I'm not a writing style bigot, but I know what I don't like. One example: people who said 'this is that...or maybe it isn't.'
For example, from the current issue of Fine Homebuilding, in an editorial about difficulties in choosing a rating system for ecologically sound buildings. "To complicate the situation further, or perhaps to simplify it", (this organization's going to work with that one to do some stuff). Okay, whats your point of view, writer? Do you think its going to make the choosing more difficult, or do you think its going to make it easier? Or do you think they want to make it easier, but won't succeed? Or if making it easier isn't their goal, in your mind, then what is?
I'm not a great writer, but I value style. Words, and how they're used, matter to me. When I see that kind of thing, I cringe. Its sloppy. Its right up there with waiters coming to the table and saying "Hey, howya doin?" I know, don't read anything into it, its just a greeting, but still -- Have we been introduced?
Sorry for sounding like a crotchety guy... it just bugs me. Y'know, man?
2 comments:
Terminal prepositions really irk me.
I had a boss who would send out emails that were one long sentence...
When I changed jobs, during my interview they asked if I had any pet peeves. One might assume they meant about working with people, but I answered that I had big problems when educated people send out mass emails with a multitude of grammatical errors. They tried to redirect their question towards personal things people did, but I kept bringing it back that I was really bothered by terminal preps and run-ons.
It doesn't bother me all that much, but I can easily see how it would. You know the famous quote about that, probably --
"And then there is the rule about never ending a sentence with a preposition. One of the most famous breakers of this rule is Winston Churchill, who, after reading one of his speeches that his editor had rearranged to avoid ending a sentence with a preposition, he was struck with the awkwardness of it. Churchill then wrote a note to the editor saying, "This is the sort of bloody nonsense which up with I will not put."
Found here.
I agree with you about the emails. It reminds me of the possibly apocryphal story of SAS and the dirty tray tables. If they don't care about the emails, what else don't they care about?
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