Well now Jacob, can we try to be rigorous?
Fewer characters Jacob, FEWER...!!!
Sent from my iPhone
On 31 Dec 2015, at 18:11, Keller, Jacob <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> All fictional of course
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> Is reviewer #1 real? If so, I am somewhat sympathetic, since I like saying "migs per mill" (personally preferred over "migs per emmell"). Alliteration is a good thing. The purist in me, however, has always wondered why g/L is not the preferred unit, since the m's should cancel. Also needs two less characters. But I think things that are hard to say are somehow harder to read as well, but maybe that is a peculiarity of how I read silently, which is similar to reading out loud. I therefore disfavor names of proteins like Aar2gamma^6lemonZz and prefer names like crambin.
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> While we're on the topic--has there been any movement to get rid of strange characters (e.g. alpha, hbar, angstrom A) and hard-to-type mathematical notations (even sub- and superscripts) in favor of easily-type-able forms? Seems that huge amounts of time, difficulty, powerpoint snafus, and miscommunications could be thereby avoided.
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> The main rule in writing I recall from Strunk and White is not to use things that distract from smooth flow of the intended meaning into the mind of the reader. It seems that basically all writing style flows from this principle.
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> JPK
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