purposeful omission

{{short description|Leaving out of nonessential details}}

Purposeful omission is the leaving out of particular nonessential details that can be assumed by the reader (if used in literature), according to the context and attitudes/gestures made by the characters in the stories. It allows for the reader to make their own abstract representation of the situation at hand.{{Cite web|url=http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definitions/Purposeful+Omission?cx=partner-pub-0939450753529744%3Av0qd01-tdlq&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=UTF-8&q=Purposeful+Omission&sa=Search#906|title=purposeful omission|accessdate=2012-04-02|publisher=Webster's Online Dictionary}}{{Dead link|date=August 2015}}

In the book Why We Fought: America's Wars in Film and History, author Peter Rollins mentions that war movies in the US have purposely omitted some facts so as to make it acceptable to the Pentagon.{{cite book|author1=Peter Rollins|author2=John E. O'Connor|title=Why We Fought: America's Wars in Film and History|url=https://archive.org/details/whywefoughtameri00roll|url-access=registration|accessdate=2 April 2012|date=25 July 2008|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7297-2|page=[https://archive.org/details/whywefoughtameri00roll/page/556 556]}} In their book Representing Lives: Women and Auto/biography, Alison Donnell and Pauline Polkey discuss the difficulty of judging the authenticity of accounts of violence against women when these accounts are made by women in position of prestige and power, as such women are likely to omit some details for the sake of their own image.{{cite book|author1=Alison Donnell|author2=Pauline Polkey|title=Representing lives: women and auto/biography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qvcu2EoY5K4C&pg=PA70|accessdate=2 April 2012|year=2000|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-22667-1|page=70}}

According to some authors{{Who|date=August 2015}}, purposeful omissions are allowed to carry out the law in spirit and action.{{cite book|author1=Kevin F. O'Malley|author2=Jay E. Grenig|author3=William C. Lee |author4=Edward James Devitt |author5=West Group|title=Federal jury practice and instructions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4VI3AQAAIAAJ|accessdate=2 April 2012|year=1999|publisher=West Group|page=628}} In the context of technology, the term is used to denote the avoidance of unwanted or unnecessary feedback.{{cite book|author1=Paul G. Spirakis|author2=Marios Mavronicolas|author3=Spyros Kontogiannis|title=Internet and network economics: second international workshop, WINE 2006, Patras, Greece, December 15-17, 2006 : proceedings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x6kjlDyX5VEC&pg=PA370|accessdate=2 April 2012|year=2006|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-3-540-68138-0|page=370}}