Assume v. Presume

Well, I suppose if anyone is using a teletype to read your text, you are probably right to do that. However they are also likely to be displaying a non-proportional, non-serif font which will be quite difficult to read anyway. Can't find a non-serif font.:(
 
I suppose that strictly one should write so that it makes sense without commas as is done in legal documents. Commas are then supplied just to guide the style of reading.
 
I find legal documents (wills) incredibly difficult to read; a sprinkling of punctuation would make no end of difference. I have been meaning to find out whether it is a fad of the legal profession to leave them out, or if it is prohibited somehow.

Assuming the latter, in the documents I have read I guess the skill of the writer has failed to overcome the unavailability of punctuation.

I can't agree though; although the punctuation guides how the words should be spoken, in purely written language it disambiguates the extent of clauses and subclauses etc.
 
Take a couple of days rest from the forum and we've moved on a lot. However, must comment on this:
MikeSh said:
But I was told off a page or two back for not keeping the subject UK only, so we won't go there :oops:
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If you were referring to...
EEPhil said:
Most members are from the UK, so this seemed to be an obvious restriction.
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That wasn't a telling off, it was an explanation of why I mentioned UK ships.
 
Mike0001 said:
I notice you [BH] sometimes even use the anachronism of underlining to avoid font modifiers. Underlining is appropriate for hand written or typed documents, but deprecated in other circumstances, eg, printed and electronic documents, such as here.
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I also underline things. I didn't know it was deprecated. Shame that, I wanted to confuse people by making them think it was a hyperlink - :oops:
 
EEPhil said:
I also underline things. I didn't know it was deprecated. Shame that, I wanted to confuse people by making them think it was a hyperlink - :oops:
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Use a blue colour for the text too!

Actually, the underlined blue is just a function of the style sheet these days.

Historical trivia: underlining was a Mosaic thing, blue appeared with the first colour screens. Tim Berners Lee preferred green. I prefer no underline as it makes text look ugly. Just a subtle italic colour is sufficient.

Didn't the underline used to vanish after clicking a link? So get rid of it entirely.
 
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MikeSh said:
I suppose that strictly one should write so that it makes sense without commas as is done in legal documents. Commas are then supplied just to guide the style of reading.
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Surely one should write so that it makes sense.
Black Hole said:
I can't agree though; although the punctuation guides how the words should be spoken, in purely written language it disambiguates the extent of clauses and subclauses etc.
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:thumbsup:If punctuation aids understanding, then use it.

As for using a legal document as an examplar of good practice - :rolling:
 
Black Hole said:
in purely written language it disambiguates the extent of clauses and subclauses etc
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Brackets are so much more designed for that. They clearly define the {beginning and end of a clause}. We should switch to brackets. It just needs a bit of work...
 
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That's completely up the creek, but there speaks a mathematician (or a coder)! I can't vouch for what anyone else does, but I reserve parentheses for asides.
 
Mike0001 said:
Brackets are so much more designed for that.
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I have a habit of writing in this form (as you may have noticed [if you haven't, it doesn't matter]) - but sometimes I like to use a dash. Confusing enough?
Black Hole said:
That's completely up the creek, but there speaks a mathematician (or a coder)! I can't vouch for what anyone else does, but I reserve parentheses for asides.
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B*g**r! You posted before I finished. I think my usage above is an aside (or two).
Don't get me started on brackets and coding.
 
Mike0001 said:
It should be an emdash in that context. This is AvsP after all!
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I was writing emdash, but then I thought - I just use the bog-standard negative sign on the keyboard, so it's just a dash. I started to add that explanation. Then I decided to edit that out of my contribution, thinking it was irrelevant. Sometimes, you just can't win. :laugh:
 
You mean you are actually prepared to talk to your iPad (or whatever)? I can't think of anything worse (even if I'm alone)!
 
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