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--- style_guidelines [2008-09-08 02:28] – alkan
+++ style_guidelines [2011-07-22 01:27] (current) – alkan
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Style Guidelines ======
+===== Concerning the indiscriminate use of the ampersand =====
+The ampersand should be avoided in body copy. It disrupts the flow of the text and produces an unsightly type colour. Its use in this manner is pleasantly absent in any professionally written and designed publication or correspondence. Needless to say, indiscriminately //mixing// "&" with "and" is an even worse offence.
+In fact, in most prose, the ampersand is best avoided except in certain standard cases, such as in company names (e.g. H&FJ, Secker & Warburg, Walrus & Barnacles).
+Due to the wonders of modern computing technology, the removal of offending ampersands in any particular document is now a trivial matter. However, this can in no sense be viewed as license to cultivate poor habits in the first place. Every find and replace takes time and involves risk. Even the loss of a few seconds might become critical in a tightly-managed workflow, and the accidental //omission// of an ampersand in any one of the few instances where its use is not only legitimate but also necessary could lead to serious consequences.
+Further arguments against the indiscriminate use of the ampersand:
+You may have convinced yourself that, since the ampersand consists of just one character, and "and" consists of three, that typing the ampersand represents a more efficient use of the motor movements of your fingers than depressing all three letters on your keyboard in repetitive, RSI-inducing sequence. You are greatly mistaken. To reach the ampersand requires an extremely awkward movement of the right index finger, which must stretch all the way up to the first row of the keyboard in a QWERTY layout. Furthermore, you are required to hold down the shift key simultaneously. On the other hand, since each letter of "and" resides within easy range of your fingers, this word can be typed extremely rapidly and easily. Therefore, in the time it takes your index finger to reach up for the ampersand, and while simultaneously wasting motor energy holding down the shift key, you could have already completed the next word of your sentence if you had simply written "and."
 ===== Punctuation =====
@@ Line 68: / Line 81: @@
 [Gowers, //The Complete Plain Words,// 244-46]
- --- //[[alkan.chipperfield@gmail.com|Alkan Chipperfield]] 2008/09/07 06:25//