Preventing unintentional reading between the lines
I'm a really literal writer. I don't write stuff that makes people "read between the lines." Problem is, people still always read between the lines. This leads to them understanding my writing in a way that wasn't my original intent.
For example, I ask a lot of questions on Stack Exchange. People think that I'm asking more than what's in the question. Comments:
I assume the downvotes indicate that people disagree with your idea of resetting the review ban whenever you pass an audit.
It wasn't an idea. It was just a question.
What is your end-goal here? Do you want to discontinue doing the extra math practice or do you want to disprove your father's accusations? Do you want to achieve your goals through talking to him, or by other means? As of now your question is unclear, thus as of now I vote to close.
I stated my end-goal multiple times in the question, but people keep trying to "solve my problem" instead of taking it at face value.
Pro-tip: complaining about downvotes tends to attract downvotes.
Again, not a complaint. It's a legitimate answer!
hey there @sag. From the several last questions you asked here on meta, and reading through your profile, it seems you have gripe with most communities you partake into. I'm trying really hard not to assume, but it seems you have some kind of "everyone else is wrong" attitude.
Probably used the wrong tone or something? Tried to sound neutral but I still came across as "gripey!"
How do I make my writing have only 1 clear, literal meaning to prevent unintentional alternative interpretations?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/37544. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
When you ask a question, people assume you are asking for a reason, that you intend to use the answer to make some decision. There is no such thing as "just a question".
The reason they read between the lines is because you have not made it apparent why you are asking this question.
Thus if you want to keep people from reading between the lines, make sure they also understand why you are asking, or what you intend to do with the answer, etc.
An example:
I'd like to improve my answers, it would help me if the down votes explained what they think is wrong with this one.
Or something similar. If you don't make clear your motive behind your message (intent, purpose, reason), people will guess at it, and often assume that motive is nefarious or tricksy. That's just the nature of this beast the Internet.
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