Profanity or not profanity?
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- Nathan V
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Profanity or not profanity?
- Seetha E
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When deciding how to label such words in your writing, it's helpful to consider the tone and style of your content, as well as the potential reactions of your readers. If your target audience is comfortable with casual language and your writing aligns with a more informal style, you might choose to include words like "tits" without categorizing them as profanity. On the other hand, if your content is aimed at a broader or more formal audience, you might consider labeling it as "borderline profanity" to provide readers with a heads-up about the language they can expect.
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Personally, I could be tempted to put it in non-borderline depending on the context, mostly because "asshole" is non-borderline profanity. But "ass" and "prick" are borderline.Here is another way of describing the same technique:
You can just imagine you are asked, "is word X profanity?"
And then imagine you only have three answers you can give:
1. Yes.
2. No.
3. I'm unsure.
If you would choose 1, then it's profanity, a.k.a. "non-borderline profanity".
If you would choose 2, then it's not profanity.
If you would choose 3 (unsure), then (and only then) it would be marked as "borderline profanity", meaning it's on the border of what you call profanity versus what you would call not profanity, such that you cannot give a simple yes/no answer.
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"With all that said, if there is a word that you do not know whether to mark as (1) profanity, versus (2) not profanity, versus (3) borderline profanity, then email a verbatim quote of the full sentence containing the word to ProfanityQuestion@OnlineBookClub.org and we will give you an official answer."
I asked them about a word last week, and they gave me a definite answer.
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This is very helpful, thanks Gerry.Gerry Steen wrote: ↑03 Jun 2024, 18:51 This may be helpful. I just copied and pasted it from the guidelines regarding profanity:
"With all that said, if there is a word that you do not know whether to mark as (1) profanity, versus (2) not profanity, versus (3) borderline profanity, then email a verbatim quote of the full sentence containing the word to ProfanityQuestion@OnlineBookClub.org and we will give you an official answer."
I asked them about a word last week, and they gave me a definite answer.
- Gerry Steen
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You are very welcome, Diana. Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom in the multiple posts you respond to.Diana Lowery wrote: ↑Today, 11:39This is very helpful, thanks Gerry.Gerry Steen wrote: ↑03 Jun 2024, 18:51 This may be helpful. I just copied and pasted it from the guidelines regarding profanity:
"With all that said, if there is a word that you do not know whether to mark as (1) profanity, versus (2) not profanity, versus (3) borderline profanity, then email a verbatim quote of the full sentence containing the word to ProfanityQuestion@OnlineBookClub.org and we will give you an official answer."
I asked them about a word last week, and they gave me a definite answer.
- Kansas City Teacher
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