FIRST:

The suggestion:

Control A Delete

When you write a response to something, can you please delete the original response if you don't plan to comment specifically on one sentence or paragraph.

You can also start writing above the old comments if you don't feel like deleting them.

Most of us really hate having to scroll all the way down the page to find the comments people have written to a previous article.

The easiest way to delete the previous article is to hold down the control key and the letter A key, while you hit the delete key.

Second... what language did you speak first? You write like a German. It would be easier for most of us red necks if you could use three or four sentences instead of one long one. I don't know about the rest of the readers. But all that aluminum, floride and aspartame, not to mention Mad Cow prions, have affected my ability to remember the first of your sentence by the time I get to the end of your sentence.

The purpose of sharing our "pieces of the puzzle" is to try to help each other understand what is going on. If we can't understand you piece of the puzzle, then what use is it?

One of my teachers used to tell me to write as if I were writing for a student in middle school. She said that most people read at that level, and if I wanted to get my point across to the largest number of people, I should write at that level rather than flaunt my PhD.

If you notice, most magazines are written at this level. When you write for PhDs, you get a smaller section of the pie. And since I doubt it would do the world any good even if we woke up ALL the PhDs in the world, I followed my teacher's advice and taught myself how to write for normal people in language that everyone can understand.

I found an old college paper the other day. I had written an analysis of a poem. I had NO idea what I said. But the paper got an A. Sometimes I think that the colleges in the 60's and 70's were experimenting with creating a whole group of people who wrote things that no one could understand. Unfortunately that group of people just had control of our government for the last 8 years.

Which brings me to a stunning realization. While Clinton may always use the right verb in his sentences, rather than the mangled sentences George W. constructs.... but... we NEVER knew what the verbs meant when Clinton used them.

Hopefully, George W. will follow my teacher's advice and talk and write like he was talking and writing to middle schoolers. Then most of the American people could understand him.

And Tau, if you could write that way too, maybe I could understand you!

If your original language was German, I understand why you write this way. If you are simply a product of education, then you too can be saved!

The question for you is: Are you writing for just the chosen few? Or do you want the rest of the "great unwashed" to understand you?

Bill