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OK, maybe "anywhere in the sentence" goes too far. But the need for style in writing is super-important. If I was telling you about how to beat the 2nd level
by triangleman 12y ago
OK, maybe "anywhere in the sentence" goes too far.
But the need for style in writing is super-important.
If I was telling you about how to beat the 2nd level of Legend of Zelda, I might say
You can only get to the final boss by taking the door on the right.
Or I might say
You can get to the final boss only by taking the door on the right.
Which phrase has more impact in your opinion?
Also note that in neither of these cases am I implying
You can only take the door on the right.
- ColinWright 12y agoI agree entirely that style is important, and moving words around can create different effects. No doubt about that. Consider your example. You offer: You can only get to the final boss by taking the door on the right. I don't know if that means that (a) if I take the door on the right then the only thing I can get to is the final boss, or if it means that (b) to get to the final boss the only thing that will be successful is to take the door on the right. On the other hand: You can get to the final boss only by taking the door on the right. That doesn't seem to suffer the same ambiguity. The question is whether, for any given case, stylistic effects trump less ambiguity. People seem to think it does more often than I do.