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Question for the group as I'm wading through final essays. I want to (very) occasionally tell a student, "This is one of the better essays I've read in this batch"; however, the rule says with more than two items, use the superlative "best." But I don't want to say, "It's one of the best essays I've read." It seems to me a matter of qualitative degree, not an issue of adhering to a quantitative convention. To say "best" would connote high writing skill, and although that may be the case, it may also mean that in a batch of otherwise mediocre essays, a particular one is better than most--but not sterling (or "best")--that is the implication I intend when using "better" instead of "best." Am I splitting hairs?