RE: Poll: Is technical writing a sellout or fallback career?

["McLauchlan, Kevin" <Kevin -dot- McLauchlan -at- safenet-inc -dot- com>]

Guy K. Haas continued the spiral into the ambiguously absurd, or
possibly the absurdly ambiguous...
> Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2008 14:26
> To: Combs, Richard
> Cc: Techwr-l
> Subject: RE: Poll: Is technical writing a sellout or fallback career?
> 
> Q: "Do you want paper or plastic?"
> 
> A: "Yes"


Um, I haven't bothered to even visit the site, let alone take the silly
poll. However, I was going to respond to this thread that
English-speaking techwriters know enough to phrase their material
correctly, make proper use of punctuation to impart the desired meaning,
etc.

However, perhaps that was a premature thought.

When the cashier at my local supermarket asks the paper-or-plastic
question, I understand exactly what is being asked.......... but what I
hear would be transcribed as:
"Do you want paper, or plastic?"

Notice that little comma-thingie.

Makes all the difference, doesn't it?
So, if at least some list-members aren't making the comma distinction,
then maybe the pollster wrote his question intending it to be read as
though there was a comma, but either forgot or ... egad... didn't
realize.
 - Kevin
 














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