"The Logic and Rhetoric of Exposition"

Posted by Cassius
Sep 7, 2012 at 01:56 AM

My post was meant in all seriousness.

Lately there have been too many posts that go on and on and become burdensome to read. Indeed, I have finally chosen not to read such. I am not referring just to Proust, et. al.

When the ratio of black space (= text) to white space on a page is too great, one’s eyes and brain become fatigued.

As Polonius said in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” “...brevity is the soul of wit….” (In Shakespeare’s time, “wit” usually meant “intelligence.”)

Or if you prefer, consider a mathematical proof. (My Ph.D. is in mathematics.)

First you state the proposition you wish to prove.
Then you try to develop a proof of the proposition.

Now, you could write the steps of the proof all squished together,
OR
you could write the steps spread out, with lots of white space between them.

At first, I tried the “squish” approach, but I quickly learned that I made far fewer errors using the .
“space” approach.

Academic journals almost always “squish” because they can cram more articles (which may be valuable or otherwise) into an issue AND because of page charges.