grammar
Why not to use Magic Quotes.
Why not use Magic Quotes.
What is the difference in meaning between these two ways of phrasing that sentence? To me the first sentence sounds like it tells the reader that there are good reasons not to use Magic Quotes (a programming feature) and those reasons will be given. The second one sounds like a rhetorical question, something along the lines of "What the heck not? Let's use them!" Am I right?
Consider that photo captions use the present tense almost exclusively, no matter how old the picture is:
RMS Titanic leaves the docks at Southampton on her maiden voyage to New York in this 1912 photo.
It's not hard to see why this is: when you look at a photograph, you are in a sense transported to the moment in time at which it was taken, so it's natural to use the present tense to describe it.
Similarly, your 7th graders are providing narration for a series of pictures (you didn't say whether they are photos or drawings, but it doesn't really matter), and the reader is expected to read the narration at the same time that he or she views the pictures. I would want to see present tense.
The wording was delivered of was used in the official announcement at Buckingham Palace (image from the Press Association via BBC News):
OED has
3 a. To disburden (a woman) of the fœtus, to bring to childbirth; in pass., to give birth to a child or offspring. Rarely said of beasts. (The active is late and chiefly in obstetrical use.)
which is a use of deliver in an older [and obsolete] sense meaning relieve:
†2. a. To free, rid, divest, clear (a) of, (b) from.
The language is formal, and perhaps a little archaic.
Best Answer
The difference is in the way not affects the sentence due to the presence of the to.
In the former, the not negates the to use, making the meaning an explanation of why using Magic Quotes is not something you want to do.
In the latter, the not negates the why, making the meaning a rhetorical question