To those of you who use aterisks in your posts for *emphasis*:
Please reconsider. Not only does this practice weaken the impact
of what you are saying, it's annoying as hell to have all those
things buzzzing around on the page like flies. Swat! Let your
words speak for themselves.

Billy,

Thanks for offering your literary suggestion.

I don't use asterisks in my RAH posts as a tool to express emphasis,
but to express a degree of irony or even sarcasm.

In my opinion, if anyone believes that their writing is enhanced by any
particular writing technique or style, then they should go ahead and
use it. As long as what you are saying is clear, that is all that
matters.

Meanwhile, a reader owes it to himself (not to the writer) to focus on
what is being expressed, and to resist their own prejudices regarding
how it is expressed. Afterall, clarity is the nine hundred pound
gorrila that the writer must wrestle to the ground, while sophism or
intellectual narrowness is the reader's. Otherwise the attempt to
communicate, or to receive a communication, becomes a personally wasted
exercise.

Nonetheless, I apologise for any feelings which may be provoked by my
previous posts or those I will post in the future.

Good luck.

Peter Medeco


Billy Shears wrote:
To those of you who use aterisks in your posts for *emphasis*:
Please reconsider. Not only does this practice weaken the impact
of what you are saying, it's annoying as hell to have all those
things buzzzing around on the page like flies. Swat! Let your
words speak for themselves.

In article ,
wrote:

Billy,

Thanks for offering your literary suggestion.

I don't use asterisks in my RAH posts as a tool to express emphasis,
but to express a degree of irony or even sarcasm.

But using asterisks for that is like having to explain a joke.
The moment is gone.

In my opinion, if anyone believes that their writing is enhanced by any
particular writing technique or style, then they should go ahead and
use it.

Really? So you don't mind ALL CAPS? R U shure your bein
consistant hear?

As long as what you are saying is clear, that is all that
matters.

But having a *bunch* of *asterisks* buzzing around can *mask* the
*clarity* of the *thought* by putting obstacles in the reader's
way.

Meanwhile, a reader owes it to himself (not to the writer) to focus on
what is being expressed, and to resist their own prejudices regarding
how it is expressed.

There is no such obligation. A reader reads for his own purposes,
and may well be moved to deliver a comment on what he sees as a
dismal tendency in Usenet prose.

Hey, try this on for clarity:

FOURSCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH ON *THIS*
CONTINENT A *NEW* NATION, CONCEIVED IN *LIBERTY* AND DEDICATED TO
THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED *EQUAL* .

NOW WE ARE ENGAGED IN A GREAT CIVIL WAR , TESTING WHETHER THAT
NATION OR ANY NATION SO CONCEIVED AND SO DEDICATED CAN LONG
ENDURE. WE ARE MET ON A **GREAT** BATTLEFIELD OF THAT WAR. WE
HAVE COME TO DEDICATE A PORTION OF IT AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE
FOR THOSE WHO *DIED* HERE, THAT THE NATION MIGHT *LIVE* .
THIS WE MAY, IN ALL PROPRIETY *DO*. BUT IN A LARGER SENSE, WE
*CANNOT* DEDICATE, WE *CANNOT* CONSECRATE, WE *CANNOT* HALLOW
THIS GROUND. . . . ALL IMHO OF COURSE.

On 2 Jun 2005 00:09:29 GMT, Billy Shears wrote:

In article ,
wrote:

Billy,

Thanks for offering your literary suggestion.

I don't use asterisks in my RAH posts as a tool to express emphasis,
but to express a degree of irony or even sarcasm.

But using asterisks for that is like having to explain a joke.
The moment is gone.

Not at all, the alternative is bold or italics, a common literery
device, but that's often not supported on screen fonts. Using aterisks
for emphasis is absolutely *not* like having to explain a joke. When
you read the text, does not an asterisked word *sound* louder in your
head?

In my opinion, if anyone believes that their writing is enhanced by any
particular writing technique or style, then they should go ahead and
use it.

Really? So you don't mind ALL CAPS? R U shure your bein
consistant hear?

All caps is regerded as 'shouting', and hence rude, but if it conveys
the writer's mood, then I guess it serves its purpose.

As long as what you are saying is clear, that is all that
matters.

Indeed, and while I am not 'text fluent', U R likely 2 no what I
mean, and texting has the great advantage for *any* written language
of being terse - a noted feature of English, BTW.

Could 160 characters of text be the modern Haiku? :-)

But having a *bunch* of *asterisks* buzzing around can *mask* the
*clarity* of the *thought* by putting obstacles in the reader's
way.

It certainly can when you place emphasis in the wrong place, but the
sentence above would sound just as stupid if you *spoke* it with that
ridiculous emphasis, so what's your point?

Meanwhile, a reader owes it to himself (not to the writer) to focus on
what is being expressed, and to resist their own prejudices regarding
how it is expressed.

There is no such obligation. A reader reads for his own purposes,
and may well be moved to deliver a comment on what he sees as a
dismal tendency in Usenet prose.

He may of course show himself to be an illiterate fool by so doing,
but as you say, it's his choice.................

Hey, try this on for clarity:

FOURSCORE AND SEVEN YEARS AGO OUR FATHERS BROUGHT FORTH ON *THIS*
CONTINENT A *NEW* NATION, CONCEIVED IN *LIBERTY* AND DEDICATED TO
THE PROPOSITION THAT ALL MEN ARE CREATED *EQUAL* .

Hmm, you'll strain your voice shouting *THAT* loud all day! :-)

NOW WE ARE ENGAGED IN A GREAT CIVIL WAR , TESTING WHETHER THAT
NATION OR ANY NATION SO CONCEIVED AND SO DEDICATED CAN LONG
ENDURE. WE ARE MET ON A **GREAT** BATTLEFIELD OF THAT WAR. WE
HAVE COME TO DEDICATE A PORTION OF IT AS A FINAL RESTING PLACE
FOR THOSE WHO *DIED* HERE, THAT THE NATION MIGHT *LIVE* .
THIS WE MAY, IN ALL PROPRIETY *DO*. BUT IN A LARGER SENSE, WE
*CANNOT* DEDICATE, WE *CANNOT* CONSECRATE, WE *CANNOT* HALLOW
THIS GROUND. . . . ALL IMHO OF COURSE.

47 Main Street, Gettysburg, one of the *great* addresses! :-)

BTW, an emoticon is always read with an implicit pause, so shouldn't
have been used after *DIED*, as it breaks the flow.
--

Stewart Pinkerton | Music is Art - Audio is Engineering