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.