On Sat, Oct 26, 2002 at 10:35:02AM -0700, Michael Nellis wrote:
> Hi, Mike.
> 
> --- BardMock{at}aol.com wrote:
> 
> > Apparently, I'm assuming my readers are more savvy than they
> > actually are
> 
> That's what I do to avoid dumbing down.  When I get to a passage I'm
> not sure how to write I always firmly tell myself, "always assume the
> reader is a little bit smarter than you are."

I think that's a good policy.  If readers whom you know to be
smarter than you are don't get it, then you know you miscalibrated
or just wrote it badly, but I think that's a much better baseline
than, "Readers aren't as smart as me."

Sorry to have been absent from the other fascinating discussion
here (and sorry you got hurt, Quinn), but, well, Paul Wellstone
is dead, and that's kind of occupying all my attention.

-- 

Pamela Dean Dyer-Bennet           (pddb{at}demesne.com)
"I will open my heart to a blank page
   and interview the witnesses."  John M. Ford, "Shared World"

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