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Subject:RE: Death knell for quality content? From:"Leonard C. Porrello" <Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- SoleraTec -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:38:36 -0700
Will Sansbury wrote:
>Good writing removes any inflated sense of its own worth (as "expert
>outsider" implies) in favor of clarity, concision, and transparency.
Granted you are talking about expository writing, not literature or
poetry, in which circumlocution, overstatement, and trope, as well as
the particular nature of the opacity of a verse, can be used to convey
meaning.
Leonard C. Porrello
SoleraTec LLC
www.soleratec.com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+leonard -dot- porrello=soleratec -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- c
om] On Behalf Of Will Sansbury
Sent: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 1:28 PM
To: 'Lauren'; john -at- garisons -dot- com; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Death knell for quality content?
Lauren wrote:
> I think that what is happening is that people want to see
> articles written by people like themselves and not articles
> that seem like they were written by an expert or an outsider
> looking in. The average person has average writing ability
> and will make grammatical and other writing errors. So,
> content that is less than perfect is more palatable and
> approachable than content that is polished.
"Expert outsider" and "polished" are hardly synonymous!
Good writing removes any inflated sense of its own worth (as "expert
outsider" implies) in favor of clarity, concision, and transparency. I
wouldn't call writing that lacks those three qualities "polished."
The thing about good writing is that when people read it, they don't
have to
stop to figure out if it's good or not. The writing itself should recede
so
that the message, and not its delivery, occupies the reader's thoughts.
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Leonard -dot- Porrello -at- soleratec -dot- com -dot-
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