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Subject:Terseness/rudeness From:NarrWriter -at- aol -dot- com To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 10 May 2001 11:26:09 EDT
This so much depends on the audience for which the piece is intended. Full
spelling and full expression can indicate the overly formal, to many short
cuts and abbreviations can indicate the overly familiar - that chatty quality
that can grate like fingernails across a chalkboard.
It may be more a question of what is acceptable in the jargon of your
clients. I prefer to use the term concise - removal of all that is
superfluous. Terse implies conciseness that is pointed an elegant. If one
were laconic, one would be succinct to the ponit of being brusque, curt,
mystifying. If that's what you want to avoid - don't be laconic. But do, by
all means, be concise or terse or pithy. It respects the readers time.
Rodger Parsons
NarrWriter - Voicing the Writen Word
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