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is this topic still going well remember that oral and written
communication are actually different and if you have three choices for a
sentence and two are grammatically correct and one is not and all three
are clear concise and unambiguous and your reason for not writing the
correct one is only that when you personally speak the sentence you dont
pause as much as the correct grammar would indicate to you then i
suggest you consider your approach to writing in general for it might be
that none of the common underpinnings of the written language really
work for you personally when you speak and you might just prefer to
chuck the lot as for me im open to breaking a rule on a consistent basis
if i have a good reason to but you know your audience so if theyre going
to judge incorrect grammar in light of your speaking preferences then go
for it i do however recommend you be consistent in that approach cheers
sean
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sbrierley=accu-time -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sbrierley=accu-time -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Sarah Blake
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 4:35 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: "and then," or simply "then"?
> And, certainly, in the example you prefer, you are using "then" as a
> conjunction. Why not use a semicolon?
Because it seems to stop the sentence in its tracks.
When speaking out loud, I just don't leave as much of a pause before
'then' as I do other adverbs. In 'click Gimfratz; afterwards* click OK'
I leave quite a long pause between the clauses, to let whoever I'm
talking to get through with clicking Gimfratz before I go on to
introduce the concept of clicking OK. It's two entirely separate steps.
But clicking Gimfratz and /then/ clicking OK is one single step that
comes in two parts. Somewhere between two steps and one; somewhere
between adverb and conjunction.
And why /does/ it have to be one or the other? The human mind doesn't
work in terms of discrete categories, why should the language that
reflects it be forced to?
Sarah Blake
(Apparently working towards applying the Exemplar Theory to anything
that doesn't run away fast enough)
* Please tell me 'afterwards' is an adverb. I can't see why it wouldn't
be - it's doing exactly the same job as 'then', right? - but I live in
terror of having completely missed some fine grammatical distinction.
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