I quite agree with you, we have become very lazy in the spoken English language and for that reason, we end up climbing the ladder of inference, assuming one thing when the speaker really means something else. E-prime written language eliminates the assumptions and reinforces clarity and conciseness. I try to focus my energies on writing in e-prime because this reinforces my walking the talk, so to speak! Imagine if the world did not depend on 'the assumption of something understood'. I had to learn the hard way living in a country that has more assumptions in their spoken language than the language spoken in the country from which I originally lived. At first, this think first before you speak feels unnatural, but if you stay with it, you find that people will respond to you more favorably and listen to you with more interest. Give it a try for 1 month and let me know what the results.
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