Imran Ghory wrote:
On Tue, 11 May 2004, Ray Saintonge wrote:
So a description of how a food is made is encyclopedic, but instructions on how to make that food are not encyclopedic.
The descriptive/prescriptive distinction is very narrow in this case. I prefer to avoid a pompous definition of what is encyclopedic.
Not really, the instructive case tells you how to make a specific version of a food product but the descriptive case tells you how it is made in general.
To look at a very simple case consider boiling rice, a specific recipe could tell you to use a kettle to pre-boil water, another could state the entire procedure should be done on a hob, yet another could suggest using a microwave. And that's before you start considering things such as whether you should add salt and how much you should add.
On the other hand a descriptive version could just be "the rice is heated in boiling water".
These descriptions of different procedures for prparing rice are clearly all encyclopedic, though that last sentence may be too superficial for inclusion.
Ec