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Subject:Re: pet peeves From:Vicki Rosenzweig <murphy!acmcr!vr -at- UUNET -dot- UU -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 22 Aug 1994 13:30:07 EDT
In defense of "very":
While "very" is usually unnecessary, there are exceptions.
One is when you're comparing degrees of a quality: "for
large documents, use procedure Q. For very large documents,
use procedure R" (in this case, "large" and "very large" may
need defining, but you can do that once and use it throughout
the manual). Another is a few odd terms that sound negative
unless modified: for example, the phrase "this manual is
readable" damns with faint praise, unless modified to something
like "very readable" or "unusually readable" or "readable even
by computer novices."
Vicki Rosenzweig
vr%acmcr -dot- uucp -at- murphy -dot- com
New York, NY
