RE: your post #1839 from yesterday evening regarding making posts more efficient and informative as things are approaching critical mass and new readers will be joining us. One suggestion you offered, and I could NOT agree more as it is one of my pet peeves. Your particular suggestion is this:
Refer to, or copy a portion of, the post you are replying to at the top of your post for ease of reader reference.
I encountered a particular juicy specimen of which you speak last week that just set me off as I was trying to play catch up here which is somewhat SOP for me. (If you recognize this text as yours, please do not take this as 18 fingers pointed at you. We all can get sloppy in our enthusiasm to present info.) Here's the text:
He took something out of his pocket before he shook hands with everyone, I just didn’t see who he passed it to.
OK, just what the hell is going on here? Regular readers know this is in reference to the GHWB funeral and "sideline" stuff going on. And you get a hint from the text that there's a good bit of intrigue happening...perhaps dishonorable stuff. Juicy stuff. But beyond what I've just described, there is no other definite information. Sure does light a little bit of fire in you to find out more. Who is this "he" referenced? "He" is used three times no less! A newb reading this would really have no clue as to what is referenced. These are fresh troops, and we need to make coming aboard as easy as possible for them. Maybe better put would be "interesting" as possible.
Well, as I recall this was around 5:30AM one morning, and I was trying to do a Q-Qram before heading to work. I said the hell with it trying to go back and find out who HE was. I moved on, but I mentally filed this incident in hopes of a segue to mention it. Melian provided the window.
I have concluded that there is too much usage of pronouns in our responses to each other. One insertion of a proper name or back reference would mean all the world in clarity and keep the bread moving along.
We can do this easily. Daily I am appreciative of the verbal skills and good, old-fashioned grammar lessons that apparently fell on very fertile ground that are on display here. I consider myself pretty good in these respects, but I sit in awe of most of you here. And all of this is just icing on the cake for presentation of the research.
Carry on. That is all.
::
Carry on. That is all.
66 posted on 12/11/2018 9:21:10 AM by EMI_Guy ("You have to slow down to go fast." - Kenny Roberts)
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See that little embed at the bottom of each post? It says, "View Replies". Handy little thing, that. It provides context by displaying replies to the post in question. If there are no replies...well then, no context is needed. You can scroll on your way knowing that the post in question was inconsequential in the larger scheme of things. Remember, you have to slow down to go fast and "sometimes you have to turn right to go left" - Doc Hudson.
/snerk
"I have concluded that there is too much usage of pronouns in our responses to each other. "
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AMEN! I appreciate your entire analysis. I find myself re-reading my posts, and often before posting, will realize that I said "it", or "he" or "she" ..... and needed to supply a referent noun.
I think what happens, is while we are forming the wording for a post, in our own heads, in order to get a thought down, we will use pronouns internally and write them because of the ease of their shorthand..... but the pronouns just don't translate outside of our heads in the disjointed surroundings that thread posts necessarily are.
