The Simplified manual applies all the devices to proper nouns. But I worry that this turns John Donne into John Tain, Gerard Manley Hopkins into Gerard Manny Hopkins, Robert Burns into Robert Bens, and Bertolt Brecht into Bertold Brick. (Suggestions for a British poet with an "ect" ending welcome.) And in some such cases the "If in doubt spell it out" ("IIDSIO") principle still doesn't resolve ambiguity since a reader may have no way of telling that it is being applied.
Wouldn't it be a nice convention that IIDSIO applies absolutely across the board with names?
Is this is too drastic? Unnecessary? Otherwise I hereby move that it be considered as an article in that future Gregg Consortium Online Manual. (Incidentally, John, do you think McGraw-Hill would consider an offer from the group? I can pitch in twenty bucks. We could copyleft it...)
-Derek
(by routine-sibling for everyone)
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