« TechTarget Article: AjaxWrite | Main | Online Office Suite Apps Besides Writely and AjaxWrite »

April 12, 2006

Comments

This is a great list. I usually hate top-X lists, but I like this one a lot. I have been reading your blog for a while, so I was interested right away.

One thing I'd add about "that" is it's often over-used. My first rule about "that" has now become "do I need it?" Omitting it often makes the sentence clearer and more direct. For example,

She told me that she had gone to Florida for spring break.

This is clearer and more direct as

She told me she went to Florida for spring break.

Hi Xaprb,

>> One thing I'd add about "that" is it's often over-used.

You're absolutely right. I actually deleted a couple "that"s when I was rewriting it. If you can do without it, you don't need it. You can also do things like "use the blue lawnmower" rather than "use the lawnmower that is blue" if the restrictive phrase is short.

Thanks,
Solveig

You _do_ like those semicolons! :-) In 9, you have attached it exuberantly to "[Uu]nfortunately" several times.

Pete

Whoops! That's what I get for writing in Typepad rather than in OpenOffice. Nasty to read sometimes. Anyway, thanks and I've made the correction.

>

Or you might. I agree with you that this rule is antiquated. I always thought that the desired emphasis was important when considering where to place prepositions. Consider this passage:

"Tom said he couldn't believe I was sick of banana splits. He misunderstood. I still love the ice cream and toppings. It's the *bananas* that I'm sick of."

"Now, you might not want to say It's the bananas that I'm sick of."

Or you might. I agree with you that this rule is antiquated. I always thought that the desired emphasis was important when considering where to place prepositions. Consider this passage:

"Tom said he couldn't believe I was sick of banana splits. He misunderstood. I still love the ice cream and toppings. It's the *bananas* that I'm sick of."

--Sorry, my previous post didn't post correctly. Feel free to delete it. Thanks.

A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

“I’m a panda,” he says, at the door. “Look it up.”

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”

From "Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation" by Lynne Truss, easily the most entertaining book on punctuation I have ever read. I think you'll get a kick out of it, Solveig.

Hi Louis,

Yes, it's true that you would emphasize the bananas in that sentence, as an implied contrast to what had been discussed before.

You know, I'm suddenly thinking it would be fun to take famous lines from movies and redo them, either correctly or incorrectly, to show grammar rules. Imagine a famous crusader for clean food urging people to stick their heads out their windows and shout "It's the bananas I'm sick of and I'm not going to take it anymore!" ;>

Hi Alexander,

I do love what I've heard from E S and Leaves. However, I wanted to mention the other two because when I encountered it in 1991, I actually copied out several pages of quotes from it.

"Not only were we cold, starving, and far from our warm little homes; we were without any good books, as well."

"You must beckon the transitive vampire to your bedside and submit to his kisses thirstily."

Just plain fun. ;>

I never knew the difference in use of which and that... used them by intuition:)
Thank you, useful information for me))

------------------------------------------------
http://video-editing-software.downloadsoftware4free.com/

Please give me the correct usage of the following words in right sentences...

I will go now
I will leave now
she is sick
she have sick

you should have key
you must have a key


good

The comments to this entry are closed.

GetOpenOffice Consulting

Get Book Resources

Search This Blog


Categories