Sunday 30 January 2011

Defining 'could'

COULD

- used to express possibility
- used to express conditional possibility or ability
- used in making polite requests
- used in asking for permission
- used in offering suggestions or advice

SHOULD

- used to express condition
- used to indicate duty, propriety or expediency
- used to make a statement less direct or blunt


When discussing a work of art or design in progress it is important that we let the designer come to his/her own conclusions through pressing questions or suggestions. It is even more important how we chose to phrase these so as to not give too much of our own opinion whereby a trace of plagiarism will be embedded in the work as it would then contain the ideas of the suggesting designer.

We must also accept that our opinion is subjective and we must select our words carefully so as to not deter or inhibit. As John Lackman states in his address (below):

'to qualify it, complicate it, overload it, is usually a defensive move. It is a strategy for getting partial credit: you figure you may be wrong but at least you're clever, you are eloquent... and maybe not that far wrong'.

To what extent does our selective use of language inhibit or enhance the progress of another designer?


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