Re: Convince vs. Persuade (WAS: Displays versus Appears )
At the risk of sounding Zen-like: if you're the only one who
recognizes the distinction, is the distinction worth making? Or is
it simply wasted effort past a certain point? When a majority of
people miss the nuances you're trying to distinguish, then maybe the
time has come to admit defeat.
I have a much-older cousin whose nickname is Shakespeare. He's a PhD in English Lit. Much too brilliant for his own good. I sat at his table at a family picnic, long ago. The guy would be carrying on a perfectly normal conversation with someone, but under his breath, he would be punning hilariously in response to pretty much every conversation going on around him. I listened to him do it for quite a while.
No one reacted in any way to the punning; it was clear they did not get it. I only got a few, it was like machine-gun fire and I couldn't process all of them. I must have been like 9 or 10. I asked, "Why do you keep on doing this? No one notices." He said "I notice."
Bruce, there is no way for us to know whether or not we are the only ones making a particular distinction. However, there's no harm in making the distinctions in case it does make something clearer for some discerning reader.
--Emily
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