[asterisk-biz] Mike Diehl-Fax Service

[Alex Balashov]

On 03/30/2010 10:47 PM, Don Kelly wrote:

> I agree with much of what you say regarding judging the quality of a
> potential vendor by how carefully they express themselves, but I don't think
> it's appropriate for anyone to adopt the role of critic unless the person
> being critiqued has requested that service.

That goes back to my first argument, the gist of which is basically that 
someone has to do it.

> Setting oneself up as an arbiter of linguistic perfection

...with the caveat that I made no such claim or expressed this aspiration.

That would be really rich, if for no other reason than that English 
isn't my first language, either.

I still think it's reasonable for me to argue that there is a 
discernable difference between well-written - if imperfect - English and 
indolent drivel.  Your nitpicking of my own grammatical anomalies and 
punctuation may be an attempt to obscure that argument, but it does not 
undermine it.

> invites others to question why you use two spaces after a semicolon,

It goes with the frequently encountered convention of double space 
separation in e-mail so that sentences are easier to visually separate.

> use hyphens instead of dashes

Bad habit, because they're so frequently used interchangeably in 
monospace font absent the clarity conferred by proper typesetting.

> and use a structure like "are both (1) necessary and (2) don't set
> themselves."

Conventions of this nature are present in nearly everyone's casual 
writing.  They are not grammatically sanctioned.

> What does "as regards" mean? It must be a colloquialism in your area.

It is an idiom, but I have trouble envisioning it a colloquialism in the 
American southeast.

See entry 27 here: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/as

I don't know its origin.

> If you think proofreading by a native speaker is a good idea, why the
> English-English spelling of "demeanour," "actualise" and "anatomising"?

I learned English orthography mostly from British literature, and some 
of that still remains.

In a word, your critique is keen, but the larger argument encapsulating 
it seems to stem from the mistaken premise that I have deemed myself 
either an arbiter or a shining example of anything.  That really does my 
argument a disservice by hyperbolising it.

-- 
Alex Balashov - Principal
Evariste Systems LLC

Tel    : +1 678-954-0670
Direct : +1 678-954-0671
Web    : http://www.evaristesys.com/