On Tue, 29 Jan 2019 13:48:40 -0500, Joy Beeson
wrote:

On Mon, 28 Jan 2019 08:25:51 +0700, John B. Slocomb
wrote:

As for making it shorter... I suggest that it takes a certain number
of words to clearly explain any act and editing may well make it
shorter but at the expense of clarity.

My writing is usually much clearer after I delete not-to-the-point
remarks.

One has to beware of making an explanation more clear than the thing
being explained. "Always cling desperately to the ragged edge of the
pavement no matter what." is much clearer than an explanation of how
to decide when to ride where.

I think that there is a difference between making a clear explanation
of the fact or action and making an overly detailed and complex
description. One also has to take the audience into consideration.

For example one might say, "hold the nail with one hand and hit it on
the head", which seems perfectly clear to anyone that knows what a
nail is and what one used to hit it with but might well be a bit
obscure to others.

Or even an instruction to, "first scale the fish" :-)



https://blog.fabrics-store.com/2015/...l-olive-dress/

While letting this post cool a bit, I read a sewing tutorial.

Down in the comments someone asked what was meant by adding an inch at
each seam -- and was totally ignored. (How much work is it to write,
instead of "one inch at each seam", "one inch, divided among the
seams"?)

As an example of what I wrote above I would admit that the direction
"one inch divided among the seams" is a totally meaningless statement
to me.

Later on, someone commented that enlarging a pattern by adding to the
side seams wouldn't work, and would make the armholes huge. The
response? "The reason we have decided to use this method for size
grading is because not everyone who read this blog might be as
competent a sewer as others, so we try to simplify the pattern so the
seams are all mostly very straight and easy to follow, and suggesting
this method for grading, so no difficult instructions might deter any
new sewers away. However you are correct as referring to not all the
seams can be enlarged simply by just adding an inch."

At least the person confused by the "clear" instructions won't get
killed while following them. |An ugly dress that looks as though you
had cut a neck hole in a burlap sack, yes. They even chose a
burlap-color fabric to make the model.| (note not-to-the-point remark
in |pipes|.)

And all they needed was a picture of the pattern pieces with lines
drawn where you cut and spread. (Back when I bought my patterns, they
came with these lines printed on.) A few paragraphs of explanation
would be helpful (if written by anyone not on the staff at
Fabrics-store.com), but not essential. *That* "tutorial" should have
been the first one they published.


Cheers,
John B.