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> while there are times during the course of the project when it may appear
>that I could care less for the content as long as it looks right, that's not
>the case; I'm simply building the "box" to put the content into.
This isn't the situation that I'm talking about.
It's one thing to prepare to write. Anyone who has written professionally for
any length of time soon learns that the physical act of writing is only a
relatively brief part of the process, and that time spent in preparation means
a slow start but a quicker overall time.
I'm referring to things like building an elaborate theoretical structure before
even starting to outline, or agonizing for hours over whether to use a period
rather than a semi-colon or a hyphen in a word like email. It's not that these
concerns aren't part of writing. To the contrary, they are part of any writer's
concern. It's the totemization of these concerns that I'm referring to, the
defensive use of grammar as though it were a bit of arcane lore that only the
illluminati can understand. It's the focus of these things to the exclusion of
deadlines or content. These are the kinds of behavior that non-writers find
high-handed, and they're right. These are the acts of the poseur and
dilettante, not of the professional writer.
> I do think the final appearance/usability/etc. of the document matters; but
> all that takes a back seat to the quality of the content.
Of course it does. Did I ever say otherwise? It's not a matter of one aspect of
writing being important and other aspects unimportant. The problem is the lack
of balance between the aspects - especially when the lack of balance is used as
a self-defensive elitism.
--
Bruce Byfield bbyfield -at- axionet -dot- com 604-421.7177
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