Re: AIS: HIST: REF: Early Checklists

Sometimes I feel if I said up, Anner would find a way
to say down. The discussion which I will remind
everyone is Early checklists. And the argument I have
been trying to present is that when possible it is
better not to abbreviate because it makes it much more
difficult for universal accessibility.

How this has been twisted to the thought that I am
dumbing down communication I havent a clue. I am
advocating the use of polysyllabic words in place of
letters and symbols. I have always thought that the
use of abbreviations, jargon and clichis were always a
way of thinking on automatic and not always real
thoughts. I would call it the modern artificial
intelligence.

I realize that the 39 checklist had to cram a lot onto
a page. But when we present it as entries on the
internet I would hope that there would be the space to
actually use words instead of symbols. How each of us
chooses to write and speak is our own business. If
people dont understand us than we may, or may not,
care. If we are really interested in communicating
than I guess we have to find a way. But if we are just
writing for our own amusement, than who cares.  

--- ChatOWhitehall@aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 8/2/2007 7:43:56 PM Eastern
> Daylight Time,  
> steve@familyszabo.com writes:
> 
> <<There are lists on which I am far more active in
> posting than  on this list.
> From time to time, I hear that my posts are too hard
> to  understand,
> though they are written in plain, good American
> English, and  state
> exactly what I mean so there can be no
> misunderstanding.
>  
> This business of criticizing personal modes of
> expression is  something I 
> have observed to be associated with mailing lists 
> generally.Certainly in the 
> social circles in which I move --by which I mean 
> real life-- it would be 
> considered presumptuous in the  extreme and
> downright incivil to take someone to task 
> for  their deployment of language where that
> language was not obscene,  
> psychologically violent, or otherwise inherently
> objectionable. 
>  
> I can't imagine expecting anyone in a forum such as
> this to  package his or 
> her ideas to my preferences or my  limitations. They
> get to be themselves, and 
> I get to read  their posts, or ignore them. 
>  
> << This urge to make things simple, I think,
> probably comes  from our
> educational systems, where teachers are forced to
> teach to the  lowest
> common denominator, rather than stretching students
> to think and  achieve
> more than they would otherwise. (Well, that is what
> I hear from  the
> three teachers in my family, your mileage may vary.)
> 
>  
> It also comes from that American streak of
> anti-intellectualism we are  told 
> is part of our Puritan heritage--or someone's
> Puritan heritage, not  mine, I 
> am a Virginian and we were settled by the Cavaliers,
> not Roundheads,  thank 
> goodness, and we have our own ideas about what is
> seemly and nice. We  don't mind 
> idiosyncratic verbosity, indeed if someone gets
> going real good we  will 
> stand up on our chairs and cheer them on, but we
> can't  abide self-appointed hall 
> monitors.
>  
> Cordially,
>  
> Anner Whitehead
> Richmond VA USA 
>  
>  
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ************************************** Get a sneak
> peek of the all-new AOL at 
> http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour
> 
>
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