# Confusion/Difficulty caused by words not marked off



## Englishmypassion

Honourable WR Teachers,
Greetings.
I have a very humble request to make. It is noticed that even some exceptionally great linguists on the English Only forum don't sometimes mark off or italicize the words that they are discussing or explaining in their posts. Most of the times it is easy to understand that they are explaining those words -- though, it might not be for some other learners -- but sometimes the sentences containing such words become confusing and make it hard for the learner to comprehend the concept and focus on it, at least in the first reading. I guess it happens mostly when the concept as well as the sentences are complex.  So would our honourable and beloved members please spare a few more moments and mark off such words? It would greatly help learners. I hope you oblige.

Thank you so much for your great teaching in the forum.  Had I found WR earlier, I would have gained high proficiency in English by now.

Thank you very much.
Emp


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## Loob

Can you give us an example of the sort of thing you're concerned about, Emp?


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## Englishmypassion

Thank you, Loob.

Umm, I'll have to make up one here. If I need to quote anonymous on a complex sentence, I'll do that later, after going through some threads.

Example:
Most numeral determiners, including some, work in this context. 

You know, the word "some" needs to be marked off in the preceding sentence:"some"/'some'/_some_. (I perasonally prefer inverted commas/quote marks to italics in such cases because they are easier to notice as well as to use.)


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## ewie

I sympathize and agree with you, Honourable EMP

(At the risk of hijacking your thread, I also wish native speakers were more diligent in *proofreading* their own posts, rather than sending them out into the world with very basic but potentially catastrophic blunders e.g. [made up, combining your beef with mine] "There's no doubting that if it's the best word here though you could also use whether."  Learners must unnecessarily spend hours puzzling over things like this)


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## Englishmypassion

ewie said:


> I sympathize and agree with you, Honourable EMP
> (At the risk of hijacking your thread, I also wish native speakers were more diligent in *proofreading* their own posts, rather than sending them out into the world with very basic but potentially catastrophic blunders
> ... Learners must unnecessarily spend hours puzzling over things like this)



Thanks a lot, ewie. But I'm just a very humble learner. 
You've made a very valid point. I wholeheartedly agree with you. And you've given an excellent example.


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## Loob

I agree that there may be a problem here.  But how do you suggest we resolve the problem, Emp?


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## Englishmypassion

Umm, I hardly ever have solutions, only problems. But I think the following can solve the problem: 
1. I hope most of the honourable members who answer questions regularly will read this thread and keep the request in mind while answering. I am very sure they all want to give their best to help learners. Hence, my posting this thread here.
2. Those who read this thread can convey the message to everybody in the forum by having a signatue like "Please never forget to mark off words being discussed. It helps learners/us to easily understand what you mean." 
(3. Those who answer questions regularly can be sent personal messages, by moderators, I guess, requesting them to keep that in mind. Or can moderators do it using some other method?) 
I am not sure how practical the third one is.


Thank you.


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## Dan2

Thanks for bringing this up, EMP.  Failing to set off words that are under discussion is something I see a lot and can make posts much more difficult to follow than they would otherwise be.  (For ex., "Is it important to include here?" in place of "Is 'it' important to include here?" or "Is it important to include 'here'?".)

I think moderators should step in, make the necessary corrections (just as they do, for ex., in the case of failure to capitalize or of "SMS-speak"), and say "Please properly set off words under discussion."  I've been mod-corrected for using the extremely common abbreviation "OTOH"; surely the failure to "set off" is at least as serious.


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## Englishmypassion

You are welcome, Dan2. I fully agree with you. The examples you have given are really great. I hope most active members read this thread. 
Thanks.


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