who did a decent if not completely outstanding job as coach I think I am going to avoid this sort of construction in writing until it becomes much less ambiguous. The misinterpretation by mcgillianaire was (I'm guessing) because he read your clause like this:
He did a decent-- Nay, better than that: completely outstanding job as coach.
You, however, meant to say:
He did a decent, albeit not completely outstanding, job as coach.
It works well enough in speech, because the emphasis tells you which meaning is intended. It can be horribly ambiguous in writing though.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2006-07-06 10:17 pm (UTC)I think I am going to avoid this sort of construction in writing until it becomes much less ambiguous. The misinterpretation by mcgillianaire was (I'm guessing) because he read your clause like this:
He did a decent-- Nay, better than that: completely outstanding job as coach.
You, however, meant to say:
He did a decent, albeit not completely outstanding, job as coach.
It works well enough in speech, because the emphasis tells you which meaning is intended. It can be horribly ambiguous in writing though.