Re: "It Ain't Literature, Y'know"

[Sarah Lee Bihlmayer <sarahlee -at- CONTENTMANAGE -dot- COM>]

Tori writes:

>     My problem is this:  yesterday, I pointed out to a co-worker that I
>     thought the sentence structure he was using in a particular procedure
>     was incorrect.
<snip>
>     He said, "we ain't writing
>     literature, you know."  He said that he had given the matter a great
>     deal of thought and decided that this was the best way to handle the
>     situation.  He said that if he wrote,

>                        Pound the nail into the wall with a hammer.

>     someone might use their head to pound the nail with rather than read
>     to the end of the sentence.  Instead, he prefers to write:

>                        Using a hammer, pound the nail into the wall.
>                        or
>                        Using columnar spacers, place the ....

To me, this construction is somewhat unwieldy.  If it's important to
emphasize the use of the hammer, I think there's a cleaner way to express
that.  Here's a solution that both of you might be satisfied with:

                        Use a hammer to pound the nail into the wall.

Your coworker _really_ doesn't trust the audience to have a bit of common
sense if he truly believes they'd use their heads instead of a hammer--but
might as well try to compromise for the sake of harmony.

Hope this helps.


Sarah


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