A Word to the Wise
rogersgeorge on January 10th, 2019
I’ve mentioned in the past that ambiguity is bad except in poetry. (For more on this topic, put “ambiguity” in the search box in the upper right corner.) When you explain something, you want to be clear. I ran into someone pointing this out in a recent Delaware Mensa newsletter, DelaMensa:
I read the newspaper everyday. —Is that past tense or current tense? Did you read that as “I red” or “I reed”? Both are valid. Context is usually helpful, but what if the paragraph started with that?
He suggested a solution, too. Context. I’m a little wordier; I say rewrite the sentence.
Write your sentences so they aren’t ambiguous!
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