RE: "cannot" or "can not"

Subject: RE: "cannot" or "can not"
From: "Faith Weber - ESC" <faithw -at- esystem -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 24 Feb 2005 11:13:01 -0800


If I say:

"I can not attend the meeting."

What do I mean? That I'm capable of not attending? Or that it's not
possible for me to attend?

How can you be certain?

It's not a matter of preference. It's a matter of clarity. If you
replace "can not" with "cannot" in that sentence, there's no question
what it means.

In answer to the original question, I think someone suggested rewriting
in the positive, e.g. "You must enter at least one character..." I think
that's the simplest solution (if only to save the time spent arguing!).

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