On Nov 14, 7:05*am, aj <ron...@mcdonalds.comwrote:
>
If you're going to blog, you should really try to work on your writing
skills. *For example, run-on sentences are a bad idea:
There's something deja vu about this criticism. Have you written this
before?:)
It's not uncommon for someone to introduce a blog and be called out as
a source of
grammatical fog. Of course I agree with the general idea of writing
showing at least
a fleeting acquaintance with sentence structure/punctuation as opposed
to the whimsical stuff you generally read. But what about any
criticism going up a notch or two. I'm talking not only form but
style. I've yet to see somebody write that "before I could get the big
picture the author put me to sleep" but I think its prevalent. Instead
of singling out an anonymous soul who thinks he has something to
share, what about those who speak with the written word for the
industry (or who think they do) in various venues such as columns,
blogs and books. IT has its share of thoughtsicles that can string
sentences together but read like icicles. They write in drone-on. A
tiered architecture quickly turns to one of tears. The agony is not
only one of comprehension but of actually reading it. Is their any
evidence that anyone in IT took a creative writing course (let alone
one in computer science)? Does IT have a {'Maureen Dowd','Peggy
Noonan','Pat Buchanan'}? Nope, we have CS - chicken scratch. The
industry has no stylists, no creative writers. Perhaps if the
codesmiths were introduced to wordsmiths we'd have less IT
schizophrenia and there would be more encouragement for geeks to
communicate gracefully in ones actual, rather than imagined, mother
tongue. Most developers think of sql as dead man walking. Perhaps if
its major spokesmen write as if they're still alive there might be
more clarity. As one who tries to combine style with substance I can
attest that it's a moving target. But one worth pursuing (if only a
well crafted paragraph were as easy as an elegantly constructed
query). Even if one has really nothing to say of any significance one
can profoundly communicate it. After all there are industries that are
baseless yet capture the imagination thru the written word (as opposed
to code) :)
www.beyondsql.blogspot.com
stylishly contrarian
P.S. Good hunting JAW (you do not appear to be J(ust) A(nother) W
(anker) :)
