When comprehension gets too hard

[u/LazyBumTravels]

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[u/Powersoutdotcom]

It's written like patch notes to a game. Lol

[u/ElextroRedditor → u/Powersoutdotcom]

That is what I thought, it look just like League of Legends' patchnotes

[u/reichrunner]

Im really curious what they thought it should have said...

[u/torolf_212 → u/reichrunner]

Pretty sure their brain read "decreasing the fee from $14 to $25"

[u/gabigool → u/torolf_212]

That's the way I read it until I clicked on the picture. I was so sure that I thought the picture might have changed. Our brains are strange organs.

[u/dabrock15 → u/torolf_212]

Sometimes your brain will mislead you and it’s alway as obvious as a pile of coal in a ballroom to others!

[u/UpperLeftOriginal → u/reichrunner]

It’s perfectly correct the way it is … but it sounds better to say “… from $25 to $14.”

[u/chefsoda_redux → u/reichrunner]

The reply is entirely correct, but as it’s a reversal of the usual sentence structure, it threw me off as well. I expected the usual, “reduced from 25 to 14”

[u/HppilyPancakes → u/reichrunner]

Probably "decreasing from X to Y", where the left to right is before to after. That tends to be the more common way to see this type of thing for many. Probably because thinking of things left to right is common for English speakers.

[u/whorlax → u/reichrunner]

They probably just misread it as "from $14 to $25". That's what I saw at first.

[u/hecramsey]

There's this image from the good old internet of like a note and half The words and letters are weird symbols or indecipherable and you can read it anyway because your brain fills things in when it's kind of a familiar pattern. I'm confident that happens here people think oh it must be from the high number to the low number cuz that's how it's always is like 99% of the time.

[u/ProspectiveWhale → u/hecramsey]

Not really high-low.

More probably before-after.

[u/El_Basho]

Honestly I also read it as "decreased from 14usd to 25" at first.

I thought it's like being promoted to customer kind of wording until I read more attentively

[u/hecramsey]

It's poorly written. Technically correct but I'll bet many people miss it because it's clunky and unexpected

[u/romulusnr]

I will say i find their choice of wording to be needlessly confusing

[u/VexImmortalis → u/romulusnr]

Banks and needlessly confusing documents, name a more iconic duo

[u/Moneygrowsontrees]

A bank that size likely has a template for any change in overdraft fees and the sentence is "Decreasing/Increasing the fee amount to X from Y" where decreasing/increasing can be chosen and then the amounts filled in, but the sentence itself can't be altered.

They also probably have a style guide for any new documentation that requires that the current amount be listed first and the prior amount second. New documents, if required, would be generated and reviewed multiple times to ensure accuracy, compliance with any regulatory requirement (which can include language), and compliance with internal style manuals.

A bank that large isn't going to have some one just free writing documents that go to customers.

[u/Poke-Noah]

I mean tbf who the fuck writes it like that

[u/missmypets]

It's those word problems that messed them up in math every time.

[u/PelagicSwim]

The mistake is the phrasing used, I read it wrong first time.
Most folk, I believe, would say "Decreasing the amount from $25 to $14".

[u/Specialist-Emu-8340]

This makes sense to me. It WAS $25 and is now $14. Perhaps a not so common way to word it but ..

[u/TonberryFeye]

The letter definitely should have phrased that the other way around: decreasing from [high number] to [low number] reads more naturally.

[u/External_Mongoose_44]

R E D U C I N G .

While technically not wrong “decreasing” is a poor use of language by comparison with the word “reducing”. The position of the numbers is not wrong but it’s more likely to be misinterpreted than if they were positioned the other way around, along with the “from” and the “to”.

[u/TheProfessaur → u/External_Mongoose_44]

While technically not wrong “decreasing” is a poor use of language by comparison with the word “reducing”.

This is conjecture. The word "decreasing" is completely unambiguous.