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Comments on Why can reversing the order of the same words 1. lower the total character count, and 2. eliminate the short last line of a para.?
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Why can reversing the order of the same words 1. lower the total character count, and 2. eliminate the short last line of a para.?
I started using Microsoft Word ever since I was 5, but I never knew of this trick until I read the following! Why does this gambit work, when the word count remains the same?
(c) Word-order changes
To eliminate the short last line of a paragraph, you might be able to change the order of items in a list to fill in space at end of a line. For example, in Table 11A, by reversing the order of the listed items in the sixth line—“perished” or “decayed beyond marketability” to “decayed beyond marketability” or “perished”)—the term “decayed” (at eight characters) now fits into the end of line 5. As a result, the short last line is eliminated, as shown in Table 11B. Note, however, that this strategy cannot be applied to lists with items constrained to a particular order, such as lists with items in chronological order (see Strategy 11).
Sandra Oster, Writing Shorter Legal Documents (2011), p 45.
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