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Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers

Subject: Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers
From: Bruce Byfield <bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 19:31:48 -0700


Bonnie Granat wrote:

Because grammar exists only to support the communication of intended
meaning, I can't conceive of something being "technically accurate" and
ungrammatical.

Consider what you do when you come across a typo, a spelling mistake, or the occasional disagreement between subject and predicate (you only have to check some of the posts I've dashed off without checking them to this list). Is the meaning of the sentence really so delicate that a single grammatical lapse forces it to collapse into gibberish? Of course not. You make a mental adjustment, possibly you start a sentence over again, and you move on. Clearly, it's completely possible to be technically accurate and ungrammatical.

That's not to say that error-free copy isn't the best way to communicate.If nothing else, you don't want to alienate readers by making them But a passage can have a large number of grammatical mistakes and still be comprehensible; any instructor who has survived marking first year university papers can vouch for that claim.

I think of grammatical errors as static on a radio. While a clear signal is desirable, meaning can still survive a good deal of static.


--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604.421.7177
http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield

"Down, set down your liquor and your girl from off your knee;
For the wind has come to say, 'You must take me while you may,
If you'd go to Mother Carey (Walk her round to Mother Carey!)
We're bound to Mother Carey where she feeds her chicks at sea!'"
- Rudyard Kipling, "Anchor Song"


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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Yahoo has no staff tech writers: From: John Posada
Re: Yahoo has no staff tech writers: From: Bonnie Granat

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