Within which he kicks it off with with a passive sentence...
Please learn to write
91–100 of 124 posts
Re: Please learn to write
#92Many people are commenting that writing improves with practice, and that's true, but it probably isn't enough. The 10,000 hours count only if they're done well. I'm not a writer but here are some basics I've found helpful. 1. Revise constantly. If you haven't revised it three times you almost surely haven't done enough. You don't need an outline, but as you write new thoughts will occur to you, previously open questi…
I once asked a well known science writer how many times he will revise passages. He sighed and replied "sometimes, for the difficult spots, maybe fifty to a hundred."
This made me feel much better about my own writing, which often goes through many, many drafts.
It also helped me appreciate Thomas Mann's maxim that a writer is someone who finds writing harder than other people.
Re: Please learn to write
#93One of my all time favorite pieces on writing is Orwell's "Politics and the English Language."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Langua...
Re: Please learn to write
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
Eschewing trailing prepositions is a rule improperly inherited from Latin. It does not apply to Germanic tongues where prepositions are necessary to disambiguate verbs. For example, to ask about, to ask of, to ask to, and to ask in are very quite distinct. In Latin, the default position of the verb is the end of the sentence. Latin word order isn't fixed like English, so the ordering of words is a form of emphasis, a…
nicely written. > You can't similarly transform intransitive verbs because they require a preposition. In German, you would say a for-ask or an of-ask, but we don't accept that in English. i think i'll have a bit of a lie-down now....
> I think I'll have a bit of a lie-down now...
Maybe in your lean-to? (Only other example I can think of quickly.)
More seriously, thanks to the grand-parent for squelching the preposition nonsense so soundly.
Re: Please learn to write
#95Source of my problems: design issues 5% architecture constraints 5% language shortcomings 1% mental blocks 5% personal time management 4% personal energy 5% communication with others 75% I waste more time just trying to figure out what others are trying to say, sometimes in person and by voice, but mostly in writing. For most emails, I have to click "reply" or call back simply because what you're trying to tell me is…
Did I just end that sentence with a preposition? A preposition is a perfectly acceptable thing to end a sentence with. Seriously. If you find yourself re-writing it as "with which to end a sentence" you're going to come across as stilted and awkward.
"This is the kind of arrant pedantry up with which I will not put."
-- Winston Churchill, on not ending sentences with prepositions
Re: Please learn to write
#96Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.
-- Conway's Law ( http://design.caltech.edu/erik/Misc/Conway.html )
First reading this adage was a relevation. I realised I've never worked on a technical project that wasn't constrained by it. This post/discussion reminded me of it again.
Re: Please learn to write
#97I often find it annoying in writing and in speech when people don't know the correct technical terminology for an idea they are trying to express, when they ought to. Believe it or not, there are people out there that write Objective-C, for example, and don't know what an "instance variable" or a "class method" are by name.
Or go blathering along about ctors or visitors. If you want to use slang from some random book or website, define it.
Re: Please learn to write
#98Source of my problems: design issues 5% architecture constraints 5% language shortcomings 1% mental blocks 5% personal time management 4% personal energy 5% communication with others 75% I waste more time just trying to figure out what others are trying to say, sometimes in person and by voice, but mostly in writing. For most emails, I have to click "reply" or call back simply because what you're trying to tell me is…
I learned to improve my writing quite a bit by using outlines that let me shift through levels of abstraction at will. I write long e-mails and blog posts using mind-mapping software. Being able to re-order my paragraphs & sentences, include or change examples, and step up and down different levels of detail has made it much easier for me to communicate the points I want to make. I've found that this helps even when…
What mind-mapping software do you use?
A quick Google search reveals quite a few apps. I had never heard of this "genre" until now!
Re: Please learn to write
#99Earlier quoted context omitted.
I learned to improve my writing quite a bit by using outlines that let me shift through levels of abstraction at will. I write long e-mails and blog posts using mind-mapping software. Being able to re-order my paragraphs & sentences, include or change examples, and step up and down different levels of detail has made it much easier for me to communicate the points I want to make. I've found that this helps even when…
What mind-mapping software do you use? A quick Google search reveals quite a few apps. I had never heard of this "genre" until now!
MindNode (http://mindnode.com/) is not bad for Mac. I've also found FreeMind (http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) pretty good in the past.
Re: Please learn to write
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
I learned to improve my writing quite a bit by using outlines that let me shift through levels of abstraction at will. I write long e-mails and blog posts using mind-mapping software. Being able to re-order my paragraphs & sentences, include or change examples, and step up and down different levels of detail has made it much easier for me to communicate the points I want to make. I've found that this helps even when…
What mind-mapping software do you use? A quick Google search reveals quite a few apps. I had never heard of this "genre" until now!
I used to use bubbl.us because it has nice keyboard shortcuts. Now I use www.checkvist.com because you can create stuff in a list format, which is easier to paste into documents and share with others.