Set Lonnert

Saying What You Mean : A manual for contested words Set Lonnert

Two people argue for two hours and get nowhere. Neither has lied and neither has
misquoted. They were reading one sentence two different ways, and nothing in the
argument was built to notice.

This is a working manual for the moment a word stops being free and starts being a
rule -- in a policy, a statute, a platform's terms of service, an accusation. It sets
out seven steps for taking a contested sentence apart and nine for the argument it was
a premise in; six norms for doing either in good faith, each printed with what it will
cost the person who keeps it; five verdicts an argument can honestly end at; and four
worked audits of live material, one of which produces nothing and is printed anyway.
Seven exercises are answered in full.

It does not ask anyone to speak more precisely. Chapter 7 is the argument against
that, and it names who pays.