[Dixielandjazz] Clarity of writing (was TIPS)

Dan Augustine ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu
Fri Mar 7 10:27:31 PST 2003


>Date: Fri, 07 Mar 2003 10:45:13 -0500
>From: Stephen Barbone <barbonestreet at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: [Dixielandjazz] TIPS
><snip>
>My comments and others in the USA about tips must have been misunderstood also.
 <snip>
>I think we are probably agreeing here, and my poor
>command of the English language, which I readily admit and about which list
>mate Charlie Hooks often admonishes me, may have led us down the garden path.
>Cheers,
>Steve
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Hey, y'all--
    Why don't we cut each other a little more slack regarding the supposed lack of clarity in our writing?  I think Steve writes very well, and i didn't have any trouble understanding his points.  Seems like sometimes we tend deliberately to misunderstand so that we can trumpet (at last: a musical reference!) our own thoughts.
    A putative communication has at least two ends: the speaker and the audience.  Maybe we need to work a little harder trying to understand what others are saying, rather than automatically filtering their words through our own fine-meshed prejudices and assumptions.  Email is about half-way between speech and writing anyway, and typos and other cognitive noise can occur on anyone's part.  Nobody's perfec. 

    Dan
-- 
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**  Dan Augustine  -  ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  -  Austin, Texas **
**  "The less a science is advanced, the more its terminology tends  **
**   to rest on an uncritical assumption of mutual understanding."   **
**             -- Willard V. Quine in _Word and Object_              **
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**  Dan Augustine     Austin, Texas     ds.augustine at mail.utexas.edu  **
**    "Not everything that a man knoweth can be disclosed, nor can    **
**     everything that he can disclose be regarded as timely, nor can **
**     every timely utterance be considered as suited to capacity of  **
**     those who hear it."  -- Baha'u'llah                            **
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