atw: Re: Vanity or strategy (Was: err, something about gerunds?)

Good point, Stuart.  Vanity has often, however, caused me to react 
badly when someone didn't like something I'd written.  Humility comes 
hard to me :)
- Naomi

> It's not necessarily vanity.
> 
> There are many reasons why something might be hard to read.
> The subject matter might be difficult, or the jargon unfamilar.
> The reader might be distracted or just not mentally up to it.
> The writer might lack the necessary writing skills, not
> fully grasp the subject, or be pressed for time or lazy.
> 
> In a world where ten lifetimes wouldn't be enough to read
> everything that's worth reading, we are forced to be selective.
> If something is more difficult to read than it seems it should
> be, it's both practical and sensible to move on to something
> more rewarding if we have any choice in the matter.
> 
> This is especially true when it seems it could or should have
> been written more clearly. If the writer didn't think it important
> enough to do some hard writing to make for easier reading,
> well, I trust their judgement.
> 
> Most people on this list are smarter than the average bear.
> We read and write copiously for a living. If I find a
> document difficult to read, it might be for any of the good
> reasons listed above. But 'rubbish' is often a useful first
> approximation for us busy readers.
> 
> ---
> Stuart "If a job's worth writing, it's worth writing well" Burnfield
> 
> 
> Chris said:
> 
> >> ... intellegent people, when they come across something 'unfamilar'
> >> will immediately pop into vanity mode - thinking to themselves, they
> >> are intelligent and they cannot understand X then X must be rubbish and
> >> immediately dismissed - since, they are, after all, intelligent.



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