participle + noun} form? Or
> do we do it simply 
> because we have always done
> it?
>  
> Let the games 
> begin.
>  
>  
> Geoffrey 
> Marnell
> Principal 
> Consultant
> Abelard Consulting Pty 
> Ltd
> T: +61 3 9596 
> 3456
> F: +61 3 9596 
> 3625
> W: www.abelard.com.au
>   
> 


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