Lumifer comments on When considering incentives, consider the incentives of all parties - Less Wrong
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Comments (95)
I'm puzzled as to why people think formulaic writing is good writing.
Thesis statements tell the reader whether they agree with the work or not in advance. I disagree firmly with their use, as they encourage a lazy style of reading in which you decide before you begin reading whether or not you're going to discard the evidence before you, or consider it.
Laziness is a virtue :-P
There are a great many things available for me to read and I would prefer to figure out whether I want to read a particular piece before finishing it. There are way too many idiots who managed to figure out how a keyboard works.
Winner.
Yep. Motivate the reader early that reading the article will be worthwhile.
I think I'm going to be using that one someday.
It takes about one paragraph to figure out whether or not a piece is worth finishing, with or without a thesis statement.
Often, yes. Not always.