atw: Re: Microsoft Manual of Style
- From: Robert Levy <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 9 Feb 2012 21:59:45 +1100
I bet that, even if you worked at Microsoft, they wouldn't mind you using the
term rodent instead of mouse. But they wouldn't want you writing it in their
tech docs!
rwl
On 09/02/2012, at 9:55 PM, John Maizels wrote:
> So based on the M$ recommendation, should I stop using the term "rodent"?
> I've yet to find someone who doesn't understand what it means in context, and
> it has a nice regular plural that is no more confusing than the singular. :-)
>
> Just gotta luv English (which is why we're here)!
>
> John
>
>
> At 21:17 9/02/2012, Robert Levy wrote:
>> Microsoft puts out a style guide so that they stay consistent at Microsoft.
>> They do their research and try to figure out what will be best understood by
>> their audience (and what makes them look good, of course).
>>
>> They're not saying that other people should do what they do.
>>
>> Having said that, they do have a reasonably large audience (cough), and when
>> they start calling it mice, it's not unreasonable to think that lots of
>> people already are, and soon will be, calling it mice.
>>
>> So, I think they do have a track on what's happening in English, and they
>> may actually affect English worldwide. It doesn't matter whether there's
>> confusion between the biological mouse, because language doesn't worry about
>> silly things like logic.
>>
>> rwl
>>
>
> John P Maizels
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