[WikiEN-l] Being bold doesn't work anymore, or why our prose is so bad.

[Adrian]

William Pietri schrieb:
> I think the problem here isn't with writing skills; it's with reading 
> skills.
>
> Every good writer I know is a great reader. Most people are, by 
> definition, average readers, and so I think they literally can't tell 
> the difference between a mediocre article and a great one. When they 
> make a change, they make it to the best of their ability, but those 
> changes become more and more likely to look like a step backwards from 
> an expert perspective.
>
> As far as I can tell, this is a fundamental problem with our current 
> model. I look forward to seeing how stable versioning gets implemented, 
> as it could help bad writing a little. But it doesn't get rid of the 
> fundamental problem, which is that most writing decisions get made based 
> on the personal opinions of whomever shows up.
>
> To fix that, I think we'd need to move to a model based more on either 
> evidence or authority.
>
> William
>   
I couldn't agree more, both with this position and the fact that it 
touches on some very important issues.