5.5.5 Technical writing style
The topics discussed here refer to the NR. The LM uses a more
gentle, colloquial style.
- Do not refer to LilyPond in the text. The reader knows what the
manual is about. If you do, capitalization is LilyPond.
- If you explicitly refer to ‘lilypond’ the program (or any other
command to be executed), write
@command{lilypond}.
- Do not explicitly refer to the reader or user. There is no one
else besides the reader and the writer.
- Avoid contractions (don’t, won’t, etc.). Spell the words out completely.
- Avoid abbreviations, except for commonly used abbreviations of
foreign language terms such as ‘etc.’ and ‘i.e.’ (which
should be both followed by a comma if mid sentence, by the way).
- Avoid fluff (“Notice that,” “as you can see,”
“Currently,”).
- The use of the word ‘illegal’ is inappropriate in most cases.
Say ‘invalid’ instead.