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Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
After I calmed down I thought about how to go about doing this. I can do shorter
sentences averaging around two dozen words each. Heck, while chopping it up I
can probably work in some Dr. Seuss rhythms, and maybe even a limerick or two
(because I tend to be perverse like that). But the other requirement seems more
bothersome. This simple sentence structure is what, maybe third grade level?
I don't know anything about kids, so I looked it up, and quickly found a K-12
guide to writing level expectations. Children are expected to use more than one
type of sentence structure in their written work by the end of second grade. I'm
supposed to rewrite my master's thesis as if I'm seven years old.
Wow.
A student learned that at his school
He should write like a blathering fool
Only subject-verb-noun
Like some brain-damaged clown
or a JavaScript markov-chain tool
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On 01/08/2012 07:39 AM, waggy wrote:
> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
Wait, what? You wrote a sentence that was /more/ than 3 lines long? What
are you, a lawyer? ;-)
> A student learned that at his school
> He should write like a blathering fool
> Only subject-verb-noun
> Like some brain-damaged clown
> or a JavaScript markov-chain tool
I gotta get me some Markov chains some day...
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Invisible wrote:
>
> I gotta get me some Markov chains some day...
I was thinking of slapping one on my bike, heading on down to the brewpub...
It's hard to say where I might end up after that...
Huh. Maybe that's what's already on it...
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waggy <hon### [at] handbasket org> wrote:
> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
> After I calmed down I thought about how to go about doing this.
You should make *all* of your senteces three lines long, and make it so
that the subject is at the very beginning of the sentence and the verb and
object are at the very end, or the subject and verb at the beginning and
the object at the end (and the middle filled with qualifiers).
In fact, better split all your infinitives so that you have "<subject> to"
at the very beginning, and "<verb> <object>" at the very end of the
three-line sentence.
--
- Warp
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Le 01/08/2012 15:30, Warp a écrit :
> waggy <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote:
>> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
>> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
>> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
>> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
>
>> After I calmed down I thought about how to go about doing this.
>
> You should make *all* of your senteces three lines long, and make it so
> that the subject is at the very beginning of the sentence and the verb and
> object are at the very end, or the subject and verb at the beginning and
> the object at the end (and the middle filled with qualifiers).
>
> In fact, better split all your infinitives so that you have "<subject> to"
> at the very beginning, and "<verb> <object>" at the very end of the
> three-line sentence.
>
What ? and no qualifier for <object> ? no context adjustement for <verb>
? <subject> is getting all the qualifiers... it's unfair.
No digression with relative proposition*s* inside a sentence ?
No articulation with "and", "or", "despite"... ?
Do they expect automatic translation to be successful on your thesis ?
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waggy <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote:
> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
Btw, it made me recall this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_English_usage_misconceptions
--
- Warp
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I don't know where you live, but in general emigrating to Germany or the
Netherlands should do the trick.
We both have similar long sentences, and in German you have the bonus of
constructs that consist of a verb and another word. This allows you to
use that word, which might not be the one the audience expects, and then
5 minutes later finish off your sentence with the right verb.
When done expertly it can make boring speeches into a spectator sport.
On 1-8-2012 8:39, waggy wrote:
> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
>
> After I calmed down I thought about how to go about doing this. I can do shorter
> sentences averaging around two dozen words each. Heck, while chopping it up I
> can probably work in some Dr. Seuss rhythms, and maybe even a limerick or two
> (because I tend to be perverse like that). But the other requirement seems more
> bothersome. This simple sentence structure is what, maybe third grade level?
>
> I don't know anything about kids, so I looked it up, and quickly found a K-12
> guide to writing level expectations. Children are expected to use more than one
> type of sentence structure in their written work by the end of second grade. I'm
> supposed to rewrite my master's thesis as if I'm seven years old.
>
> Wow.
>
> A student learned that at his school
> He should write like a blathering fool
> Only subject-verb-noun
> Like some brain-damaged clown
> or a JavaScript markov-chain tool
>
--
Women are the canaries of science. When they are underrepresented
it is a strong indication that non-scientific factors play a role
and the concentration of incorruptible scientists is also too low
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Le 2012-08-01 03:57, Invisible a écrit :
> On 01/08/2012 07:39 AM, waggy wrote:
>> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my
>> professors all
>> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to
>> reorganize and
>> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your
>> sentences
>> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
>
> Wait, what? You wrote a sentence that was /more/ than 3 lines long? What
> are you, a lawyer? ;-)
>
The sentence you quoted is 4 lines long. :P
--
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/* flabreque */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/* @ */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/* gmail.com */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }
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On Wed, 01 Aug 2012 16:05:52 -0400, Francois Labreque wrote:
> The sentence you quoted is 4 lines long. :P
It was two sentences. ;)
Jim
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I like this guy. :)
tough competition, Andrew!
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Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> waggy <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote:
> > Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> > despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> > rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> > should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
>
> Btw, it made me recall this:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_English_usage_misconceptions
cool reference!
"Two spaces must follow each sentence."
haha, learned that one from emacs. software as a carrier for culture... :)
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Warp <war### [at] tagpovrayorg> wrote:
> waggy <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote:
> > Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> > despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> > rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> > should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
>
> Btw, it made me recall this:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_English_usage_misconceptions
oh, my!
"Misconception: "Irregardless" is not a word. Merriam-Webster states that, "The
most frequently repeated remark about it is that 'there is no such word.' "[53]
According to Mignon Fogarty, this is an English myth. "You shouldn't use it if
you want to be taken seriously, but it has gained wide enough use to qualify as
a word."[5]"
so all you need to make up new (ilogical) words is getting a bunch of dumbasses
demanding it so?
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Warp wrote:
>
> In fact, better split all your infinitives so that you have "<subject> to"
> at the very beginning, and "<verb> <object>" at the very end of the
> three-line sentence.
>
I already got busted for having three split infinitives in the first fifteen
pages, and for ending sentences with prepositions...
I apologize to you. That was a compound sentence. It should be split into two
sentences. This writing style is difficult. It reads like a series of telegrams.
Stop. I cannot connect two ideas. Stop. Please make it stop. Stop.
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Le_Forgeron wrote:
>
> Do they expect automatic translation to be successful on your thesis ?
If I knew what they expected, I would have delivered it. Part of the challenge
is to figure out, usually by trial and error, the secret idiosyncratic standards
by which each professor will grade their students' written work. They won't tell
you what those standards are because, as graduate students, we should already
know.
Warp wrote:
> Btw, it made me recall this:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_English_usage_misconceptions
Ah, but attempts to correct academic authorities only reinforce how misguided
the student must be. They know their writing style is correct because it's been
published. (The US Air Force has published several hundred thousand words I
wrote or edited, but only proper journal publications and such count here.)
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"nemesis" wrote:
>
> "Two spaces must follow each sentence."
>
> haha, learned that one from emacs. software as a carrier for culture... :)
A month or two ago I got ripped up one side and down the other for this by
someone whose opinion I respect, a person with a lifelong love for the written
word. I've almost managed to retrain my muscle memory after having two spaces
embedded there by a year of business typing on a Selectric II back in high
school.
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andrel wrote:
> I don't know where you live, but in general emigrating to Germany or the
> Netherlands should do the trick.
> We both have similar long sentences, and in German you have the bonus of
> constructs that consist of a verb and another word. This allows you to
> use that word, which might not be the one the audience expects, and then
> 5 minutes later finish off your sentence with the right verb.
> When done expertly it can make boring speeches into a spectator sport.
>
Now there's the best reason yet to quit smoking, but alas, I think I'm too old
(mid forties) to emigrate from the Great (formerly) Independent Republic of
Texastan.
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"waggy" <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> >
> > In fact, better split all your infinitives so that you have "<subject> to"
> > at the very beginning, and "<verb> <object>" at the very end of the
> > three-line sentence.
> >
> I already got busted for having three split infinitives in the first fifteen
> pages, and for ending sentences with prepositions...
>
> I apologize to you. That was a compound sentence. It should be split into two
> sentences. This writing style is difficult. It reads like a series of telegrams.
> Stop. I cannot connect two ideas. Stop. Please make it stop. Stop.
you're not keeping with the times, kid. They are very obviously trying to
educate capable twitter writers.
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"waggy" <hon### [at] handbasketorg> wrote:
> "nemesis" wrote:
> >
> > "Two spaces must follow each sentence."
> >
> > haha, learned that one from emacs. software as a carrier for culture... :)
>
> A month or two ago I got ripped up one side and down the other for this by
> someone whose opinion I respect, a person with a lifelong love for the written
> word. I've almost managed to retrain my muscle memory after having two spaces
> embedded there by a year of business typing on a Selectric II back in high
> school.
yeah, it's a strange habit that I carried over even to my portuguese writing.
And the funny fact is that you do know it makes sentences stand out better!
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On Wed, 01 Aug 2012 19:53:11 -0400, nemesis wrote:
> so all you need to make up new (ilogical) words is getting a bunch of
> dumbasses demanding it so?
Well, OED lists it as well:
--- snip ---
Etymology: Probably blend of irrespective and regardless.
Chiefly N. Amer.
In non-standard or humorous use: regardless.
--- snip ---
The first citation is actually from 1912, the second from 1923.
So it's "not been a word" for about 100 years at least.
Jim
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"nemesis" wrote:
> "waggy" wrote:
> > "nemesis" wrote:
> > >
> > > "Two spaces must follow each sentence."
> > >
> > > haha, learned that one from emacs. software as a carrier for culture... :)
> >
> > A month or two ago I got ripped up one side and down the other for this by
> > someone whose opinion I respect, a person with a lifelong love for the written
> > word. I've almost managed to retrain my muscle memory after having two spaces
> > embedded there by a year of business typing on a Selectric II back in high
> > school.
>
> yeah, it's a strange habit that I carried over even to my portuguese writing.
> And the funny fact is that you do know it makes sentences stand out better!
But not so strange, since I think proportional typeset text traditionally has a
wider space after a period between sentences than it uses after an abbrev.
within a sentence. Do any word processors automagically put in a wider spacing
character between sentences?
Should I set up an automatic conversion from dot-space-space to dot-emspace, or
what?
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"waggy" wrote:
[something regrettable]
Please allow me to retract my statement about spaces. I had no idea it's
considered flame bait.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#Controversy
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Le 02/08/2012 03:30, waggy a écrit :
> Le_Forgeron wrote:
>>
>> Do they expect automatic translation to be successful on your thesis ?
>
> If I knew what they expected, I would have delivered it. Part of the challenge
> is to figure out, usually by trial and error, the secret idiosyncratic standards
> by which each professor will grade their students' written work. They won't tell
> you what those standards are because, as graduate students, we should already
> know.
Hint for starting students: get access to the accepted theses of the ten
or so previous years. (theses are published... they go public)
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Le 02/08/2012 03:55, waggy a écrit :
> andrel wrote:
>> I don't know where you live, but in general emigrating to Germany or the
>> Netherlands should do the trick.
>> We both have similar long sentences, and in German you have the bonus of
>> constructs that consist of a verb and another word. This allows you to
>> use that word, which might not be the one the audience expects, and then
>> 5 minutes later finish off your sentence with the right verb.
>> When done expertly it can make boring speeches into a spectator sport.
>>
And it's the main reason the "congressmen" of Germany are disciplined
and do not interrupt the speaking "congressman" with noisy
interruptions, unlike any other countries: they cannot guess the meaning
before the verb. They would risk embarrassing themselves as interrupting
an idea they did support and therefore being counter-productive to their
goal.
> Now there's the best reason yet to quit smoking, but alas, I think I'm too old
> (mid forties) to emigrate from the Great (formerly) Independent Republic of
> Texastan.
>
You should have learned from the image of your country in movies: "when
you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!" (The good, the bad and the ugly;
Siergio Leone ). Ergo, small sentences are mandatory in your land, or
you get a bullet.
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On 02/08/2012 08:12 AM, Le_Forgeron wrote:
> Hint for starting students: get access to the accepted theses of the ten
> or so previous years. (theses are published... they go public)
I thought that when a paper is "published" that just means that it goes
into some journal which can only be purchased for thousands of pounds
per issue?
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>> yeah, it's a strange habit that I carried over even to my portuguese writing.
>> And the funny fact is that you do know it makes sentences stand out better!
>
> But not so strange, since I think proportional typeset text traditionally has a
> wider space after a period between sentences than it uses after an abbrev.
> within a sentence. Do any word processors automagically put in a wider spacing
> character between sentences?
TeX.
Whenever it sees a dot followed by whitespace, it adds a wider space,
unless the character before the dot was a capital letter. (This
exception means that something like "R.A.M." does not introduce
extraneous space.) In case this is incorrect, you can write "\ " to
introduce a regular-size space. (And there's probably some macro
somewhere to introduce a wide space where one would not normally be.)
This from the typesetting engine which considers a hyphen, a minus sign,
an en-dash and an em-dash to be three unrelated glyphs...
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On 02/08/2012 12:53 AM, nemesis wrote:
> so all you need to make up new (ilogical) words is getting a bunch of dumbasses
> demanding it so?
Yep. Just like all of antiquity.
Take "apron", for example. This word is actually a mistake. The original
words was "napron". But when some dumbarse heard the phrase "a napron",
this misinterpreted it as "an apron". This stupid mistake has now stuck,
and I defy you to find a dictionary today which even lists "napron" as a
word.
Seriously, how do you *think* new languages are invented? They happen
because of people being stupid.
Related: You can probably find "teh" in the dictionary. Along with
"pron" and so forth.
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> And it's the main reason the "congressmen" of Germany are disciplined
> and do not interrupt the speaking "congressman" with noisy
> interruptions, unlike any other countries: they cannot guess the meaning
> before the verb. They would risk embarrassing themselves as interrupting
> an idea they did support and therefore being counter-productive to their
> goal.
Filibuster vigilantly...
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On 02/08/2012 12:36 AM, nemesis wrote:
> I like this guy. :)
>
> tough competition, Andrew!
That's funny... I thought you hated me. :-P
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On 2-8-2012 10:01, Invisible wrote:
> On 02/08/2012 08:12 AM, Le_Forgeron wrote:
>
>> Hint for starting students: get access to the accepted theses of the ten
>> or so previous years. (theses are published... they go public)
>
> I thought that when a paper is "published" that just means that it goes
> into some journal which can only be purchased for thousands of pounds
> per issue?
No and no.
A thesis is published as a separate entity and in general contains much
more than one paper. In the Netherlands they are even published as a
book. I have about 3 meter of them from various friends and colleagues.
In many places the University publishes them on-line also.
Papers are published in journals. Journals might cost thousands of
pounds per year but there is a growing trend of free articles and free
journals.
--
Women are the canaries of science. When they are underrepresented
it is a strong indication that non-scientific factors play a role
and the concentration of incorruptible scientists is also too low
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>> I thought that when a paper is "published" that just means that it goes
>> into some journal which can only be purchased for thousands of pounds
>> per issue?
>
> No and no.
>
> A thesis is published as a separate entity and in general contains much
> more than one paper. In the Netherlands they are even published as a
> book. I have about 3 meter of them from various friends and colleagues.
> In many places the University publishes them on-line also.
>
> Papers are published in journals. Journals might cost thousands of
> pounds per year but there is a growing trend of free articles and free
> journals.
Thanks for clarifying that.
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On 2-8-2012 10:13, Invisible wrote:
> On 02/08/2012 12:36 AM, nemesis wrote:
>> I like this guy. :)
>>
>> tough competition, Andrew!
>
> That's funny... I thought you hated me. :-P
Don't take his name personally.
--
Women are the canaries of science. When they are underrepresented
it is a strong indication that non-scientific factors play a role
and the concentration of incorruptible scientists is also too low
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Le 02/08/2012 10:11, Invisible a écrit :
> On 02/08/2012 12:53 AM, nemesis wrote:
>
>> so all you need to make up new (ilogical) words is getting a bunch of
>> dumbasses
>> demanding it so?
>
> Yep. Just like all of antiquity.
>
> Take "apron", for example. This word is actually a mistake. The original
> words was "napron". But when some dumbarse heard the phrase "a napron",
> this misinterpreted it as "an apron". This stupid mistake has now stuck,
> and I defy you to find a dictionary today which even lists "napron" as a
> word.
Well, it comes from the same word that gave French "napperon" (with a
silent "e" between p & r, guess what happened ? vocal transcription with
fast speakers...)
napperon is today a small tablecloth of lacework, but the lace is very
similar to the lace that was used as part of an apron by the servant.
(the lace white part of an apron could as well be a kind of "napperon",
the real protecting cloth (in black in traditional imagery of female
servant) getting incorporated in the term)
>
> Seriously, how do you *think* new languages are invented? They happen
> because of people being stupid.
>
> Related: You can probably find "teh" in the dictionary. Along with
> "pron" and so forth.
And hypothenuse get 314 000 results, vs 2 millions for hypotenuse on
some search engine with a name related to glasses.
(adding "english" change the results to 88k vs 405k )
It's a Greek rooted word, there is absolutely no way go get a second h
in it, yet 1/7 of the indexed Internet get it wrong.
Finish him: "hypothénuse" get 654k vs "hypoténuse" only 112k.
On a majority vote of Internet, the French dictionary is ruled out.
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nemesis <nam### [at] gmailcom> wrote:
> so all you need to make up new (ilogical) words is getting a bunch of dumbasses
> demanding it so?
Languages evolve. Your post alone probably contains several words that
didn't exist in the English language a hundred years ago. Or even fifty.
(Of if they did exist, they may have been used with a very different
meaning.)
--
- Warp
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On Thu, 02 Aug 2012 09:11:05 +0100, Invisible wrote:
> This stupid mistake has now stuck,
> and I defy you to find a dictionary today which even lists "napron" as a
> word.
The online edition OED does resolve it to "Apron" - I just did a search
and that's where it took me:
Forms: ME naperonn, ME naprun(e, -onne, napperone, ME haprune, ME–15
napron, 15 aprone, aproneren, aprarne, ap(p)urn, 15–16 aperne, ME– apron.
Etymology: < Old French naperon (modern French napperon ), diminutive of
nape , nappe , table-cloth < Latin mappa table-napkin. The change of
Latin m to French n is also seen in matta , natte , mespilum , nèfle ;
the medieval Latin instances of napa , nappa for mappa are probably <
French. In English, initial n has been lost by corruption of a napron to
an apron . See a adj.
:P
> Seriously, how do you *think* new languages are invented? They happen
> because of people being stupid.
Or lazy.
> Related: You can probably find "teh" in the dictionary.
a. In Taoism, the essence of Tao inherent in all beings.
b. In Confucianism and in extended use, moral virtue.
> Along with
> "pron"
Redirected to "Prone" as "pron" is an early form of that word.
Jim
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On 02/08/2012 6:51 AM, waggy wrote:
> "waggy" wrote:
> [something regrettable]
LOL
>
> Please allow me to retract my statement about spaces. I had no idea it's
> considered flame bait.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#Controversy
>
I have never heard of double spacing sentences. And I worked in the
newspaper industry, A few years after the switch over from hot metal.
Is it an American thing?
--
Regards
Stephen
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Am 02.08.2012 21:54, schrieb Stephen:
> On 02/08/2012 6:51 AM, waggy wrote:
>> "waggy" wrote:
>> [something regrettable]
>
> LOL
>
>>
>> Please allow me to retract my statement about spaces. I had no idea it's
>> considered flame bait.
>>
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_spacing#Controversy
>>
>
> I have never heard of double spacing sentences. And I worked in the
> newspaper industry, A few years after the switch over from hot metal.
> Is it an American thing?
I would presume that in the printing industry, especially with people
familiar with classic hot metal, the idea of using "two spaces after a
sentence" would prompt a puzzled look; after all, they had been using
variable-width spaces for ages, so they'd just make the (/single/) space
after a sentence wider than between words.
That said, traditional typesetters have always put a lot of emphasis on
keeping the "weight" (ratio between black and white areas) of the
printed text as uniform as possible across the page; additional
whitespace between sentences would constitute a local reduction of
weight, so they might have avoided it altogether.
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On 8/1/2012 0:57, Invisible wrote:
> Wait, what? You wrote a sentence that was /more/ than 3 lines long? What are
> you, a lawyer? ;-)
No, a PhD student. :)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
"Don't panic. There's beans and filters
in the cabinet."
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On 8/2/2012 1:01, Invisible wrote:
> I thought that when a paper is "published" that just means that it goes into
> some journal which can only be purchased for thousands of pounds per issue?
In addition, the school itself gets a copy of the thesis (or many copies)
and they wind up in the department or library or something. Certainly when
the student publishes a thesis, the school isn't going to fail to have a
vanity copy.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
"Don't panic. There's beans and filters
in the cabinet."
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On 8/2/2012 12:54, Stephen wrote:
> Is it an American thing?
FWIW, as a native American, it's one of the few "rules" that never seemed
controversial. Then again, I learned to type on a manual typewriter, so
maybe times have changed.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
"Don't panic. There's beans and filters
in the cabinet."
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On 8/1/2012 16:53, nemesis wrote:
> so all you need to make up new (ilogical) words is getting a bunch of dumbasses
> demanding it so?
This is true of all words. You just weren't around when it happened. How do
you think words show up?
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
"Don't panic. There's beans and filters
in the cabinet."
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On 8/2/2012 0:25, Le_Forgeron wrote:
> You should have learned from the image of your country in movies: "when
> you have to shoot, shoot, don't talk!" (The good, the bad and the ugly;
I was amused at an American TV show, where the cop describes the other cop
as a "loose cannon" or something like that, and the french subtitles
translated it to "cowboy" (in English). Ah, so *that* is the weird
stereotype others have of Americans: wild west themes.
I saw in a video game quote scroll someone said
Developer: "I need you to tell me what to do about a problem in the
multiplayer mode, but first I want to show you what I'm talking about."
Manager: "Right. Shoot first, ask questions later."
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
"Don't panic. There's beans and filters
in the cabinet."
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On 03/08/2012 05:50 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 8/2/2012 1:01, Invisible wrote:
>> I thought that when a paper is "published" that just means that it
>> goes into
>> some journal which can only be purchased for thousands of pounds per
>> issue?
>
> In addition, the school itself gets a copy of the thesis (or many
> copies) and they wind up in the department or library or something.
> Certainly when the student publishes a thesis, the school isn't going to
> fail to have a vanity copy.
Sure. But that doesn't help *me* read it. I always seem to have trouble
getting my hands on interesting papers and stuff...
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On 03/08/2012 5:52 PM, Darren New wrote:
> On 8/2/2012 12:54, Stephen wrote:
>> Is it an American thing?
>
> FWIW, as a native American,
Is that significant?
> it's one of the few "rules" that never
> seemed controversial.
Sounds like an American thing then.
>Then again, I learned to type on a manual
> typewriter, so maybe times have changed.
>
I learned to type on a teletype 33. No typing in school for boys.
--
Regards
Stephen
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On 03/08/2012 5:58 PM, Darren New wrote:
> I was amused at an American TV show, where the cop describes the other
> cop as a "loose cannon" or something like that, and the french subtitles
> translated it to "cowboy" (in English). Ah, so *that* is the weird
> stereotype others have of Americans: wild west themes.
In Britain nowadays, a cowboy is someone who does a shoddy job. E.g. a
cowboy builder.
--
Regards
Stephen
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Darren New wrote:
> On 8/1/2012 0:57, Invisible wrote:
> > Wait, what? You wrote a sentence that was /more/ than 3 lines long? What are
> > you, a lawyer? ;-)
>
> No, a PhD student. :)
>
This thesis is for a master's in mechanical engeering. If it gets accepted, the
PhD dissertation saga begins in the fall.
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Le_Forgeron wrote:
> Do they expect automatic translation to be successful on your thesis ?
You are prescient, in a way. The greatest trouble I've had so far is with
conditional statements.
The following:
"A mechanical component can fail when a crack in it grows too long."
could be reworded as:
"A too-long crack can fail a mechanical component."
which sounds like it has been poorly translated from some other language.
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On 8/1/2012 1:39 AM, waggy wrote:
> Well, I defended my thesis the other day and learned that my professors all
> despise my writing style. One committee member advised me to reorganize and
> rewrite the entire thing, with these specific instructions, "All your sentences
> should be subject-verb-object and no more than three lines long."
"Only those who have nothing to say can afford to be language purists."
Regards,
John
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Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 03/08/2012 05:50 PM, Darren New wrote:
> > In addition, the school itself gets a copy of the thesis (or many
> > copies) and they wind up in the department or library or something.
> > Certainly when the student publishes a thesis, the school isn't going to
> > fail to have a vanity copy.
>
> Sure. But that doesn't help *me* read it. I always seem to have trouble
> getting my hands on interesting papers and stuff...
At my university, I have to deliver two printed copies to the school library. I
must also deliver an electronic copy to a commercial online publisher to make
available through their private (paid) service. Registering a copyright and
providing open access are add-on costs for the author.
I'll shell out the bucks for the copyright since my thesis has immediate
commercial applications and I don't want one company monopolizing it. (I don't
mind not getting a piece of it since public funds paid for the research and most
applications involve safety.)
I'm also on the open-access side of scholarly publication. However, I have
worked with professional technical editors and think we need to figure out how
to get them back into the technical publication process. Peer review generally
works well enough for checking the content, but it seems silly that researchers
also need to have the specialized skills of a proofreader, copy editor, graphic
artist, and sometimes even page layout specialist.
Modern software doesn't make these respectable jobs obsolete, it just gives
authors the tools to do all of them themselves, poorly, when we could be doing
more of the research we're good at.
[It feels good to leave that preposition there at the end, where it belongs.]
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On 8/3/2012 13:08, Stephen wrote:
> On 03/08/2012 5:52 PM, Darren New wrote:
>> On 8/2/2012 12:54, Stephen wrote:
>>> Is it an American thing?
>>
>> FWIW, as a native American,
>
> Is that significant?
To the extent that the question was "is that an American thing?" yes.
>
>> it's one of the few "rules" that never
>> seemed controversial.
>
> Sounds like an American thing then.
>
>> Then again, I learned to type on a manual
>> typewriter, so maybe times have changed.
>>
>
> I learned to type on a teletype 33. No typing in school for boys.
>
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
"Oh no! We're out of code juice!"
"Don't panic. There's beans and filters
in the cabinet."
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On 8/3/2012 9:02 PM, waggy wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
>> On 03/08/2012 05:50 PM, Darren New wrote:
>>> In addition, the school itself gets a copy of the thesis (or many
>>> copies) and they wind up in the department or library or something.
>>> Certainly when the student publishes a thesis, the school isn't going to
>>> fail to have a vanity copy.
>>
>> Sure. But that doesn't help *me* read it. I always seem to have trouble
>> getting my hands on interesting papers and stuff...
>
> At my university, I have to deliver two printed copies to the school library. I
> must also deliver an electronic copy to a commercial online publisher to make
> available through their private (paid) service. Registering a copyright and
> providing open access are add-on costs for the author.
>
Medical community is sort of pissed over some of that practice. Its
generally "common" practice, in that field, to also submit a version to
same public archive, like PubMed, only, many of those "paid services"
don't want any of it to be available, save through their paid services.
How the hell they think medicine would have advanced, if every time
someone wanted to run an experiment, they had to pay half their research
budget to buy papers on the prior experiments done in the same field, is
beyond me. How people manage it in other fields, as it is... Well, given
the state that some "tech" was in, among research institutes, as apposed
to the business world, a few years back, the answer seems to be, "Huh?
You mean they make IDEs and debuggers?"
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