Some people don’t understand the importance of making the readers’ job easier. They fail to grasp there is a certain level of salesmanship in the craft of writing, one needs to beckon the reader, not just transport thoughts from one mind to another.
Making understanding a chore is anathema to that principle. I’ve seen plenty of people come to FR (and go) who seemed to think the language isn’t important. We had a guy once who was proud of his refusal to use capitalization, and insisted any problems in understanding were our fault, not his, and we should sharpen up a bit. The ee cummings wannabe lasted about a week before he was kicked to the curb.
I remember that guy.
Proud of his "style", he was. Had some fun with him.
ee cummings!
All that is missing is someone to write stream of consciousness with no punctuation like Joyce.
I wish I had known about FR when I was a poor TA in grad school. You should have seen some of the papers I had to read. The Viking kitties would have had lots and lots of paper to shred and use as cat litter and to wrap their lutefisk in. The majority were, for lack of a better word, awful.
“Some people don’t understand the importance of making the readers’ job easier. They fail to grasp there is a certain level of salesmanship in the craft of writing, one needs to beckon the reader, not just transport thoughts from one mind to another.”
Couldn’t agree more. Someone once said of William F. Buckley that he used the English language like Charlie Parker used a saxophone, or words to that approximate intent.