• thefartographer@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Asshole replies aside: I took a technical writing course in which we learned that people struggle talking to Americans because we are obsessed with using negatives as a form of emphasis. How are you doing? Not bad! Thank you! No problem. Do you mind doing me a favor? Not at all!

      This is especially difficult who already struggle with affirmatives and then need to translate the negative. Combine this with Americans’ constant need to appeal to power, you get headlines like “Goliath Loses Battle to David With a Stone,” or “No one saw This Heat Coming,” or “What You’re Probably Doing Wrong With Your Used Toilet Paper.”

    • 𝔇𝔦𝔬@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Because immediately stating the state lost in a headline has more impact. Do you not grasp writing.

      Either way it exclaims the same thing so your gripe is moot.

      • GivingEuropeASpook@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I do grasp writing, that is specifically why I asked this question, because the headline framing it as a loss is negative to people who aren’t already supportive of climate action.

        • half_built_pyramids@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I do grasp writing, that is specifically why I asked this question, because the headline framing it as a loss is negative to people who aren’t already supportive of climate action.

          That’s a lot of sentence. I would’ve used em dashes or maybe a semicolon to break up those thoughts.