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Originally Posted by Molten
Now, the only question is "who decides what is better?"
I personally believe that the quickest/shortest way to convey a thought is the best way. I am a very function over form person.
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Careful with that "function over form" idea...that will get you into trouble sometimes. If it's just plain ugly you would be hard-pressed to convince people to adopt it. Examples are found everywhere from human-created music vs computer-generated music, to food made by brilliant chefs, to bridges...
..to the roll-cage on the back of our bot. I needed it to be square with 1" aluminum so we could bolt supports and mounts to it -- yet it wasn't "pretty" so the lead cut the welds and made us bend 1/2" aluminum to which we couldn't mount anything. It's been a "challenge" to overcome this, but I see why it's needed. It's definitely prettier, and image has alot to do with the success of our team in our community (regardless of how we do at competition).
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That means that if I must use bad grammar to get my point acrossed, I will. To some, better means being correct. To me, it means being functional.
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Sometimes even a scientific sentence really DOES NOT MAKE SENSE with the wrong grammar.
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Diction on the other hand is for politicians and SAT prep courses, IMO. How are engineers supposed to say anything "professional" without a dictionary by our sides when we're put under the spotlight unless our brains really are that wrinkled* with knowledge? It's difficult to determine that the root word "grace" also technically implies humility when the words "gracious professionalism" are used in so many contexts in FIRST. I completely understand why students use "We graciously accept [your alliance partnership]" due to this, even though it technically implies "we are humbled by the fact that you are a higher seed".
At the end of the day though, does the phrase "Team XXXX graciously accepts" really matter?
*Note, "wrinkled" is used here because as I understand it, the brain creates a fold every time it gains a permanent memory. This does not directly imply age even though knowledge often comes with age...unless you're one of those genious-types, which I am not.