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> While I agree in theory, you have to take a good hard look
> at the possibility that the reader will notice the error.
Or stumble over the sentence, which is what I think happens more often.
> In a matter of (nearly) universal agreement, such as subject/
> verb agreement or using an adverb to modify a verb, then yes,
> the average reader will notice and may experience some
> cognitive dissonance as a result of the error. But in the
> area of a comma splice??? I'd wager that fewer than 1% of
> my target audience realize that this is not a perfectly
> acceptable construction.
>
If they don't stumble, then yes, I agree it's not a big problem, but
often readers stumble over text that is idiosyncratic. I do, and I know
other people who do, also. They have to read a sentence at least twice
to understand it. That's the point for me -- not some lofty "theory" for
the theory's sake. It's for the usefulness of the documents, because
idiosyncratic text slows down comprehension.
> And language changes - sometimes faster for our audience
> than for us. As I said at the end of my post - the "comma
> then" construction is so ubiquitous - especially in software
> docs - that doing it the "right" way may indeed cause more
> consternation than does the error.
>
Indeed, I think in some cases this is true. ; ) Like half our entire
language!!
Bonnie Granat
www.GranatEdit.com
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
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