I'm having a problem with my Citrix.
Then you get to their desk and find out the problem is a keyboard that has come unplugged.
Stupid lusers.
BTS
Language usage gripes : I'm a geek, but I hate it when geeks who pride themselves on their proper use of technical terms, abuse the terms used by all other educated people.
by gubberningbody 30 Replies latest jw friends
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BurnTheShips
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tec
Simple is best.
If someone has to struggle to understand what you're saying (or writing) then you've failed to communicate well.
Tammy
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BurnTheShips
"Plain english" is one of the most challenging aspects of writing.
As a concept, plain language can be traced back as far as Cicero, who argued “When you wish to instruct, be brief; that men's minds take in quickly what you say, learn its lesson, and retain it faithfully. Every word that is unnecessary only pours over the side of a brimming mind.”
Cicero writes that the plain style is not easy. While it may seem close to everyday speech, achieving the effect in formal discourse is a high and difficult art: "plainness of style seems easy to imitate at first thought, but when attempted, nothing is more difficult."
Plainness does not mean the absence of all ornaments, only the more obvious ones. Cicero recognizes what Aristotle had long before pointed out, that a well-turned metaphor or simile can help us see a relation we had not recognized. In fact, he makes abundant use of metaphor and simile to teach us what the plain style is all about:
... although it is not full-blooded, it should nevertheless have some of the sap of life so that, though it lack great strength, it may be, so to speak, in sound health.... Just as some women are said to be handsomer when unadorned... so this plain style gives pleasure when unembellished.... All noticeable pearls, as it were, will be excluded. Not even curling irons will be used. All cosmetics, artificial white and red, will be rejected. Only elegance and neatness will remain. (The Orator, xxiii, 76-79)
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tec
"Plain english" is one of the most challenging aspects of writing.
True. But that's what editing is for :)
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miseryloveselders
you guys are racist.
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miseryloveselders
No!!! No!!! Absolutely not!! I will not be the one who killed this thread!! One of you MOFOs better post something, and quick.
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snowbird
MLE seems to have gone the way of RR.
Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Syl
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tec
After I read MLE's post, I was going to write that he'd given a good example of plain speak - but then I wasn't sure if he was serious or teasing :)
Tammy
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serenitynow!
"Almost everyone who has had any contact with JW's has come across the word "happifying.""
I honestly never heard that word until coming here. Is this a word from the 50s or something? When did it come about?
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serenitynow!
"No!!! No!!! Absolutely not!! I will not be the one who killed this thread!! One of you MOFOs better post something, and quick."
Have you been hitting the Svedka today?