Style MechanicsMechanicsMechanics …Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Style MechanicsPunctuation++Mechanics “Taste and common sense are more important than any rules: you put in [periods] to help your readers understand you, not to please grammarians.”Ernest GowersThe Complete Plain WordsMechanics …Fonts and formattingUse sparingly and purposefully.Don’t be fancy; remove visual clutter.Periods = StopsCommas = PausesMinimize use, but …Introductory phrasesWhen using disk, tree algorithms …Short prepositional phrases may need no comma.Parenthetical remarks and appositivesWe allocate nine nodes, one for each state, and process them …The algorithm, XJ2, processes …Independent statements—before “and”, “but”, “or”ListsPrefer commas before the “and”For breakfast John ate ham and eggs, milk, and juice.Mechanics …Colons and semicolonsColons join implicational statements with their consequence, e.g. The algorithm reduces the running time by an order of magnitude: the worst case is O(n).Colons introduce lists.Semicolons separate independent statements (usually short independent statements).Semicolons separate items in complex lists.Apostrophes (tough issues, even tougher issues)PossessivesPossessives that end in “s”Possessive plurals that end in “s”—students’, children’sTo form plurals of non-words used as wordsLAN’s is proper, but LANs is acceptable (and becoming more so)“the 2’s”, not “the 2s” (?); but certainly: “the A’s”, not “the As”Contractions“its” is possessive; “it’s” is a contraction and means “it is”Avoid contractions in technical writing.Mechanics …ExclamationsAvoid! Never use more than one!!Let your remarkable results speak for themselves.Hyphenationweb site, web-site, websiteNoun-noun adjectivesalso word-word adjectives, but not adverb-adjective adjectivese.g. Carter-Jones algorithm, high-level code, higher level code,-, , Hyphen (-): hyphenates wordsEn-dash (): ranges, e.g. pgs. 104117; subtractionEm-dash (): punctuation mark: sets off a phrase (example)CapitalizationNumbered items (?): in Figure 2.1, according to Theorem 3, …Titles and headings: “First word only” or “All Important Words”Mechanics …QuotationsPunctuation: inside or outside?No need to quote dull or common phrases, even if taken from another publication.ParenthesesDon’t over use; don’t nest.Period; inside or outside final parenthesis?Citations(?) “Never treat a [citation] … as a word.” (Zobel)Poor placement of citations can cause ambiguity— make it clear who said or did what.Mechanics …Authorities?Who makes up the rules?Who follows the rules, religiously?Is the Chicago Manual of Style the authority?Let’s end where we began: “Taste and common sense are more important than any rules: you put in [periods] to help your readers understand you, not to please grammarians.”Ernest GowersThe Complete Plain