RE : Re: and/or?

["Raj Machhan" <raj -dot- machhan -at- gmail -dot- com>]

Yves wrote:
>Thanks for that. Raj's request sounds like the "Strength of the weak"
argument
that Lyotard talks about. :-)>


Yves:

Thanks for introducing me to Lyotard and the "Strength of the weak"
argument. Sounds interesting. :)
The sole aim of my request concerning the style guide was to arrive at a
definite conclusion about the usage of "and/or" in technical documentation.
I thought it would be useful to find out whether we have any other logical
perspective in support of "and/or".
Technical writing is a dynamic field and is evolving constantly. Guess we do
not have any option but to dive deep before forming an opinion.

Regards,

Raj


On 6/26/07, Yves JEAUROND <jingting -at- rogers -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Mark:
>
> Thanks for that. Raj's request sounds like the "Strength of the weak"
> argument
> that Lyotard talks about. :-)
>
> In a nutshell: (A) if a small man is accused of beating up a dozen
> large fellows, he could plead legitimately that, not having the strength
> to do so, he thus could not have. Thus an accusation is shown and made
> to be implausible.
> (French: "invraisemblable"). This is the (rhetorical) strength of a weaker
> man.
>
> However (B) if a gang of men are accused of beating up one man,
> and they plead that, since they had the means, and appearances were
> against them, it would have been foolish to have even contemplated
> assaulting the fellow. And thus, they could not have done it.
> "Error! Aristotle would say. These ruffians are arguing that a plausible
> accusation is implausible." (Lyotard) They are pleading the
> strength of the weak position, from a position of strength.
>
> Which brings me back to "and/or". Finding style guides that support
> good semantics is plausible.
> Are attempts at finding a style guide to support bad semantics
> similar to those ruffians attempting to make the implausible appear
> as plausible, as in (B) above?
>
> Regards,
>
> YJ
>
>
>
> *"Mark L. Levinson" <nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il>* a écrit :
>
> Raj Machhan wrote:
> > It would be a great
> > value addition to this thread if anybody could come up with a style
> > guide that favors that use of "and/or".
>
> I'm not sure any addition to this thread has value
> any more, but here goes:
>
> From _The Handbook of Good English_, by
> Edward D. Johnson:
>
> - quote -
>
> and/or a convenient and compact device--
> it isn't really a word or even a conventional
> compound-- but a graceless one. It has a place
> in legal, commercial, and technical writing, in
> which precision and compactness are more important
> than grace, but even in such writing it is often
> unnecessarily used when _or_ alone would carry
> the meaning. Elsewhere it should be avoided,
> even though avoiding it may require several
> additional words.
>
> - end quote -
>
> In short, as Johnson says elsewhere in the
> same book, "_And/or_ can be effectively used,
> but too often it merely camouflages muddy
> thinking."
>
> ------------------------------------------------
> Mark L. Levinson - nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il
> ------------------------------------------------
> Mark discourses to fellow Israeli techwriters in
> The Why of Style, at http://www.elephant.org.il/
> ------------------------------------------------
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