Re: Everyday [was: Style question: "war dial" vs. "wardial" vs. "war-dial"]
I can think of only a few instances where I've been criticized for
proper grammar--in the most recent instance, a reviewer deeply disliked
my use of the phrase "for whom." It was grammatically correct, but
"that's not how people talk!" So she excised the offending phrase and
didn't notice when the rest of the sentence collapsed into grammatical
rubble.
LOL
I recast the sentence to sidestep the whole issue and made a
mental note to avoid "whom" in future documents. The perceived
snootiness of it is enough to make that reviewer whip out the red pen,
which usually results in some collateral damage to the document. Not
worth it.
You're onto something there. A few words--and whom is certainly one of them--are frequently tossed in, completely inappropriately and with the opposite effect to that intended, to make the speaker sound smarter. So when they _are_ used correctly, people get all hinky on you.
In my experience, when non-writers comment on the "grammar" of a
document, often they're really talking about the style or tone.
... or diction.
I play a lot when I am writing discursively on techwr-l or on Usenet. Sometimes I'll write a sentence that goes on for ten or fifteen lines, complete with complicated constructions, rare words, and obscure meanings of common words, just to see if I can do it without screwing up the grammar. Or I'll slip into dialect or slang or puns. Obviously these are all things that are completely inappropriate in the writing I get paid to do, and I am just treating online fora as places to let go a little and have fun with the language. It's as close to creative writing as I get these days.
But my point is that diction and style are characteristics of language we as writers need to be aware of and need to have control over whenever we put fingers to keyboard, always tuning what we are doing to the effect we are trying to convey.
Tone is harder to deal with. Any number of times I've been taken to task for "using that tone" when my intent was completely benign. So I find that aspect tricky, and I have to keep working on it. I haven't internalized a model that lets me understand and control tone in a way that keeps me from being misinterpreted. Still work to do there, I guess.
Dick
Follow-Ups:
References:
Re: Everyday [was: Style question: "war dial" vs. "wardial" vs. "war-dial"]: From: Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN
Previous by Author:
Re: Differences between Quicksilver and Interleaf
Next by Author:
Re: Everyday [was: Style question: "war dial" vs. "wardial" vs. "war-dial"]
Previous by Thread:
Re: Everyday [was: Style question: "war dial" vs. "wardial" vs. "war-dial"]
Next by Thread:
Re: Everyday [was: Style question: "war dial" vs. "wardial" vs. "war-dial"]
Search our Technical Writing Archives & Magazine
Visit TechWhirl's Other Sites
Sponsored Ads