Originally Posted by Lisnaholic

^ First, I'd like to compliment you on this post, which has a scattering of questions, "I think"s and "Idk"s. It sounds friendly, and clearly shows that you're inviting discussion.



^ This post seems to pre-suppose that the rules for an essay in college are the same as the rules for posting on MB. I believe that the formats, situations and goals are different enough to require significantly different writing styles. I think it's a mistake to just cut and paste a rule from one and apply it to the other.

For example, a college essay will often specifically request an opinion, in which case the rules you quote are perfectly valid and a bunch of "In my opinions" are indeed just re-stating the obvious.

Here on MB, though, it's different: often, we are not replying to a question that has invited our opinion or comment, we're just spontaneously volunteering something. In this case, it is useful to know if we are volunteering something we regard as a fact or if it's just our opinion. Sometimes it's clear enough anyway, but not always.

Also, on MB I think the most constructive posts are the ones that ask questions and encourage dialogue, which is best done by offering an opinion. And if a dialogue begins, the purpose of our writing is even furthur removed from the college essay and should clearly allow for differences of opinion. In this context, the bald statement of an opinion as if it were a fact can sometimes appear confrontational.

How differently would you feel about reponding to these posts, I wonder:-





My instinct is to simply ignore the first or to immediately engage in a slanging match, but perhaps I'm an out-of-touch pedant compared to you guys and you don't sense much difference between the posts.