Everyone has seen pages like this, typically on reports from financial institutions or health-care firms. It seems to be a cover-your-ass adaptation to the fear that some recipients will be distressed to confront a blank page, or that a malefactor will insert extraneous material in a report. Perhaps some reader can offer insight into the rationale.
Addendum: within minutes of my posting this, a reader provided the link for a Wikipedia entry on Intentionally blank page.
Intentionally blank pages are usually the result of printing conventions and techniques (allow chapters to start on odd-numbered pages, allow for additions later etc). In standardized tests it prevents subjects from proceeding to subsequent sections. Other considerations for sheet music. Most of these examples don't justify the addition of a sentence to declare blankness. Maybe the part re classified document page checks is the best in that regard.
If you've read this far in the post, then it will be worth a couple seconds of your time to peek at the This Page Intentionally Left Blank Project.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intentionally_blank_page
ReplyDeleteThank you, anonymous person (you could have achieved worldwide fame by signing with a name).
Deletesuch pages are very common in government documents; they indicate to the reader that the page is actually blank as opposed to being a page with missing content.
ReplyDeleteI-)
Your comment boils down to a pleonasm - stating that the text indicates that the page is blank. That doesn't explain the WHY. Why not just leave it literally blank?
DeleteBecause if it were blank people would wonder why... were they cheated, shortchanged, kept out of the loop? Who was stealing their right to know, the FBI, CIA, Homeland Security, the Mafia, Commies, Chinese hackers, maybe the librarian next door. Only the Shadow knows.
ReplyDeletea 'literally blank' page could be confusing - was the page really literally blank or did someone miss that page when producing / reproducing the document.
ReplyDeleteI-)
When we did this in documentation during my computer programming days, it was to clearly define the start of a new section for an audience notorious for not reading documentation. We would label such pages,
ReplyDelete"This page made intentionally non-blank."
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ReplyDelete.
The company I work for will have these pages throughout a quote that is several pages long. Drives me batty. It's like they do it just to look professional when it actually serves no purpose except using up paper. They are also addicted to the spelling out of a number and then placing the digit in parentheses beside it. One (1) item here. Two (2) more items.
ReplyDeleteI can't stand it and cringe every time I see it.
I have seen pages like these labeled, "This page left (almost) blank intentionally."
ReplyDeleteSome highway variable message signs show the message "SIGN NOT IN USE" for a similar reason :)
ReplyDelete