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SubjectRe: Press release - here we go again!
At 04:15 PM 9/1/00 -0700, you wrote:
>And if got lost. That should tell you something. Perhaps something like
>" *Advanced interface support for USB, FireWire, and AGP!"
>
>Then place any expostulatory text indented under that as complete sentences.
>This treates the bulleted items as "titles". Your target audience dispises
>incomplete sentences and clunky grammar. (And do rest assured that folks
>like Jerry Pournelle have posted some REAL clunkers, worse than anything
>you did) on BIX for our chuckles.)

Interesting juxtaposition, Dow. Your suggestion includes a bang
(exclamation mark) and then you mention the most vicious bang-hater I've
ever run into, Jerry Pournelle, in the next paragraph. Whatever will you
do next, Oh Emoticon Person? :)

(This is a VERY serious thing -- one sign of an amateur press release is
The! Excessive! Use! of! the! Ballbat! Character! -- I know columnists who
stop reading and start scanning for exclamation marks when they encounter
the first one. Because all too many poof-piece writers place the bang in
the headline, that means the entire release is ignored. I remember when I
was including some C code in an article I was writing for a magazine; the
editor said to take out all of those bangs! It took 10 minutes with a copy
of K&R to show him that the exclamation marks were operators, not
emphasis. <sigh>)

Satch

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