Re: What does the sentence mean?

On 18 Nov 2003 15:56:42 GMT, CyberCypher
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

>I think the sentence is too packed with information. 

I agree.

>It's bad 
>journalistic writing for two reasons, IMHO. 
>
>First, it's too long. It has 33 words, and readability statistics 
>suggest that 22 words is the longest sentence that is easily 
>readable. 

Best steer clear of Proust and Joyce then... :-)

>Second, it delays the main point of the sentence until a secondary 
>historical point is made. The most important information in the 
>sentence is that yellow fever is back. What it did to Philadelphians 
>in 1793 is secondary and the kind of background stuff that newspapers 
>ought to save for paragraph 2.

I regard that part  as a sort of aside, a rhetorical stage whisper,
which is why I used brackets.  What you refer to as Em-dashes (-- ?)
would have served too. Where does that terminology for dashes come
from by the way? An editor's/printer's nomenclature?