Common bugs in writing (2021)
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Common bugs in writing (2021)
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Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#2Excellent, concise guidelines.
To add to the 'see also' list, the Australian Government Style Manual (https://www.stylemanual.gov.au) is another great reference.
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#3This is a funny mixture of "things that are easily fixed with a LaTeX library" and "things that are challenging because good writing is hard"
If you write in LaTeX, check out {SIunitX} and {cleveref}.
Also, it's not on this list, but a pet peeve of mine: math mode (italics) should be used for variables and indices. Abbreviations or names shouldn't be set in math mode. For example, the probability of hacker news P sub H should be set as $P_\mathrm{H}$, because H is a name, and not a variable/parameter.
Relatedly, differentials shouldn't be italicized. Its \int\mathrm{d}x, not \int dx.
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#4Vale is an OSS tool that you can use as a "prose linter" with many of these rules. You can also write your own rules. Together with a spellchecker its a good replacement for proprietary tools like grammarly.
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#5I'm a little perplexed as to why professors and other academic staff have routinely hard to read websites. Yes I'm aware I can bump up the font size, but especially on mobile that gets annoying. It's one thing if they don't have a stylesheet what so ever, it's a fully another thing to intentionally make things hard to read:
font-family: arial,verdana,sans-serif;
font-size: small;
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#6Rule 24 doesn’t obey rule 11. Practice what you preach!
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#7> Avoid use of passive tense if at all possible. Example: "In each reservation request message, a refresh interval used by the sender is included." reads better and shorter as "Each ... message includes ..."
To which I submit the following article as a rebuttal: http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/~gpullum/passive_loathing.html. Oh well, at least this person seems somewhat more consistent than most in following his own rule.
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#8> If you find yourself saying "In other words," it means you didn't say it clearly enough the first time. Go back and rewrite the first attempt.
Sometimes, particularly in didactic material, it helps to explain things in more than one way, as different people may find different explanations helpful.
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#9This is a funny mixture of "things that are easily fixed with a LaTeX library" and "things that are challenging because good writing is hard" If you write in LaTeX, check out {SIunitX} and {cleveref}. Also, it's not on this list, but a pet peeve of mine: math mode (italics) should be used for variables and indices. Abbreviations or names shouldn't be set in math mode. For example, the probability of hacker news P sub…
> Relatedly, differentials shouldn't be italicized. Its \int\mathrm{d}x, not \int dx.
I like using https://www.ctan.org/pkg/diffcoeff for this.
Re: Common bugs in writing (2021)
#10> If you find yourself saying "In other words," it means you didn't say it clearly enough the first time. Go back and rewrite the first attempt. Sometimes, particularly in didactic material, it helps to explain things in more than one way, as different people may find different explanations helpful.
I agree, often I write first sentence in technical language to introduce the reader to the existing discussion and then say "In other words" to paraphrase the technical language into more familiar but less precise vocabulary.