Can you identify the logical error in the following sentence?
He stood stock still, arched his back in order to appear taller, puffed out his chest, pointed a finger at me, and with a tone of command, shouted, “Shut-up! Be still!”Logical errors are more subtle than spelling or grammatical errors and cannot be detected by any word processor on the market today, because they require a higher level of reasoning.
If you believe that the logical error involves the subject standing stock still, then you are correct. Once the subject has been committed to standing stock still, he may think, but should remain otherwise motionless until the next sentence or better yet, the next paragraph. Arching his back after a comma is too soon. Why have the subject stand stock still in the first place? It stands out as a contradictory detail. I made that mistake in this story, slept on it, but then had an uneasy feeling that something was wrong and woke up this morning determined to fix it.
Additional problems in the story involve the matter-of-fact descriptions of the characters, such as "young black female," or "middle-aged man," descriptions that sound like they were made by an observant but unimaginative detective. I haven't gotten around to correcting those problems yet. The goal was to record an idea. Refinement can wait for later. I don't feel enough motivation to bother with much refinement, since I'm tossing these things onto the Net for nothing. But a logical error is a different matter. It sinks the ship. I want my vessels to float. They don't need to be pretty, but they should float. I can apply a paint job later.
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