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Subject:RE: Another Subjective View From:Mike West <Mike -dot- West -at- oz -dot- quest -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 28 Jun 2002 11:51:10 +1000
In response to a long post that I won't repeat here,
because those who care already know or can easily
look it up, I wrote:
>Is that what it says to you? My impression is that
>the hatter's message was considerably improved by
>those "mutilations."
>
Bruce responded (in part):
>Look at the start of the anecdote. Franklin cites the story as an
>example of why he tries to avoid having his writing edited by a group.
>Clearly, he doesn't think that the sign was improved.
I believe there's a non sequitur there. I, too, try
to avoid having my writing edited by a group.
Few writers enjoy being edited under any
circumstances, and group editing is particularly
harmful to one's sense (however illusory) of relative
sanity.
But I cannot see "clearly" what Franklin thought
about whether or not the hatter's sign was improved,
because he doesn't (in your anecdote anyway) address
that issue.
In any case, I didn't express an opinion about what
Franklin thought about the changes. I simply wrote
that my own impression was that the hatter's sign
was improved.
On the proposition that seeking "perfection" is sometimes
counterproductive, by the way, I agree. But this is not
the same thing as making every word count. Wasting a
reader's time is also counterproductive.
--
Michael West
Melbourne, Australia
--Guaranteed 98% chimpanzee--
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