[PLUG-TALK] A pair of pants (was: software program)

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 07:24:01PM -0800, John Jason Jordan wrote:
> I am a linguist. By definition that means that I am a descriptive
> linguist. Descriptive linguists merely report and analyze what speakers
> do with their language. There are no value judgments, no right or
> wrong, no good or bad. 
...
> Still, it makes me think of high school dropouts flipping burgers. :(

John the linguist is more forgiving than John the reader.

A linguistic experiment:  submit two linguistics papers
with the same facts and conclusions to a linguistics
journal.  One is written in impeccable English;  one has
clunky grammar.  Which will get accepted?  If both are
accepted, which will get cited?  While linguists report
and analyze what speakers do, they pay more professional
attention to colleagues who follow the rules.

We have limited reading time, and we invest it in material
that meets our linguistic expectations.  It is pointless to
lecture a high school dropout on the fine points of grammar,
but it is germane to correct a writer seeking the widest
possible audience.  Publishers pay copy editors to do this.
Wikipedia gets the rest of us to edit copy for free.

Author Chetan Bhagat ("One Night @ the Call Center") grew
up speaking Hindi, trained as an engineer.  He writes better
English (and sells far more copies) than most English authors. 
Stephen King, with a B.A. in English, worked in an industrial
laundry until his writing sold well enough to support a family. 
Knowing the rules is essential to reach a wide audience, but
rules are not sufficient.  Style and engaging stories matter.

A recent addition to the pile by the nightstand is "The
Elements of F*cking Style" by Chris Baker and Jacob Hansen.
This is a parody of the venerable/fossilized "The Elements
of Style" by Shrunk and White.  The authors' aim is to 
sell a lot of copies to genY twitterheads, so they will
stop writing like 3 year olds.  Good luck, gents!

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs