On May 13, 2004, at 5:37 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
It is completely ridiculous to say that because the verbs in a recipe are in the imperative mood, they are inherently POV. The imperative mood can be instructive by nature, and does not imply an order to do things that will be enforced by anybody. If you don't follow the recipe the meal may be a flop, but the cook proceeds at his own risk. We have a general disclaimer which should apply when the recipe doesn't work.
The mood is not, for me, the issue. Certainly, the imperative mood is useful in such articles. However, there is a difference between the only way to do it and the "best" way to do it. If there is a finite number (such as one) of ways to do something (such as replace a bulb in a particular lamp), all of these should be documented or none at all. Anything else is POV.
Recipes are tricky. If you provide a recipe for chocolate cake as a "chocolate cake" recipe, that's POV: you're asserting that *this* is chocolate cake. If you include "Le Grand Pain's famous chocolate cake recipe", that's the only one of *those*. It's all in the presentation.
Peter
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