On Sat, Mar 31, 2012 at 5:23 AM, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
When was the last time you looked at the Wikipedia Manual of Style for use in your own writing? And not to tell someone else they were wrong about something.
What's wrong with that? That's how most rulebooks work - people internalise the rules, and only consult the written form when two people's understanding of the rule differs.
The reverse case would be worse: if you were frequently consulting the MoS before making changes, it would imply that the rules were arbitrary, hard to remember, and lacked internal logic and consistency.
Steve