The Importance of "The"

Subject: The Importance of "The"
From: Scott Tiner <tiner1960 -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 14:01:24 -0700 (PDT)


I work with writers who are from a non-writing
background (such as engineers). They don't see the
importance of including definite articles (the, a, an)
in procedures except for when the meaning cannot be
determined based on the context. They believe that
such words slow down the reader:

Without article: "Remove lower bracket."
With article: "Remove the lower bracket."

I have argued that because the word "lower" can be a
verb or a noun depending on how it is used, the reader
must mentally insert the word "the" to make sense of
this sentence. Mentally inserting an article can
usually be done in a split second, so it doesn't take
much time, but it makes for bumpy reading.

Can anybody provide an eloquent argument (maybe an
online article) for including definite articles in
procedures?

Thanks.
Scott


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