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From: regard@ttidcc.UUCP (Adrienne Regard)
Newsgroups: net.flame
Subject: poor English
Message-ID: <278@ttidcc.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 19-Mar-85 11:05:37 EST
Article-I.D.: ttidcc.278
Posted: Tue Mar 19 11:05:37 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 21-Mar-85 04:35:49 EST
Organization: TTI, Santa Monica, CA.
Lines: 17


>In fact, most people are careless about English usage in most
>circumstances.  I don't take the trouble to ensure a note to my milkman
>is clothed in faultless grammar, as long as I'm sure the message will be
>understood.  And even our revered Founding Fathers were not above
>slovenly usage:
>             ... in order to form a more perfect union ...
>violates Fowler's sensibilities, but it gets the point across.

Don't worry about Fowler - he was one of the most off-base of them all.

I'd worry instead about writing to my mailman.  Fuzzy grammar indicates
fuzzy thinking (course, if you are writing at 3 am, it probably is fuzzy
thinking).  See LESS THAN WORDS CAN SAY, Mitchell.  That one is under-
stood is certainly a goal.  To be clear is another, related but different,
goal that may be more important because it contributes to one's own
development, kills the worms in the brain.