Re:Writing tools I learned from The Economist
by specialist on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @10:21AM
(#26712081)
If I was King: Default assumption that statements are generalizations, unless explicitly stated otherwise. To preempt pedantry.
eg
Programmers => Programmers in general, with many obvious exceptions, too numerous to list in a brief reply.
All Programmers => All Programmers
PS- Hmmm. Now I wonder if any style guides cover this? Surely some do.
Re:Writing tools I learned from The Economist
by iainmerrick on Tuesday April 06, 2021 @01:10PM
(#26714489)
I suppose insisting on both “most”s is a bit pedantic, but I also think it’s nice rhetoric -- reminds me of “you can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time.”
I agree that this is smart editing that preserves the original meaning well. The one decision I question is simplifying your nicely-phrased “Most programmers spend most of their time attaching these disparate blocks together” to just “most programmers spend their time [...]”