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<chapter id="writing-style">
<title>Writing style</title>
<para>In order to promote consistency between the myriad authors of the
FreeBSD documentation, some guidelines have been drawn up for authors to
follow.</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>Do not use contractions</term>
<listitem>
<para>Do not use contractions. Always spell the phrase out in full.
“Don't use contractions” would be wrong.</para>
<para>Avoiding contractions makes for a more formal tone, is more
precise, and slightly easier for translators.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Use the serial comma</term>
<listitem>
<para>In a list of items within a paragraph, seperate each item from
the others with a comma. Seperate the last item from the others with
a comma and the word “and”.</para>
<para>For example, look at the following quote;</para>
<blockquote>
<para>This is a list of one, two and three items.</para>
</blockquote>
<para>Is this a list of three items, “one”,
“two”, and “three”, or a list of two items,
“one” and “two and three”?</para>
<para>It is better to be explicit and include a serial comma;</para>
<blockquote>
<para>This is a list of one, two, and three items.</para>
</blockquote>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>Avoid redundant phrases</term>
<listitem>
<para>Try not to use redundant phrases. In particular, “the
command”, “the file”, and “man
command” are probably redundant.</para>
<para>These two examples show this for commands. The second example
is preferred.</para>
<informalexample>
<para>Use the command <command>cvsup</command> to update your
sources</para>
</informalexample>
<informalexample>
<para>Use <command>cvsup</command> to update your sources</para>
</informalexample>
<para>These two examples show this for filenames. The second example
is preferred.</para>
<informalexample>
<para>… in the filename
<filename>/etc/rc.local</filename>…</para>
</informalexample>
<informalexample>
<para>… in
<filename>/etc/rc.local</filename>…</para>
</informalexample>
<para>These two examples show this for manual references. The second
example is preferred (the second example uses
<sgmltag>citerefentry</sgmltag>).</para>
<informalexample>
<para>See <command>man csh</command> for more
information.</para>
</informalexample>
<informalexample>
<para>See &man.csh.1;</para>
</informalexample>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>For more information about writing style, see <ulink
url="http://www.columbia.edu/acis/bartleby/strunk/">Elements of
Style</ulink>, by William Strunk.</para>
</chapter>
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