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Re: your mail
Matthew Hill (mhill@WATARTS.UWATERLOO.CA)
Mon, 4 Apr 1994 10:06:03 -0400
On Mon, 4 Apr 1994, John O'Brien wrote:
> I'ld like to add one comment on the whole discussion of writing
> styles. Rick Wilk has made a good point . . . good writing styles and
> good ideas are the results of two separate sets of skills. Frankly, I
> would rather struggle to comprehend the good ideas through a bad style
> . . . than I would read well written and enjoyable `pap.' However, to
> each their own.
The problem is that a bad style may conceal 'crap' quite as well as well-
written stuff can sugar-coat 'pap'.
Worse, it may even conceal the crapiness from the author.
Robert Merton's paragraph length 'translation' into english of Parson's 2
volumes of the Theory of Social Action comes to mind as an example of the
benefits of clear over murky expression of the same ideas.
Matthew Hill-
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