On Feb 24, 2004, at 11:51 PM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Peter Jaros wrote:
Giving a recipe for a particular chocolate cake would not serve to describe chocolate cake. If one recipe was particularly famous, however, it might merit its own section (or possibly article; I'd like to try *that* cake) where the recipe *would* be descriptive. It's a subtle distinction, but an important one. It comes through to readers, if only in terms of a sense of the style.
That's very patronizing of you.
Sorry, I worded that poorly. What I meant that the distinction may not jump out at casual readers, but it sounds better nonetheless. As analogy, using the wrong word in a sentence and making the sentence meaningless is obvious to even a casual reader, while using casual language in a formal setting is often "felt" while not directly noticed. It can take a bit of working with a sentence to figure out what in it sounds too casual (or too formal, or awkward, etc.).
Peter
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