[EM] FBC paper, "style"

[Alex Small]

Warren,

You're right, I erred.  "Style" should be used to refer to more subjective aspects of writing.  Perhaps I should have described formal mathematical writing as following a particular "structure."

All I can say in defense of how I wrote the manuscript is that I am inexperienced at formal mathematical writing (physicists are to rigor what jello is to structural integrity) so I took my cues from how Saari wrote in "Basic Geometry of Voting."

The weaknesses of that approach are, as you point out, substantial.  However, Saari wrote for a wider audience than just formally-trained mathematicians, including social scientists (some of whom are indeed schooled in formal mathematical approaches, but not all) in his audience.  There is some merit in that, and I need to think things through as I consider restructuring the paper.  I appreciate your feedback on this.

Anyway, revising to a more formal structure will take some time.  In the near term, I'll try to include a table earlier in the paper to at least give the reader a more organized summary and preview of what is to come.

Thanks for the feedback.



Alex



      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.electorama.com/pipermail/election-methods-electorama.com/attachments/20100826/e0c7b1ba/attachment-0003.htm>