posting format

[DISTERH at UNIVSCVM.SC.EDU]

Dear HISTLINGers,
The question of my requesting revisions to contributions was mentioned in
a posting yesterday, so this might be a good time for me to make the
following requests of people who contribute to our conversations:
 
(1) Make you contribution as short as possible; i.e., when you
copy someone else's posting within your own text, please copy only the
relevant portions.
 
(2) Make your contribution as econominal as possible, i.e., edit for
redundancy, long-winded arguements, etc. While this type of forum is
very informal, its readers are professionals who do not have unlimited
time to sort through their mailboxes.
 
(3) Be sure that your contribution has historical linguistics content:
I have returned a few postings because they have not fulfilled this
requirement. And yes, I should have returned Richard Hogg's cute remark
to Larry Trask yesterday and I apologize for this slip-up. However my eyes
were crossed from dealing with a deluge of mail.
 
(4) Address your comments to others' work in a polite, professional tone,
even if you might think that they should be committed to an insane asylum
for their views. I tell my graduate students that, in their criticism
of published work, they should compose their remarks as if the person
they're criticizing were in their presence. Besides, they may meet that
person face to face someday or even have to work with them. Any contri-
butions which do not follow the Golden Rule in their reference to
colleagues will be returned for editing.
 
Thanks for your attention,
 
Dorothy Disterheft