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Subject:Re: re Relevancy of grammar? Techwr-l tie-in! From:"Dick Margulis" <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Sun, 13 May 2001 07:33:54 -0400
Mark Levinson <MarkL -at- gilian -dot- com> wrote:
>
>But what about the lists that handle Acrobat, Word, Online Help,
>and FrameMaker better, and the people who would rather not have
>to filter out discussions of other people's tools?
>
Interesting point. Grammar is just another tool, too, right? Here's the approach I usually try to take:
1. Tool I don't use? Delete.
2. Tool I use, newbie question I know the answer to, not of general interest? Answer off-list.
3. Tool I use, question that might be of general interest? Answer briefly on-list. Any doubts? Answer off-list.
4. Tool I use and don't know the answer to the question? Monitor thread for someone else to answer.
Mark, I don't think it is necessary for each of us to subscribe to half a dozen lists in order to get questions answered. It's reasonable to post a question here, in the expectation that it might be answered off-list. What gets tedious is when an easy question (even if the answer is the standard pick one and stay consistent) receives a dozen identical answers on-list, plus another dozen identical answers opposite to the first dozen, plus a lengthy thread on whether any of this was necessary.
Now I completely agree that most questions can be answered by checking a reference--even the manual, if push comes to shove--and that there truly is such a thing as a stupid question, no matter the protestations to the contrary of our primary school teachers. But the rules of the list prohibit ad nauseum _discussions_ of grammatical questions; they don't, as I read them, prohibit asking the questions in the first place, in the reasonable expectation that a quick question will receive one quick answer.
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