First sentence is a paragraph!
|
| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| phsolide Apr 10, 2010 8:07 PM EDT |
Watch out, that first sentence is a doozy. In fact, it's a paragraph long. I think I'm getting old, I found it hard to parse. |
| dinotrac Apr 10, 2010 11:08 PM EDT |
It's not that you're getting old; it's that the author's english is senile. |
| hkwint Apr 11, 2010 5:19 PM EDT |
It should be parsed in bash I believe: How to {benchmark,stress} your {apache, nginx, IIS} server. But I'm not sure bash will interpret the 2x3 matrixf (or is it 3x2 ?) |
| theBeez Apr 12, 2010 2:48 AM EDT |
I'd suspect English is not his native tongue. Dutch and especially German have long, complex sentences. Having translated those in English, the hardest part is to explain the authors that chopping up sentences is the only way to make it true English. |
| ggarron Apr 12, 2010 7:51 AM EDT |
@thebeez, Hi, Spanish is my native tongue, thanks for your clarifitacion about long sentences in English. I will keep that in mind for my future posts, I really like constructive critics about my content. As I like to make it nice and useful for the readers. |
| gus3 Apr 12, 2010 9:44 AM EDT |
Ever read the Declaration of Independence? The penultimate sentence has 127 words! |
| dinotrac Apr 12, 2010 10:10 AM EDT |
gus3 -- And not a one of them was "penultimate"! Besides, the Declaration of Independence was an all-out attack on English. |
| dinotrac Apr 12, 2010 10:12 AM EDT |
Ggarron - English, by virtue of its mongrel heritage, is one of the most difficult languages to write well. After all this time, we in the United States have yet to learn how it's done. |
| hkwint Apr 12, 2010 1:52 PM EDT |
Guillermo:
Readers will understand the article fine, but because of some tiny mistakes it takes more energy to read. And some people just like complaining.
You might think about asking someone whose native tongue is English to proofread your articles. It's what I do, and it helps a lot preventing mistakes which could have been prevented. Much in the same way stress-testing servers can prevent mistakes which could have been prevented I guess, so you might think of 'proofreading' as a kind of stress-testing. Or maybe teaching all of us Spanish, that might work too! Long sentences is what I suffer from too, even according to Dutch measures, and it's hard to get rid of. Comma-syndrome I guess. It becomes worse when you discover the semicolon. I advice at least letting some article rest for a night and reading it again the next day before publishing. Reading my own 'past' articles, I easily discover multiple flaws in them, and I think you might too. Keep the articles coming, eventually it's the content that matters most! |
| dinotrac Apr 12, 2010 2:40 PM EDT |
>it's the content that matters most! Hey look, none of us is immune to the grammar police. Just don't say nucular and you'll be fine. |
| jezuch Apr 12, 2010 2:43 PM EDT |
Hans: same here, in Polish; and the same with the semicolon :) But in languages like mine it's quite easy to make multiply-complex (it's an ugly direct translation of the Polish term) sentences without making too much unintelligible mess. Something I can't tell about English. |
| caitlyn Apr 12, 2010 3:05 PM EDT |
I'm going to be translating some of my technical technical writing from English to français and you can bet Ill have a native French speaker review it before publication. My French would make Guillermo's English look very good by comparison. Basically Hans gave very good advice. I also tend to write long sentences, use too many commas and generally make the same sort of mistakes you describe, Hans, and I don't have the excuse of being Dutch or German or Polish. |
| gus3 Apr 12, 2010 4:57 PM EDT |
I find a good rule of thumb to be: no more than two clauses or conjunctions in a sentence. Beyond that is time to re-phrase it. |
| theBeez Apr 12, 2010 5:53 PM EDT |
@Guillermo
Something that was very useful to me was the following sentence: (1) The button, with which the sharpness can be adjusted, is on the front of the projector (BAD); (2) The sharpness is adjusted with the button on the front (GOOD). It gave me an idea of how direct English really is. |
| theBeez Apr 12, 2010 5:57 PM EDT |
@dinotrac If you say "nucular" I go ballistic. ;-) |
| gus3 Apr 12, 2010 5:59 PM EDT |
Eliminate the passive voice: "The front button adjusts the sharpness." |
| TxtEdMacs Apr 12, 2010 7:28 PM EDT |
gus, It's time to call khess to teach how to write it properly as he does so well in his DaniWeb summaries [no snark there*]. He might no be succinct, but he leaves enticing promises. YBT * His summaries are excellent, it's just when I see the author I skip by. |
| dinotrac Apr 12, 2010 8:08 PM EDT |
beez - Can't bring myself to do it. Ten years in Texas, Texan wife, oldest child born in Texas, Mom, brother and sisters, In-law all in Texas. Still can't do it. |
| caitlyn Apr 13, 2010 1:14 AM EDT |
I thought that Bushism was spelled "nukular". Shows you what I know... |
| theBeez Apr 13, 2010 4:49 AM EDT |
@gus3 The native speaker speaks: I just learned something again! Tnx! |
| gus3 Apr 13, 2010 9:36 AM EDT |
@caitlyn: Pres. Jimmy Carter was the first president to say it that way. And he said it every single bloody time! I don't think he has ever said "new-klee-urr" in his life. @Beez: Many English speakers in the USA over-use passive voice. (Maybe elsewhere as well.) Sometimes, it's deliberate, to draw attention away, especially when it's in the form, "Mistakes were made," instead of, "I screwed up." |
| bigg Apr 13, 2010 10:09 AM EDT |
Actually Carter was not the first president to use that pronunciation. Eisenhower did it as well. http://www.slate.com/id/2071155/ The word did not come into widespread usage until recently, thus many of those who learned it at an older age - specifically not in school - pronounced it incorrectly. When I was growing up "nucular" was the dominant way to talk about nuclear weapons. Merriam-Webster's dictionary even lists it as an alternative (though not correct) pronunciation. |
| dinotrac Apr 13, 2010 10:12 AM EDT |
gus3 and bigg -- Shame on you! It is unfair and unreasonable to introduce reality into some people's elitist little worlds. It was pretty much nucular when and where I was growing up. Not sure why I don't say it that way, but never have and never (except for effect) will. |
| ggarron Apr 16, 2010 7:32 AM EDT |
@hkwint Thanks for your kind words, and advice. @Beez hi, thanks I will that into account. |
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