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Designed for Use
book

Designed for Use

by Lukas Mathis
June 2011
Intermediate to advanced
344 pages
8h 35m
English
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Content preview from Designed for Use

Sentences Should Have One Obvious Interpretation

Avoid sentences that can be interpreted in two different ways and sentences that lure your readers into an improper understanding when they have read only part of them.

Readers try to make sense of sentences before they reach the period at the end. Some sentences can mislead the reader.[19]

Consider the first few words of this headline:[20]

“Burger King fries the holy grail...”

Now why would Burger King fry the holy grail? The sentence’s meaning becomes clear when you finish reading it:

“Burger King fries the holy grail for potato farmers”

Ah, the fries are the holy grail. It’s still not entirely unambiguous, but the meaning is reasonably obvious now.

Reading such a sentence requires more work ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 9781941222980Errata