So glad to see that Tested Sentences That Sell is now available (in e-book format, at least)!

Jeanne

Used in the same sense in which your above comparison was made, one might state that “all decimal values between two consecutive whole numbers” equal “ALL numbers.” The more one thinks about it, the more intriguing the topic becomes. The possibilities are…infinite!

Jeanne

Sorry I haven’t been back till now to reply to YOUR reply to my comment! Just haven’t been feeling quite up to par lately. Still attempting to fight off the last lingering symptoms brought on by this powerful cold bug that’s had me down for the count for about the past two weeks.

Without having (yet) visited the website you’ve linked to in your comment, I would have to say that the only way I can think of that your statement could possibly be correct would be in the sense that “all even numbers” would be an infinite number, as would “ALL numbers,” since presumably all numbers, including even numbers would continue on into infinity. In the same sense, “all odd numbers” would also, like “ALL numbers,” be an infinite number. (Incidentally, I came to this conclusion before even seeing the URL of your link, which includes the word “infinity.”)

This is indeed a fascinating question–and one which lends itself to all sorts of intriguing philosophical speculation. For example, one might reasonably contend that there can BE no values called “all even numbers,” “all odd numbers,” or “ALL numbers,” since infinity isn’t quantifiable. Think about THAT!

Philosophically yours,
Jeanne

Because we had the same excellent high school English teacher, I’m going to assert the right to supplement your list of smelly sentences. My addition is: any sentence containing a glaring grammatical error (so I’d better not make any mistakes here). Perhaps I’m a snob, but obvious grammatical errors make me question the writer’s professionalism, education and attention to detail.

For example, many writers (and copy editors, presumably) have never mastered the possessive form of “it,” which is “its,” rather than “it’s” or “its’.” Even people who would never write “his’ accounts” or “her’s commission” may make the mistake of writing “it’s annual revenues” or “its’ annual revenues.” The word “it’s” is an abbreviation of “it is” or “it has” (e.g., “it’s been such a long winter, and now it’s cold again today”). The word “its’” doesn’t exist.

Have a great and error-free 2008.

-Scott