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Dear Gunnar, Two notes — I agree with your advice about writing in a natural way. That’s the point of several passages in my set of slides. But there is a difference between the kind of style guide that deals with capital initials and a book on the principles of style. My comment on Strunk and White involved a contrast to The Economist Style Guide. I assumed that folks would see this as a joke. It only goes to show you that I am not Billy Crystal. Strunk & White has nothing to say on initial capitals. The Economist Style Guide does. Strunk & White is not a grammar book. I never said that it is. Neither do Strunk, White, nor Angell. The book deals with grammar in a few specific cases. But Grammar Girl is right to say that “the book is largely about style choices, not hard-and-fast rules.” Some folks think, incorrectly, that Strunk & White is a grammar book. I am not among them. If you’ve got thoughts on Strunk & White’s views on grammar (as Pullum does), feel free. I don't recommend the book forward as a grammar guide. I see it as a teaching tool. Yours, Ken Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS | Editor-in-Chief | 设计 She Ji. The Journal of Design, Economics, and Innovation | Published by Elsevier in Cooperation with Tongji University Press | Launching in 2015 Chair Professor of Design Innovation Studies | College of Design and Innovation | Tongji University | Shanghai, China ||| University Distinguished Professor | Centre for Design Innovation | Swinburne University of Technology ||| Adjunct Professor | School of Creative Arts | James Cook University | Townsville, Australia ||| Visiting Professor | UTS Business School | University of Technology Sydney University | Sydney, Australia Email [log in to unmask] | Academia http://swinburne.academia.edu/KenFriedman | D&I http://tjdi.tongji.edu.cn Telephone: International +46 480 51514 — In Sweden (0) 480 51514 — iPhone: International +46 727 003 218 — In Sweden (0) 727 003 218 — Gunnar Swanson wrote: —snip— You are, of course, right that different people need different guidance. Cliché avoidance advice aside, "Say what you mean" might be more important advice than anything about caps or commas. Your objection to unneeded initial caps fits better into that "rule" than the claims of any style guide. As you pointed out, it might imply favoring one noun over another. Worth defending to the death? Probably not. Worth parsing? Probably. If you're training new academic writers, I'll offer my first rule from my incomplete style guide for academic writers: Stop writing; instead, pretend like you are talking. Specifically, pretend you are talking to the world's smartest 16 year old. She doesn't know about much so you have to explain everything but you only have to explain it once. And you don't have to bother trying to impress her because you're old, therefor she will remain unimpressed no matter what you do. —snip— ----------------------------------------------------------------- PhD-Design mailing list <[log in to unmask]> Discussion of PhD studies and related research in Design Subscribe or Unsubscribe at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/phd-design -----------------------------------------------------------------