Asking Questions On-Line
Asking Questions On-Line
(OP)
A colleague just introduced me to this document: How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. Although it's more geared towards the IT world, I think the concepts are just as pertinent to this environment. I recommend that everyone in the Eng-Tips community take some time to read it.
Of particular importance to this forum is the following section:
Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language It underscores how many of us feel about proper use of language, including spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation; and how improper use reflects back on the author.
It's a good read.
Of particular importance to this forum is the following section:
Write in clear, grammatical, correctly-spelled language It underscores how many of us feel about proper use of language, including spelling, grammar, capitalization, and punctuation; and how improper use reflects back on the author.
It's a good read.
Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein





RE: Asking Questions On-Line
That document is just full of quotable quotes that apply here, like:
I like the recommendation that the document be linked to a forum help page.
David
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Great link!
But where do I get one of those Bass-O-Matic file converters that they talk about in the section titled 'How to Not React Like a Loser'?
"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
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RE: Asking Questions On-Line
grammatical:
http://en
I have never heard of definition 2 before.
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RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Why do people say "grammatically correct", when apparently (according to msn/encarta) they can just say "grammatical" instead?
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RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Mike McCann
McCann Engineering
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Grammatical is an adjective.
Grammatically is an adverb.
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It took me more than one try to read it correctly.
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
however
re: "As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein"
If uncle al is correct doesn't the total area of darkness decrease?
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David
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
-
Aercoustics.com
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
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RE: Asking Questions On-Line
To grammatically obfuscate whilst spelling correctly is good speechwriting.
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
I guess I misunderstood.
My point was that grammatical does not necessarily mean grammatically correct, but apparently I'm wrong according to the article.
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
I'm not sure they are the same, at least not in all cases.
"The document is grammatical." could mean that it was written grammatically correct, or it could mean that the document is about grammar. A paper about grammar be a grammatical paper, and hopefully, it's also grammatically correct.
Good Luck
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
This is the same guy who uncovered the Eric Conspiracy.
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Sorry, I believe you are wrong about the hyphen. "Correctly" can only modify "spelled", not "language". "Correctly language" makes no sense. Besides, "subtely" is not a word.
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The circunference, is a perimeter. It will increase, no doubt!
Agustín Tomás
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Translated..."The more you know, the less you know that you know." Mikey
Mike McCann
McCann Engineering
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Sorry it took 10 days to reply, I missed that you had commented to me.
"Corectly-spelled Language" says that the "language" is spelled correctly. If "correctly" is modifying "spelled" then the meaning is muddy at best.
David
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Thanks for spelling corectly, correctly.
Mike McCann
McCann Engineering
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
David
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Hyphens are not used between adverbs ending in -ly and the adjectives they modify. Check just about any English grammar book.
However, in correctly spelled language (or even correctly-spelled language, with the unnecessary hyphen), correctly is an adverb modifying spelled. That is the only grammatical role it can have in that phrase. It is an adverb and cannot modify the word language. Correctly spelled is an adjectival phrase modifying language. The language is correctly spelled. The language is spelled correctly. The spelling of the language is correct.
It is not the case that correctly and spelled both apply equally to language in that pharse. In a phrase such as correct and succint language or correct, succinct language, both adjectives (not adverbs) would apply to language. Note, however, that without the comma or and, a hierarchical structure comes into play; correct succinct language means "succinct language that is correct", not "language that is correct and succinct".
</pedantic>
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
I wish there were more English teachers with your knowledge.
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
rmw
PS: spell checked before sending, David-only caught one thankfully.
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Thanks for the help in my argument with David. That is exactly what I wanted to say, I think.
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There are also dashes of the em and en variety (named because they are, or at least were, the width of the characters "m" and "n", respectively). On typewriters, em dashes were typed using two hyphens in a row, and en dashes kind of went away and got replaced with hyphens.
And there is also in many fonts a separate minus sign symbol to add to the menagerie of little horizontal lines.
If you look do a search on hyphen "em dash" "en dash" you should be able to get plenty o' discourse on their respective uses. Here's one:
http://www.getitwriteonline.com/archive/091502.htm
Hg
Eng-Tips policies: FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum Policies
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
However, i do agree that writing with correct grammar, punctuation and spelling is essential to maintain some sense of distinction and reverence.
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"Spelt" must be the old country version. I wasn't familiar with the word before I came to Australia, but most American dictionaries list it an alternative spelling, and spell check seems to approve of either, which is not always the case with Anglo-US variances.
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I didn't understand something.
Seems like these keys were all related to typewriters and gone from electronic keyboards. Is there a different ascii character from the different types of dashes?
If not, I'm wondering why it is a problem on email.. unless someone is sending an email by typewriter?
Obvsiously I there are some subtleties of the situation that are evading my grasp.
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RE: Asking Questions On-Line
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
Now I don't know what it is that is in my e-mail address but when it was first given to me the term hyphen was used and I had to do a mental exercise to convert that to 'dash' in my simple mind.
It is still hard to convey when I say it in spanish; they usually want to clarify whether or not it is in the middle of the line or below the line.
rmw
RE: Asking Questions On-Line
When is a hyphen a dash? Never. They are different characters. Hyphens will typically occur within words, hyphenated words. Dashes will typically occur between phrases.
Is there a different ascii character from for? the different types of dashes?
ASCII is a set of characters based on seven bit values and so it is a very limited character set — so limited in fact that Europe tends to use 8 bit character sets and encodings and different parts of Europe use different characters sets and encodings, as they tend to run out.
− minus 3−2=1
− (unary) minus 3+−2=1
‒ (figure dash) Dial 123‒4567
– ndash For ages 3–5
— mdash indicates a parenthetical thought—like this
― quotation dash ― Hello John
The figure dash above isn't displaying properly on my old computer as I haven't got an appropriate font installed, but I am hoping I'm sending the right thing. Anybody else with a computer as old as my kid might have similar problems viewing this.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7004661.stm
Regards.
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This pet peeve extends to nearly all communications, written, verbal, and other (I consider email in the "other" category). We just should not assume the person we're communicating with has the same background, or train of thought when we make a statement or pose a question.
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Yes, there are different ASCII characters. It's not that there were different keys on the typewriter keyboard and not on the electronic keyboard. It's that there *had* been a distinction in typesetting, and different keys were *not* provided on typewriter keyboards, so the distinction faded. Then with the introduction of electronic keyboards, it became possible once again to generate the variety of characters that typesetters use, so the question came back up again.
Not only are there hyphens and two different dashes, but minus sign can be yet another little horizontal line. I think the difference can be line thickness and also height within the line. You'll also find "plus sign" symbols that are different from the plus sign you can type directly from your keyboard. And then there's the difference between superscript "o", the ordinal symbol, and the degree symbol.
Lots to worry about if you choose to.
Sorry, mshimko, I know you were trying to bring this back around to the proper topic...
Hg
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