Writing style

Writing style In order to promote consistency between the myriad authors of the FreeBSD documentation, some guidelines have been drawn up for authors to follow. Do not use contractions Do not use contractions. Always spell the phrase out in full. “Don't use contractions” would be wrong. Avoiding contractions makes for a more formal tone, is more precise, and slightly easier for translators. Use the serial comma In a list of items within a paragraph, seperate each item from the others with a comma. Seperate the last item from the others with a comma and the word “and”. For example, look at the following quote;

This is a list of one, two and three items.

Is this a list of three items, “one”, “two”, and “three”, or a list of two items, “one” and “two and three”? It is better to be explicit and include a serial comma;

This is a list of one, two, and three items.

Avoid redundant phrases Try not to use redundant phrases. In particular, “the command”, “the file”, and “man command” are probably redundant. These two examples show this for commands. The second example is preferred. Use the command cvsup to update your sources Use cvsup to update your sources These two examples show this for filenames. The second example is preferred. … in the filename /etc/rc.local… … in /etc/rc.local… These two examples show this for manual references. The second example is preferred (the second example uses citerefentry). See man csh for more information. See &man.csh.1;