141–150 of 335 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's what I noticed. It seemed to mark your writing higher the lower the reading grade level it was targeted at. I didn't realize that writing at a 5th grade level was the pinnacle of writing. What is with it's fear of adverbs?
Well, Vladimir Nabokov did describe Hemingway as "a writer of books for boys".
The source of this would be useful to integrate such features in other apps (like editors). An API might do as well at least for online tools like blogs. As a standalone site it's too much hassle to integrate it into your daily workflow I think.
I write mostly in plain text and have developed a bunch of command line writing scripts to check readability, passive voice usage, and naming conventions, but I'm not sure how I could share this with my less tech-saavy friends.
Should the language tool be integrated into the editing interface or be an external service?
Assuming an external service, how should it be integrated with CMSes (wordpress/dokuwiki)? Should the source, normalized plain text, or HTML be sent to the language service for checking? Where do the corrections/edits happen?
As far as the business model is concerned, I'm not sure there is money to be made in this as a service to end users, but if this system is integrated as part of a complete workflow for edits/corrections some publishers and freelance editors might be willing to pay for this---not as the final check, but as a self-service "run this before you submit to me" requirement they give to authors to prune the low-hanging fruits.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing about pedantic snark (less/fewer), is that it loses its teeth when you're wrong. Even if you go in for prescriptive grammar, less and fewer were never strictly divided. The distinction actually came to us through one Mr. Baker's expressed preference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fewer_vs._less#Historical_usage
While I don't think the proposed edit would help, the commenter isn't actually wrong - in modern usage, it is more correct to say "fewer corrections" than "less corrections." Language doesn't form in a vacuum, nor is its growth confined to dictionaries. Rather, language is a living, breathing thing and grammar is closer to history than mechanics. Consider the less v. fewer debate. Yes, several hundred years ago, it w…
This saddens me. I appreciate clear writing as much as anyone, but are we not denuding our language if we attempt to describe everything using short sentences and a small lexicon? I hate reading James Fenimore Cooper as much as the next person (including, notably, Twain), but surely there is a place for complex ideas expressed with a rich vocabulary and nuanced structure.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I don't think the proposed edit would help, the commenter isn't actually wrong - in modern usage, it is more correct to say "fewer corrections" than "less corrections." Language doesn't form in a vacuum, nor is its growth confined to dictionaries. Rather, language is a living, breathing thing and grammar is closer to history than mechanics. Consider the less v. fewer debate. Yes, several hundred years ago, it w…
The 'language is evolving' and 'language is defined by usage' arguments go both ways. When something was both not historically incorrect, and not considered incorrect by many current people, the arguments people make about it being wrong starts to crumble slightly.
Language is the same. If your goal is to communicate, the most easily understood choice is best. Some grammatical quirks do nothing to hinder comprehension and don't need to be pointed out (ie - less/fewer). Others are far more toxic.
- People who are interested in being a (good) writer get excited when they hear the name. The name suggests they might write well like Hemingway.
- The name is already familiar and impossible to forget.
- It creates a lot of controversy and discussion as seen in this thread!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
While I don't think the proposed edit would help, the commenter isn't actually wrong - in modern usage, it is more correct to say "fewer corrections" than "less corrections." Language doesn't form in a vacuum, nor is its growth confined to dictionaries. Rather, language is a living, breathing thing and grammar is closer to history than mechanics. Consider the less v. fewer debate. Yes, several hundred years ago, it w…
Generally the less syllables the better...