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Warp <war### [at] tag povrayorg> 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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