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Subject:Re: Responsible use of `obviously' From:Pam Tatge <pamt -at- STEINBECK -dot- SC -dot- TI -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 12 Oct 1993 14:36:12 CDT
Chet Cady writes:
> I think the key is =responsible= use of the word. Sometimes
> you may want to write about A and C, but you need to
> mention B so readers aren't disoriented.
I'm not convinced. If your readers would be disoriented by the
omission of B, then how can B be obvious? And, if you really are
sure that B is so obvious that most of your readers can get from
A to C without B, then are you providing useful information by
including B?
Another issue for my department is that more and more of our
customers speak/read English as a second language. What might
be obvious to an American reader may not be obvious to, say,
one of our Japanese or French readers.
In general, I would have to agree that using "obviously" can
be insulting to some percentage of our audience. When someone
says "...obviously..." and I don't get it, I feel really
stupid. I don't want to make any of my readers feel that way.
