question about usage

[Deirdre Reagan]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I appreciate all the feedback!

Deirdre

On 7/23/08, Combs, Richard <richard.combs at polycom.com> wrote:
> Deirdre Reagan wrote:
>
> > Here's what I'm talking about:
> >
> > "Move the part numbers that begin with a numerical character to the
> > end of the list after the part numbers that begin with an alpha
> > character."
> >
> > I'm just wondering how widespread this usage is.  Are these terms just
> > in my documents in my company, and I should make the correction, or do
> > technical writers the world over use "alpha characters" to refer to
> > letters and "numerical characters" to refer to numbers?
>
> Lots of people -- even some tech writers -- think their writing sounds
> more formal and educated if they avoid short, simple, direct words and
> statements. It's true that in some contexts, like programming, you need
> to distinguish between, for instance, integers and numeric characters.
>
> But this is not that kind of context. In this context, "letter" and
> "number" are far better. But to avoid repeating "number," I'd use the
> equally clear "digit":
>
> "Move the part numbers that begin with a digit to the end of the list
> after the part numbers that begin with a
> letter."
>
> IMHO, YMMV, etc.
>
> Richard
>
>
> Richard G. Combs
> Senior Technical Writer
> Polycom, Inc.
> richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
> 303-223-5111
> ------
> rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
> 303-777-0436
> ------
>
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