Which sentence has the more positive slant?
(1) Despite poor economic conditions, sales were good.
(2) Sales were good despite poor economic conditions.
Posted by Setsunai at July 13, 2005 12:57 PMIs it a trick question?
Hard to tell... but I think common wisdom has it that the end of a sentence/text/whatever is always what leaves the biggest mark on a reader. As such, placing the negative part at the end would give a more negative slanttothe sentence. I would tend to agree with this idea...
Then again, it's a rather close call.
Posted by: dr Dave at July 13, 2005 1:52 PM | Permalink to CommentBTW, your new anti-spam(?) comment filter is a bit overzealous... It prevented me from commenting until I removed all trace of my domain name in my email and personal website.
Posted by: dr Dave at July 13, 2005 1:53 PM | Permalink to CommentEnglish 101.
Old newspaper headline trick. Option 2 is percieved by most people as being more positive. Option 1 starts off with a problem where as 2 starts with "good" news.
So to answer your question, no Japanese government official would have the slightest clue ;)
Posted by: Kakyou at July 13, 2005 2:12 PM | Permalink to CommentNumber 1 sends a more positive glow across my transum
Posted by: Speedy at July 14, 2005 2:30 AM | Permalink to CommentOption 2, as Kakyou explained.
How are your plans for Kitadake? I actually might end up there, too, though I will be leaving tomorrow (Friday) and might take an extra day to just take photos and do some sketching up there, and to take a day off to explore the fresh water spring along the side trail to Shiomidake. If I don't go to Kitadake, I will be going up to the North Alps, perhaps Hotaka and Karasawa. I'm REALLY concerned about the weather. It hasn't been looking too good for two weeks now...
Posted by: butuki at July 14, 2005 9:41 AM | Permalink to CommentWhether it gets counted or not, my vote goes to (1). Clearly, this candidate has more integrity and will continue to improve sales in the future!
Posted by: -c at July 15, 2005 2:19 AM | Permalink to CommentThe first one. Sounds more economical.
Posted by: Jan at July 16, 2005 6:00 AM | Permalink to CommentOption 2
Option 1 sounds like you're making an excuse in advance for sales being good, but not that good. Option 2 sounds like your company is the one bucking the trend.
Posted by: Ben Good at July 18, 2005 9:19 PM | Permalink to Commentdr Dave - I just use MT-blacklist as the comment spam filter. Maybe I've inadvertently added something that is catching your domain name. Thanks for perservering anyway.
On the sentence positioning thing, I was thinking Option 1 myself despite knowing the "rules" for this kind of thing, based on the opinion that the sentence is not two equal clauses (i.e. Sales were good but profit was bad) and therefore positioning the main clause at the end leads to greater emphasis on it. But Ben's comment makes a lot of sense to me too. Tricky.
Posted by: Setsunai at July 19, 2005 4:37 PM | Permalink to Comment