[WikiEN-l] HOWTOs/Recipes/Instructions and other imperative content

Wed Feb 25 04:56:03 UTC 2004

Peter Jaros wrote:

> On Feb 24, 2004, at 2:11 PM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
>
>> Instructions, even though written in the imperative, are still 
>> descriptive.  The only penalty may be that your cake won't rise, or 
>> worse, you may blow yourself up and earn a Darwin Award. :-\   No 
>> penalty will be applied by any other person.
>
> There are are two issues here of encyclopedicity (so to speak).  One 
> is the content: encyclopedia articles should be descriptive, which 
> instructions are.  The other is style: encyclopedia articles should 
> *sound* descriptive, which instructions don't.  Thus, much of this cam 
> be cleared up by rephrasing certain sentences.

If it is only a question of "sounding descriptive" then your solution of 
rephrasing sentences would be more appropriate than destroying the work 
of others.

Ec