71–76 of 76 posts
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I just checked my chat history - I used it in 2013, and there's a huge flood of "welp" from my chat partner between 2015 and 2019. (In 2020, the ball is on my side of the court again, it seems. Welp.)
Idle curiosity: what system(s) are you using that you have chat history going back that far and can easily search it?
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I also write for a living. The maximum word count often has more to do with how much the client is willing to pay than space or SEO concerns.
I think Stephen King was quoting someone else when he said "I wrote a novel because I didn't have time to write a short story". In my experience, getting the same core information into a smaller word count is extra work, not less.
I agree with the general point, but when a writer has a commercial relationship based on word counts, it changes the equation. I dislike word-count based contracts for that reason, but when the CEO of Widget Company Ltd hires me to ghost-write his blog articles, he isn't usually receptive to "you can have a 1000-word article for $400 or an 800-word article for $500".
* Good writing tells a story. Use characters and actions.
* String together cohesive prose using consistent topic strings at the beginning of a sentence.
* Put emphasis of new ideas at the end of the sentence.
* Be concise and with fewer words. Unnecessary to state with reader can infer.
Definitely these two: 1. Good writing is clear 4. Good writing is concise Use a simple, reduced vocabulary, as your readers are likely to have English as a second language (e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-44569277 ). And as Richard Feynman pointed out, try explaining it to a child. If you can't go back and rewrite it. Don't use (modern) slang, and avoid writing 'conversational' English. It's "lessons" not "lear…
I'm glad I'm more of a language descriptivist instead of prescriptivist because none of your examples bother me. >It's "lessons" not "learnings". How much have you eaten How many eatings have you had? Ugh. Does the word "drinks" also bother you? (As in "How many drinks have you had?" ) (My previous comment about that: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17020434 ) And what about everybody including today's English P…
As a non native english-speaker, my struggles in my original language is finishing sentences early instead doing long ones. Sometimes I write long phrases, full of commas, semicolons, etc. I found that in enlish people tend to be more conservative when writing sentences.
This is also the case in my native language (French), I assume it's pretty common for Latin languages.
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"Welp" might be a regional dialect, but it is used a bit differently from "well," evoking resignation about something disappointing that can't be changed. "Welp, with the gas out, we can't use the range and oven to cook the nice dinner we planned, so we'll heat something up in the microwave instead." People who say "welp" also say "well," so it makes sense to distinguish them in writing. That's not to say "welp" is a…
This one seems to be 100% USA, and then spread over social media. The same as Valley-speak became really popular after Clueless came out in the 90s. I can't recall seeing 'welp' anywhere before 2017.