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Friday, May 16, 2008

Where writing goes to die

I quote the following Andrew Sullivan post in full simply as an example of bad writing:
Totten on Yon. I've been struck by a few recent movements in Iraq, especially Maliki's resilience. It seems to me that the core conservative position on Iraq needs to be skeptical and empirical. That means constantly reviewing our judgments in the wake of new facts and a basic truth: just because George W. Bush supports something doesn't mean it's inevitably bullshit. Just likely bullshit. But in Iraq, things appear to be getting more complex and less obviously doomed. It helps no one not to see this, least of all the troops. The long-term consequences of staying there indefinitely remain awful. But the possibility of a less traumatic departure needs to be grasped if we can.
Note the choppiness of sentence flow, needless use of expletives, placement of italics on uninspired wording, juxtaposition of adverb inevitably with adjective likely, and awkward phrasing such as "a less traumatic departure needs to be grasped" (or is it just the "possibility" of such a departure we should grasp, and is that only "if we can"?).