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Rules like these aren't really good guide to style though. They are the sort of guidelines suited to curing teenagers of bad habits. That's the problem I have w
by sabbatic13 13y ago
Rules like these aren't really good guide to style though. They are the sort of guidelines suited to curing teenagers of bad habits. That's the problem I have with articles like these. They aren't adult discussions of language; they do not teach effective writing, and do not promote an understanding of language. One should ideally outgrow such pedagogy by one's second year of college.
- Argorak 13y agoI understood that as a temporary constraint, not as a rule. More like "you used this style a lot during the last assignment, this time, try something different". Working under temporary constraints does promote learning different aspects of a skill.
- cgh 13y agoThe Economist Style Guide disagrees: http://www.economist.com/style-guide/unnecessary-words http://www.economist.com/style-guide/unnecessary-words
- bane 13y agoThe key is to learn to write well before becoming a staff writer at the Economist. These guidelines are fine, but all of these nonos have good uses when used appropriately. Some of these guidelines even create imprecision or run counter to general usage. My father (an ex-English teacher) used to always say something like "concision is rarely wrong, unless it ruins precision."
- sdegutis 13y agoBut what about "thusly"? I'm pretty sure that should never be used.
- dllthomas 13y agoIt can, on occasion, be used thusly.
- sliverstorm 13y agoIdeally. But when I took my cross-discipline gen-ed requirements, I was pretty amazed how little & how low-quality writing was expected of at least some of the humanities first & second years. Not much chance for growth when assigning a two-page paper is enough to provoke upset.
- bane 13y agoI also noticed this in my undergrad. In my second semester gen English, a 5 page minimally researched paper was enough to get people pretty upset, while in my hard science courses, it wasn't uncommon to turn in 20-30 pages every couple weeks.
- Perseids 13y agoJust as a clarification: Why do they ask for a minimum word count (or space count for that matter) and not for a minimum quality of the content. If students can accomplish the same with less words, then so be it.
- rnprdk 13y agoI once had a professor who assigned regular essays with a maximum length of one properly formatted page. He was quite demanding, and I think I probably learned more about writing from those than most other multi-page assignments. He was also probably the most brilliant professor I'd had.
- joesmo 13y agoIn this case, the rule is just not to use the word "very." I can't think of a single context where "very" doesn't degrade from the semantics and syntax of a sentence. I think this rule is appropriate to any and every style.
- dllthomas 13y agoI don't know what it means to "degrade from the semantics and syntax of a sentence".
- odonnellryan 13y agoYou've just used it, in context, effectively!
- suchow 13y agoNo. Joesmo mentioned it, but did not use it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use%E2%80%93mention_distinction
- odonnellryan 13y agoYou're right.
- lesterbuck 13y ago