On Making Oneself Less Unreadable
theparisreview.org
theparisreview.org
Still, as someone who runs a couple of services to help people write more concisely, I agree with most of his advice.
And although it has nothing to do with Fowler, the title of the article itself was confusing. I almost didn't click on it because I thought it was talking about personality, not writing (since it mentions "oneself," not one's writing). Then the double-negative.
A better title would be something like "On Making Your Writing More Readable."
But then it wouldn't be accepted for publication in The Paris Review, would it..."literary critics’ words" (!).
Isn't it a joke?
PS; you need to consider the context, the author is an heir to Samuel Johnson and was active in late 1800 to 1930s. For that period, I think his entries were probably considered 'plain' English.
>> Now there is something to be said for the change, or the two changes: the old-fashioned period, or long complex sentence, carefully worked out with a view to symmetry, balance, and degrees of subordination, though it has a dignity of its own, is formal, stiff, and sometimes frigid; the modern newspaper vice of long sentences either rambling or involved (far commoner in newspapers than the spot-plague) is inexpressibly wearisome and exasperating.
-h.w. fowler
Vigorous writing is concise
-strunk and white.
That's when I when I fell in love with Fowler.
But :-) I didn't understand how on earth he could say "Johnson himself was the first to prove that there was little in the way of drudgery in the task of the lexicographer". Does he know how many years of toil it took him? Maybe he just means "It's not a dull book to read", I can't imagine what else.
Put another way, what's up with that title?!
>Turgid flabby English is full of abstract nouns; the commonest ending of abstract nouns is –tion, and to count the –ion words in what one has written, or, better, to cultivate an ear that without special orders challenges them as they come, is one of the simplest and most effective means of making oneself less unreadable.
An interesting way to communicate the message, but I'm sure it was largely unintentional.
'If and when' is not always redundant:
1) I will make your favourite breakfast if you finish your homework
2) I will make your favourite breakfast when you finish your homework
3) I will make your favourite breakfast if and when you finish your homework
(2) and (3) specify that the breakfast will be made immediately, or soon after, the homework is completed, whereas (1) doesn't indicate a time, suggesting it will be at the next opportunity (e.g. tomorrow morning).
(1) and (3) include some doubt as to whether the homework will be completed, whereas (2) assumes that it will be completed, and only the time is unknown.
>Removing it would change the statement to one of fact or make it prescriptive when it may be better taken as descriptive or a possibility among many.
There are better ways to make these distinctions, and in most contexts, you don't need to differentiate between facts and opinions on account of the difference being obvious. And where it isn't obvious, it's obviously debatable, and people will do that regardless of whether you make such a qualification.
Unfortunately it is not me who needs to differentiate, and many seem to blindly assume statements to be as fact, when they are meant to be as opinion.
I agree that it is a waste, but I can't change the way my words are perceived, only the words that I use.
It is wrong to start a sentence with “but”! It is wrong to start a sentence with “and”! It is wrong to end a sentence with a preposition! It is wrong to split an infinitive!
As you indicate, there is nothing to fix when the complaint of incorrect usage is accurate. The markup quotes _verbatim_. Therefore quoting long lines will scroll on smaller screens.
https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc
* Blank lines separate paragraphs.
* Text after a blank line that is indented by two or more spaces is reproduced verbatim. (This is intended for code.)
* Urls become links, except in the text field of a submission
> something quoted which is very long and let's pretend it wraps lines
look something like this (sans horizontal scrolling):
| something quoted which is very long and
| let's pretend it wraps lines
I had a userscript doing that on HN for a while along with as other text fixes, and the result seemed quite readable.
And then you still can't quote a poem without double
linespacing, because blank lines are paragraphs, and line
breaks are ignored. The HN markup is really lacking.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice. You can't start a fire sitting 'round crying over a broken heart
This gun's for hire
Even if we're just dancing in the dark
You can't start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
And when using it for code and only code, as per "official instructions", you can't.
Line 1 Line 2
> Line 1 > Line 2
I've just added the following rule to my local HN CSS stylesheet (using the Stylus CSS manager):
pre { white-space: pre-wrap; }
My full set of mods: https://pastebin.com/jWFqQSj9
news.ycombinator.com##.comment pre:style(max-width:none!important)
news.ycombinator.com##.comment code:style(white-space:pre-wrap)Is my preferred method of quoting on Hacker News.
Modern linguists generally agree that it's not wrong to split an infinitive [1], and it's not wrong to end a sentence with a preposition which is part of a phrasal verb [2], or even in general [3]. Claiming otherwise is just pseudo-Latin prescriptivism.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Split_infinitive#Current_views
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrasal_verb
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preposition_stranding#Opinions...
Ha. Best example of this I can recall: 'said' meaning 'aforementioned'. "I ate said taco."
Never heard it before. Then suddenly... everyone seemed to be using it.
Don't use a double-negative, and use the correct noun.
For example, On Making the Written Word Readable