Use Of Punctuation In A Post And What Is Annoying or Confusing

[Chris is me]

But.. but... I love to use ellipses everywhere... like the National Weather Service does!

I'll try and cut back. Thanks! It's also a good idea to print out Andy's post, tape it to your computer screen, and read it every time you hit "submit".

(Firefox's spell checker conveniently doesn't seem to work for Quick Reply for me...)

[J93Wagner]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

But.. but... I love to use ellipses everywhere... like the National Weather Service does!

I'll try and cut back. Thanks! It's also a good idea to print out Andy's post, tape it to your computer screen, and read it every time you hit "submit".

(Firefox's spell checker conveniently doesn't seem to work for Quick Reply for me...)

That is extremely good advice, so good that it has been ingrained into my head whenever I'm about to post

[DonRotolo]

I don't know, I really like to use, these,
comma, things and avoid any other
punctuation or any other sort of
paragraphing or white space and any
other kind of well established constructs
to help improve the readability of large
blocks of text or to maybe separate the
logical thoughts into a sequence or
something I mean whats the fun if you
can read something easily and under
stand it without having to think bcz
kids 2day hav it 2 ez & they nevr hav 2
think of stuff and stuff.

Jane, can you re-post yours on January 10 please?

[Richard Wallace]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

Jane, can you re-post yours on January 10 please?

I will second Don's request. Jane, please renew this topic after kickoff.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

[NickE]

Sorry if this is somewhat unrelated, but this is also an annoyance to me:

Often, I see posts referring to specific people on teams who are probably not know to most people. This is confusing. Please specify who you are referring to in a method that is clear to all. For example, instead of saying: "John Smith suggested that we lighten the part," instead say: "Our Mentor, John Smith, suggested that we lighten the part."

Also, please take inner-team communication elsewhere (Private Messages, Team Forum, Instant Messaging, Email, etc.). This is a public forum, after all.

[GaryVoshol]

I can use a semicolon; with a little practice anyone can do it.

Using paragraphs also makes posts much easier to read.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Richard

I will second Don's request. Jane, please renew this topic after kickoff.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

I don't know if that would be considered a bump. I don't have the whole bump thing figured out. Also, I'd have to get around the whole I-started-this-thread-so-you-need-to-read-it thing but I'll think about it. Probably the first 'HELP!!!!!!' thread will push me out of the discomfort zone.

Thank you for making the suggestion, Don and Richard.
Jane

[Karibou]

Originally Posted by Don Rotolo

I don't know, I really like to use, these,
comma, things and avoid any other
punctuation or any other sort of
paragraphing or white space and any
other kind of well established constructs
to help improve the readability of large
blocks of text or to maybe separate the
logical thoughts into a sequence or
something I mean whats the fun if you
can read something easily and under
stand it without having to think bcz
kids 2day hav it 2 ez & they nevr hav 2
think of stuff and stuff.

Jane, can you re-post yours on January 10 please?

I actually had to skip over this entire post. I just couldn't read it (my inner editor began flailing and twitching as soon as they realized that that entire thing was one sentence). Seeing things like this makes me wonder if the poster cares about their reputation at all - constantly doing something like that really makes you seem like an immature, irresponsible person.

Hmm...I was going to rant about how little people care about their appearance/reputation these days, and how little common sense is used, but I'll save that for another time, or another forum.

(and I'd like my extra credit too...I did this one without even realizing it. Semi-colons are my BFFs)

[Rick TYler]

Originally Posted by Karibou

my inner editor began flailing and twitching as soon as they realized that that entire thing was one sentence

Emphasis added. The Earth must be irony all the way to the core.

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Emphasis added. The Earth must be irony all the way to the core.

The singular use of they is a somewhat reasonable way of expressing concepts that would otherwise be clumsy. English lacks a gender-indeterminate or -neutral singular pronoun that can refer to a specific subject (one doesn't work when the subject is identified). Granted, in the above example, one could have substituted "it" if one* didn't mind forgoing the implied personification of the "inner editor"; otherwise, the canonical way to express that would have been to employ "he or she", or to imply a particular gender (both of which could potentially distort the intended meaning).

Originally Posted by JaneYoung

Use Of Punctuation In A Post And What Is Annoying or Confusing

Since this thread concerns writing style, may I be permitted to take Jane to task for her aberrant capitalization?

*See how clumsy "one" can be, despite the sentence being conditional?

[Pjohn1959]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Since this thread concerns writing style, may I be permitted to take Jane to task for her aberrant capitalization?

No, but thanks for asking.

[JaneYoung]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Since this thread concerns writing style, may I be permitted to take Jane to task for her aberrant capitalization?

Sure you can, Tristan.

Considering my penchant for editing, it may be a good thing that I can't edit titles or I really would confuse readers in CD. I did proof but managed to overlook the mistake. Thanks for catching it.

Jane

P.S. Paul, you are so funny. Thank you.

[dlavery]

Jane -

Thank you for creating this thread, and spotlighting a topic that can never receive too much attention. Clarity in communication is as important now, in the age of text messages, tweets, blogs, chats and Facebook posts, as it has ever been.

Engineers (and many, many others) still live in a world that is dominated by the written word. If you hope to be successful in that community, then you must be able to write clearly and effectively. Your audience will frequently span the entire spectrum of age groups, ethnic backgrounds, socio-economic strata, and academic disciplines. They will not all be conversant in the latest HaXoR translation of "7|-|i$ i$ n07 /-\ hin7." Such shortcuts - along with poor grammar, bad punctuation, and spelling errors - are to be avoided like the plague.

Remember, you are the one trying to communicate your idea to your audience. It is your responsibility to make your message as clear and understandable as possible. It is not their responsibility to translate your garble into something intelligible. If you try to make it so, your audience will simply walk away in frustration, and your ultimate goal - communicating your idea - will be lost.

And yes, you will definitely want to bump this thread as the build season starts.

-dave




..

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by dlavery

"7|-|i$ i$ n07 /-\ hin7."

I see what you did there.

(Extra Side Note: Try not to get the point of Dave's post lost while looking for what this is not.)

[Molten]

Originally Posted by dlavery

It is your responsibility to make your message as clear and understandable as possible.

If only game hints followed the same rules...

Yes, I admit to grammatical errors. I tend to take the stance that I will write as I speak. I make sure I don't do anything too horrendous, but my sentences do get quite long sometimes. I tend to avoid breaking these sentences into several, instead I add () and ... to attempt to create some coherency. If my posts are ever less then clear, please ask for refinement. I will almost always oblige.

I still stand by a post I made long ago:
Engineers talk with math first, and grammar second. It is a fact of life.

Grammar is very important in coming acrossed as clearly to your readers. However sometimes improper grammar sounds clearer then proper grammar. That is when I tend to go away from the strict rules.

Side note: I still to this day can never remember the difference between effect and affect. If someone cares to enlighten me, feel free to. However, I've looked it up many times already and still can't seem to remember it. I tend to just use "effect" whenever I want to say either out of habit.