Precision in English

[Acme]

 

...

-----Part of precision in writing is formatting and I particularly dislike how indenting is so difficult on a computer. Oh for the ease of the typewriter in this regard! (To indent these paragraphs I inserted white dashes.)...

Why insist on indenting, though? A blank space between paragraphs serves the same purpose. It wastes vertical space, but that is not in short supply on the Internet.

...

 

-----I'm suggesting indenting because double-spacing wastes not only space, but time. The double-spacing forces the reader to scroll and interrupts the flow of the reading. It is every bit as much an impediment to communication as all caps or leetspeak. All we want are the facts.

[studiot]

 

Acme

 

I find posts such as Externet's multiple-double-spaced one-liners hard to read and jarring.

 

This is interesting because I tend to space out much of my stuff double as I find it more readable that way, on screen.

I have had many comments, on more than one forum, to the effect that my readers, anyway, prefer this.

 

This is in no way a criticism of your opinion.

[Acme]

 

I find posts such as Externet's multiple-double-spaced one-liners hard to read and jarring.

This is interesting because I tend to space out much of my stuff double as I find it more readable that way, on screen.

I have had many comments, on more than one forum, to the effect that my readers, anyway, prefer this.

 

This is in no way a criticism of your opinion.

 

Perhaps those readers have nothing to compare your style to other than the non-indented single-spacing that online editors force on us. I don't so much object to a double-space between paragraphs containing multiple lines as I object to double-spaced single lines as in Externet's post in this thread.

 

The Tab key of the typewriter has been adulterated by the computer and I demand a criminal investigation.

 

Addendum:

 

I was cut short on the last post due to a low battery and I have some additions. The no-indent double-space for paragraphs is referred to as block style and is perfectly acceptable. Traditionally it is recommended in more formal situations such as business.

 

Besides my objection to Externet's post (the style, not the content) my primary whine is that computers make using the less formal indent style a pain in the fanny.

 

PS Another irritating feature of the editor here is the automatic appending of a separate post to a recent post when the separate post is made arbitrarily close in time to the first.

Edited May 29, 2014 by Acme

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Perhaps those readers have nothing to compare your style to other than the non-indented single-spacing that online editors force on us. I don't so much object to a double-space between paragraphs containing multiple lines as I object to double-spaced single lines as in Externet's post in this thread.

Admittedly our software makes the block layout uglier than it has to be. Instead of letting me choose the spacing between paragraphs to be narrower, it merely inserts a blank line between each, so I can't control the gap. If I could I would make it more subtle.

[Externet]

My questionable formatted post was written with Gedit, on Linux Ubuntu + Gnome + Firefox and pasted here. If matters knowing. Was not typed on the reply window directly.

[Acme]

My questionable formatted post was written with Gedit, on Linux Ubuntu + Gnome + Firefox and pasted here. If matters knowing. Was not typed on the reply window directly.

Acknowledged. I see the error frequently and only singled you out because the example was readily found. It's probably too late for you to edit the post now, but I appreciate your clarification.

 

This does bring up another aspect of improving clarity and precision of writing and that is proofreading. Succinctly and in the vulgar vernacular, just do it. While there is an immediacy to online writing, there is nonetheless plenty of opportunity to p/review a reply before hitting Post.

 

I was working on the proof of one of my poems all the morning, and took out a comma. In the afternoon I put it back again. ~ Oscar Wilde

source

[John Cuthber]

If you need to spend much time wondering about the addition of a comma, change the sentence.

[Acme]

Admittedly our software makes the block layout uglier than it has to be. Instead of letting me choose the spacing between paragraphs to be narrower, it merely inserts a blank line between each, so I can't control the gap. If I could I would make it more subtle.

Those bastards! The IP Board software has some definite problems in the easy-on-the-user department. Segue to another element of precision in writing which prompted an entire thread by imatfaal; the proper quoting of material. While his thread focuses on the 'how-to', the 'why' follows the reasoning for employing precision in writing in general; to enhance clarity and make the communication easy on the reader.

 

>> imatfaal's thread, The Quote Function - a tutorial in several parts.

 

Returning to the emphasis on English established in the title, there is the ubiquitous imprecision cast on the reader by English homonyms. A few that I love to hate include affect/effect, do/due/dew, to/too/two, and plane/plain. I have attached below a short list of homonyms; feal free two ad you're own.

 

>> Short list of homonyms

Edited May 31, 2014 by Acme

[Dekan]

The list of homonyms is interesting. I note that It doesn't yet include two words which seem to be rapidly acquiring status as homonyms, viz

 

"Accept" and "Except".

 

These words denote opposite concepts. But they're getting merged into an identical pronunciation. This can lead to confusion for the modern generation who don't know spelling.

For example, on a leading internet auction-site, I've sometimes seen this in the seller's terms of payment:

 

"We do not except checks" Which ought to mean, going by the spelling, that checks are included in the methods of payment - ie, they're OK.

 

Whereas what the seller quite obviously meant was, checks are not OK -ie, they're excluded from our methods of payment.

 

This confusion doesn't arise in speech. Because, while you might say : " I accept your point of view", nobody says: " I except your point of view"

Which shows that the spoken words, even if pronounced the same, don't confuse. It's only when they're spelled in print, that ambiguity can arise.

[Acme]

...

This confusion doesn't arise in speech. Because, while you might say : " I accept your point of view", nobody says: " I except your point of view"

Which shows that the spoken words, even if pronounced the same, don't confuse. It's only when they're spelled in print, that ambiguity can arise.

Au contraire. It is from the spoken ambiguity that the spelling airs arise. This is clear from the definition of homonym.

 

homonym

1. (Linguistics) one of a group of words pronounced or spelt in the same way but having different meanings.

Arguably some of these words are better described/defined as homophones, but the writing errors are still rooted in the speaking and hearing.

 

homophone

One of two or more words, such as night and knight, that are pronounced the same but differ in meaning, origin, and sometimes spelling.

Here is a more expansive explication from the first link:

hom`o•nym′ic, adj.

 

syn: homonym, homophone, and homograph designate words that are identical to other words in spelling or pronunciation, or both, while differing from them in meaning and usu. in origin. homophones are words that sound alike, whether or not they are spelled differently. The words pear “fruit,” pare “cut off,” and pair “two of a kind” are homophones that are different in spelling; bear “carry; support” and bear “animal” are homophones that are spelled alike. homographs are words that are spelled identically but may or may not share a pronunciation. Spruce “tree” and spruce “neat” are homographs, but so are row (rō) “line” and row (rou) “fight” as well as sewer (so̅o̅′ər) “conduit for waste” and sewer (sō′ər) “person who sews.” homonyms are, in the strictest sense, both homophones and homographs, alike in spelling and pronunciation, as the two forms bear. homonym, however, is used more frequently than homophone, a technical term, when referring to words with the same pronunciation without regard to spelling. homonym is also used as a synonym of homograph. Thus, it has taken on a broader scope than either of the other two terms and is often the term of choice in a nontechnical context.

[Dekan]

Thanks Acme for your #35.

"Homonym", "Homophone", and "Homograph". My vocabulary has been extended. How exquisitely subtle the English language can be! The privilege of thinking and speaking in English, is something we should be grateful for.

 

Even if we did pinch a lot of words from other languages, such as Classical Greek.

I know that in Greek the three words quoted above would be be something like:

 

"Samename", "Samesound" and "Samewrite". I'm not sure whether those words would aid thought, or blunt it. This is a question I sometimes ponder

 

For example, in English we have the words "Euphony" and "Cacophony", which seem to convey a kind of abstract concept. But isn't that lost when translated to their blunt Greek equivalents: "Goodsound" and "Badsound"?

 

They look like Newspeak words such as "Goodthink" and "Goodsex". And the Newspeak language as we know was designed to limit the range of human thought, not extend it. In fact I've often speculated that Orwell based Newspeak on the Greek language.

 

But all this is threaddrift, and I will desist! Thanks again for your informative, and valued post.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Dekan

[studiot]

Thank you for this quote Gopher T

(Post #622 in this thread here http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=60389)

 

 

My favorite mis-spelling is an my global company's email spell checker. For some reason, our Asian employees continually mis-spell the word "warehouse" as "wherehouse". Their spell checker then corrects it to "whorehouse". They assume the spell checker is correct and send the email to our supply chain team to advise them that, "our customers are complaining that our whorehouse is too far away", or, "the products in the whorehouse are approaching the expiration date". Just last week, "A customer came in the whorehouse for an ISO audit and he didn't like the cleanliness but he likes our service."

[Acme]

Thanks Acme for your #35.

...

You're welcome.

 

Thank you for this quote Gopher T

(Post #622 in this thread here http://forum.allaboutcircuits.com/showthread.php?t=60389)

Nice one.

Where house? Whorehouse. Hoar house! Gray house?

 

I went searching for some precision-in-writing nuggets & found the following. Can we say proofread...again?

 

Precision in Writing Is That Word Necessary?

..."Cast as cold an eye as possible on what you've created, recognize its strengths and weaknesses, and revise and edit to bring the manuscript to it full potential." ...

My cold eye cast it gaze askew.

 

In fairness, the article does bring up some good points on repeated redundancies. That's what got Ophiolite started here, so the subject isn't very unique.

Edited June 1, 2014 by Acme