271–280 of 335 posts
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And no adverbs?!???? That's just ludicrous. I modified an adjective with one right there. I regret nothing!
To be fair, "just" rarely adds any value. "That's just ludicrous." vs "That's ludicrous." Reads pretty much the same.
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I don't think Hemingway could breathe at Cambridge.
The real Hemingway or the website? I was hoping someone would explore the idea this tool could remove elitism, since I haven't made up my mind on that (I think Paul's version is much more pleasant to read). I guess this is a start. Thinking along those lines, has anyone put Jeff Atwood's writing into this thing? He's an extremely effective communicator to large tech audiences, and my guess is that he should have a mo…
[1]http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2013/10/why-does-windows-ha...
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I don't think Hemingway could breathe at Cambridge.
The real Hemingway or the website? I was hoping someone would explore the idea this tool could remove elitism, since I haven't made up my mind on that (I think Paul's version is much more pleasant to read). I guess this is a start. Thinking along those lines, has anyone put Jeff Atwood's writing into this thing? He's an extremely effective communicator to large tech audiences, and my guess is that he should have a mo…
Paul Graham's writing seems simple and direct to me, so I wondered how the website would treat one of his essays. Here are the suggestions from the third paragraph of http://www.paulgraham.com/essay.html : "The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively (only) about English literature. (Sentence hard to read) Certainly (Adverb) schools…
Well, this is great. But it's missing something. If I'm to learn how to write clearer, I will need to use this more often. Could they create an API and a chrome addon? Ubiquity is the killer feature of any communication tool.
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Forcing somebody to write short sentences wouldn't improve his writing.
Yeah it does. Long sentences are harder to read. Bad writers write too many long sentences, and it makes their writing difficult to parse. So just forcing them to write shorter sentences will improve their writing a great deal. That said, a good writer will know when using a long sentence is the right choice for emphasis. And there's no way this program could ever develop that level of good judgement. This program is…
See, I don't think the above is any better as two sentences, and I think it works better as one. Perhaps I just don't like starting sentences with "So".
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Sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to say. If you're specifically talking about my use of "more correct", let me try another example of why I think "more correct" is useful nonsense. I'm Canadian. Therefore, I use spellings like "colour" and "honour". However, if I'm writing something primarily targeted to Americans, I switch to honor and color. It isn't that colour becomes incorrect when I write for an…
Something is either correct or it isn't, is the point. You might instead write "closer to correct", but, how clunky.
Correct \Cor*rect"\ (k[^o]r*r[e^]kt"), a.
[L. correctus, p. p. of corrigere to make straight,
to correct; cor- + regere to lead straight: cf. F.
correct. See {Regular}, {Right}, and cf. {Escort}.]
Set right, or made straight; hence, conformable to
truth, rectitude, or propriety, or to a just standard;
not faulty or imperfect; free from error; as, correct
behavior; correct views.
[1913 Webster]
Always use the most correct editions.
--Felton.
I couldn't stomach his writing style for an entire novel, so I ended up not finishing the book.
I would like to see someone make a similar website to guide you toward writing in the style of Charles Dickens.
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I'd love there to be a proliferation of plugins for different writing styles. Hemmingway, Austin, Asimov, Wilde etc. Not so interested in "improving writing", more interested in achieving different aesthetics for different goals.
I agree! The Hemingway mode at seems to be geared (ironically) at technical writing. My English teacher wouldn't like it — it encourages simplification of language and minimization of word variation. Sometimes it's good to write like Austin...