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Subject:an harmless adornment From:Tom Little <LITTLE_TOM_H -at- OFVAX -dot- LANL -dot- GOV> Date:Fri, 13 Jan 1995 09:39:00 MDT
> "Yet many speakers and writers today prefer the sound of *an*
> before historic, which a usage note in 'The American Heritage
> Dictionary,' third edition, calls 'a harmless adornment in
> formal writing.'"
> So there you have it: a harmless adornment. Let personal
> preference rule.
Harmless, that is, unless it makes your readers see you as a pompous, ignorant
snob with pretensions of aristocracy. Which is a possibility.
Tom Tadfor Little | "They called me
Technical Writer/Editor | 'the quiet one' because
Los Alamos National Laboratory | I just didn't have anything
little_tom_h -at- ofvax -dot- lanl -dot- gov | to say" -- George Harrison, 1987.
