CopyCarver
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2005
- Posts
- 1,644
The joker in the deck is that there is an implicit dependency. Although grammatically independent, "here's what I think" is an incomplete thought without an expression of what is thought.
Sister Angela taught me...
I'm not much of a writer (don't have the patience), but an avid reader, and I know what works and doesn't work. In one of my jobs, I did a lot of reading and interpreting of codes. Semi-colons can be an excellent aid to the reader in a piece that logically differentiates among concepts in those situations where periods or commas are too strong or too weak respectively to adequately do the job. They are essential in codes, laws, legal briefs, etc. all places where meaning is tied to logic where the reader and writer are seeking a common understanding of ideas. However, in stylistic writing, especially fiction, they are a nuisance simply because they are unnecessary punctuation (like having too many commas). If I keep in mind what Sister Angela taught me at Saint Agatha's back in eigth grade, I use semi-colons in formal writing if and only if they advance the presentation of the subject matter, and do not ever use them in informal writing. As for Microsoft's grammar help, I always turn it off until I'm done, and then only use it to identify potential misspellings and typos (I tend to type too fast). Believe it or not, they once suggested I should say "laid" for "lay" as the past tense for lie (as in recline), which I see they have since corrected--but it tells you geeks, not writers, are in charge of that department.
I'm not much of a writer (don't have the patience), but an avid reader, and I know what works and doesn't work. In one of my jobs, I did a lot of reading and interpreting of codes. Semi-colons can be an excellent aid to the reader in a piece that logically differentiates among concepts in those situations where periods or commas are too strong or too weak respectively to adequately do the job. They are essential in codes, laws, legal briefs, etc. all places where meaning is tied to logic where the reader and writer are seeking a common understanding of ideas. However, in stylistic writing, especially fiction, they are a nuisance simply because they are unnecessary punctuation (like having too many commas). If I keep in mind what Sister Angela taught me at Saint Agatha's back in eigth grade, I use semi-colons in formal writing if and only if they advance the presentation of the subject matter, and do not ever use them in informal writing. As for Microsoft's grammar help, I always turn it off until I'm done, and then only use it to identify potential misspellings and typos (I tend to type too fast). Believe it or not, they once suggested I should say "laid" for "lay" as the past tense for lie (as in recline), which I see they have since corrected--but it tells you geeks, not writers, are in charge of that department.
CopyCarver
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Aug 6, 2005
- Posts
- 1,644
Microsoft's spell/grammar checker is Bill Gates' revenge upon the world for calling him a midget.
The damn thing once flagged my reference to Notre Dame -- it said there is no such word as Notre and that Dame is archaic and sexist, so it suggested I use"notary woman."The only good thing about it is that it can indeed be turned off!
A
AsylumSeeker
Guest
Yeah, I recall SR suggesting turning off grammar check, it's nearly useless and often flat-out wrong. I have seen occasions where it suggests I change a word to something else, then flags the word it suggested to the word I had used initially. Could still be doing this, beard reaching the floor, if I was as dumb as the grammar checker.
The only GOOD thing I can say is that it does highlight errors I may have accidently skipped over. Backs me up for a second look. Now I'm trying to figure out which green lines to ignore. We all know it should work correctly, but that's not reality.
The only GOOD thing I can say is that it does highlight errors I may have accidently skipped over. Backs me up for a second look. Now I'm trying to figure out which green lines to ignore. We all know it should work correctly, but that's not reality.
