Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Need Your Wisdom, Blog Homies: And/Or

An editor I work with once made a pretty solid argument that, in most cases, the "and/or" construction is clunky, useless, and repetitive. Most of the time, "or" implies "and," and that "and/or" should generally not appear.

I can never remember his argument as well as he stated it, but I'd like to hear the opinions of people I trust.



What do you think? Get rid of "and/or"? Why? Or why not?
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2 comments:

  1. moiJune 22, 2011 at 9:01 AM

    I agree that and/or is usually unnecessary. It also looks and sounds clunky. One of my goals when I edit is to create a clean page, as free as possible of dashes, slashes, and other distractions, so the readers' eyes and ears have as little as possible to stumble over in their quest to understand the writing. And while "or" to me always connotes choice and "and" inclusion, I say: let's get rid of it. There are other ways to get the point across.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aunty BelleJune 22, 2011 at 3:32 PM

    Agree more OR (heh) less wif' Moi.

    Thar's few instances fer the formulation and/ or. An' even when it's the clearest statement it is clunky.

    ReplyDelete

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