2021-03-29 ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – write & writing & write-up
2021-03-29
ศัพท์ น่าสับสน ชุด W – write & writing & write-up
แนะนำการใช้ ตามที่ส่วนใหญ่ใช้ แต่ละท้องถิ่น
ความหมาย อาจผันแปร ตาม ตำแหน่ง/หน้าที่ ในประโยค
Dictionary.com
ออกเสียง write = ‘RAHYT’
ออกเสียง writing = ‘RAHY-ting’
Dictionary.com
5 Writing Rules You Can Break
(No Matter What Your English Teacher Taught You)
When it comes to writing, there are rules galore.
We start learning them in grammar school,
when we’re first taught that sentences should end with periods
and questions with question marks.
Then, through the years,
we’re introduced to preposition prohibitions,
the dangers of dangling participles,
the sins of split infinitives (oh my!), and more.
Soon, writing
—which at its essence is a creative process
—feels laden with strict land mines
and may start to become formulaic and stuffy.
As they say though, rules are made to be broken,
and that’s especially true when it comes to the English language.
Yep, some of those rules
your high school English teacher taught you are outdated,
without basis, and unnecessary.
And, unless you’re writing in a traditional, strict environment
(that high school English paper comes to mind), you can ignore them.pu
(Any guesses as to which rule we just broke there? Hint: see number five below.)
Here are five writing rules you may want to consider breaking …
Five writing rules you can break
1. Never end a sentence with a preposition
While you should still avoid ending a sentence with a preposition,
if you must do linguistic gymnasticsin order to do it, it’s not worth it.
In the English language,
we use prepositions at the end of the sentence all the time
—it’s a perfectly natural construction.
In fact, efforts to move that pesky preposition
can sometimes leave said sentence
sounding stiff, awkward, and overly formal.
For example, “Who is he going to the dance with?”
sounds much more natural than “With whom is he going to the dance?”
You don’t want to add unnecessary prepositions,
such as “Where are you going to?”
when “Where are you going?” will do just fine.
But ending with one on occasion is perfectly acceptable and even preferred in some cases.
2. “They” is not a singular pronoun
They is actually both a singular and plural pronoun,
and it has been for centuries.
Lexicographers have determined that as far back as the 1300s,
they and its related forms have been used to refer to an indefinite referent
—that is, an unspecified, unknown person.
Using they acknowledges
the gender or sex identity of a person or people isn’t known.
Today, they is breaking ground as the preferred choice
to refer to a specific person who is nonbinary
—or doesn’t identify with the binary genders
of female and male to describe themselves
—because they is not explicitly gendered.
For example,
you may say, “My child won the race. They make me so proud.”
Our entry for they
now devotes a separate definition for each of the distinct uses
as part of our biggest dictionary update ever at Dictionary.com.
3. Only write in full sentences
While full sentencesshould make up the majority of your writing,
you don’t always need a subject and a verb to get a point across.
Yes to fragments!
Fragmentscan add a powerful punch or help the cadence of a piece flow.
Worried about breaking this rule? No problem.
If you’re only using a fragment or two for effect and emphasis,
it’s a perfectly acceptable writing technique.
4. Don’t split infinitives
Split infinitives aren’t nearly as scary as they’re made out to be.
In most cases,
you want to keep to and the accompanying verbtogether
instead of placingan adverb between them.
In some cases splitting them can change the meaning of your sentences.
For example,
if you say, “I really want to dance” it means you want to dance.
Whereas if you say, “I want to really dance,”
it impliesyou want to dance more intensely.
(Don’t we all, don’t we all …)
A lot of these rules that we’re taught about writing
—such as this one, and the rule
against prepositions at the end of sentences
—date back to a few centuries ago,
when some stuffy grammarians decreed English
should be more like the Latin, which they thoughtwas a perfect language.
As a result, they imposed rules that are native to Latin on English,
but they aren’t native to English.
For example, in Latin, an infinitive is one word (e.g., salt?re, “to dance”);
in English it’s two (to dance), so it’s natural that
we’d insert a wordbetween them from time to time.
5. Don’t start sentences with conjunctions
Starting a sentence with a conjunction,
such as and, or, nor, so, or but,
is often the most natural-sounding way to go.
Doing so can add emphasis and can help you avoid run-on sentences.
But, what about what your English teacher told you?
Don’t worry too much about that.
Many grammarians call this rule a superstition.
According to the Chicago Manual of Style:
“There is a widespread belief
—one with no historical or grammatical foundation
—that it is an error to begin a sentence with a conjunction
such as and, but or so.
In fact, a substantial percentage (often as many as 10 percent)
of the sentences in first-rate writing begin with conjunctions.
It has been so for centuries,
and even the most conservative grammarians have followed this practice.”
So, there you go.
A final word for writing rebels
Of course, you can’t ignore all the grammar rules.
For example,
we’ll never endorse using your when you mean you are,
and there’s no wiggle room
when it comes to using effect when you really mean affect.
However, modern English is a lot more liberalthan it used to be,
and in many cases, that makes writing strongerand more reader-friendly.
For most purposes, you should write more like you speak
and let the words flow naturally.
Your former English teacher may not like it, but your readers will.
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Words at Play
5 Writing Rules Destroyed by the Dictionary
Omit needless rules
1 "Don't Use Adverbs"
The adverb is not your friend.
Adverbs ...are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
They’re the ones that usually end in -ly.
Adverbs, like the passive voice,
seem to have been created with the timid writer in mind....
With adverbs, the writer usually tells us
he or she is afraid he/she isn’t expressinghimself/herself clearly,
that he or she is not getting the point or the picture across.
—Stephen King, On Writing, 2000
There are numerous usage "rules"
regarding the placement of adverbs in prose:
one shouldn'tsplit a compound verb or infinitive with them
(so, no "to boldly go" or "must be heartily congratulated");
one must place them closest to the word they are modifying
(so, no "Quickly the news anchor corrected himself";
go with "The news anchor quickly corrected himself");
one shouldn't start a sentence with them,
especiallyif the adverb in question is hopefully;
one should know when to use a flat adverb
(like quick in "move quick" and safe in "drive safe")
and when to use an inflected -ly adverb
(like "quickly move aside" and "safely drive the truck");
the overuse of qualifying adverbs like perhaps and somewhat
"amounts with English journalists to a disease,"
as Henry Fowler put it in 1908,
adding that "the intemperate orgy of moderation is renewed every morning."
The words that get picked on the most are,
as King points out, the -ly adverbs.
They're derided as lazy and redundant,
particularly when paired with a speaking verb:
He shouted angrily at her. "Don't go in there!" she said fearfully.
"I'm sad," he said sadly.
These are terrible sentences:
shouting usually implies upset;
you can find a better speaking verb like "whispered" or "shrieked"
to get the idea that she's afraid across;
and it's a good thing that last sentence is fictional,
because were it to appear in writing,
it would likely cause the deaths of millions of copy editors
due to rage-aneurysms upon first read.
The advice to, as King puts it,
"use the adverb in dialogue attribution only in the rarest and most special of cases....and not even then, if you can avoid it"
makes sense when one is faced with a sentence like
"I'm tired," she said jadedly. We're tired of these sentences too.
But the idea that adverbs as a whole
need to be excised from prose is ridiculous.
First, the targetsare always words that end in -ly,
some of which (like manly and friendly) are not adverbs at all.
Second, a wide variety of words that we use in everyday,
idiomatic prose are adverbs.
Here's an example:
But the idea that adverbs as a whole
need to be excised from prose is ridiculous.
First, the targets are always words that end in -ly,
some of which (like manly and friendly) are not adverbs at all.
The adverbis one of our hardest-working parts of speech,
and it doesn't deserve the scorn heaped upon it.
Before you cut an adverb,
make sure it's not vital to the meaning of your sentence
("They treated him brutally" is not the same as "They treated him,"
though it's also not as powerful as providing concrete details
of the way he was treated),
and if you do decide to hack away at them,
make sure that your -ly words are actually adverbs.
But don't try to get rid of all of them.
Even Stephen King uses them, and in the paragraph telling you not to:
With adverbs, the writer usually tells us
he or she is afraid he/she isn’t expressing himself/herself clearly,
that he or she is not getting the point or the picture across.
2 "Never Use the Passive Voice"
"Never use the passive where you can use the active."
—George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," April 1946
English verbshave two voices: active and passive.
We use the active voice in sentences like this one,
and it shows who is doing the acting (we are)
and what is being acted on (the active voice).
But the passive voice is often used in more formal sentences,
like this one,
where the actor—here, the invisible writer of this sentence,
who is the one using the passive voice—is hidden from view.
Here are a few examples of sentences
written in the active voice and then recast in the passive voice:
The teacher told us to use the active voice. vs We were told to use the active voice.
The police questioned the suspect. vs The suspect was questioned.
I made a mistake. vs Mistakes were made.
You'll noticethat the passive voice seems to distance
an action from its perpetrator,
or it makes the thing being acted on
("we," "the suspect," and "mistakes" above) more important than the doer.
For this reason,
the passive voice is very common in more formal writing,
where the authors want to keep the perpetrator of the action
or the speaker distant.
Writing advicehas eschewed use of the passive voice since at least 1920, when "Use the active voice" was a point of composition in William Strunk, Jr.'s, The Elements of Style.
But much of the advice against using the passive voice ignores something very important: it's an integral part of the way that we use verbs in English.
The passive voice flourishes in modern English
because we have a need for it.
The passive refocuses our attention on the recipient of an action,
particularlywhen the writer wants to emphasize
the recipient or the doer of an action isn't known:
The child was hit by a drunk driver.
For this reason,
the passive voice is used in scientific writing,
since the emphasis is on the results of research
and not on who is doing that research.
Passive voiceis also handy when stating something that should be obvious:
Valuables should not be left in unlocked cars.
Sometimes, however, the passive voice is used to evade,
and this is the type of passive that Orwell (and many other commentators) object to the most.
The press asks why thus-and-such happened, and a spokesperson responds "Mistakes were made." Sure: but by whom, and why?
Should you steadfastly avoid the passive voice?
Our Dictionary of English Usage says no:
The point, finally, is that sentences cast in the passive voice have their uses and are an important tool for the writer.
Everyone agrees you should not lean too heavilyon passive sentences and that you should especially avoid awkwardly constructed passives.
The few statistical studies we have seen or heard of
indicate that you are likely to use the active voice
most of the time anyway.
3 "Never Use a Verb Other Than 'Said' to Carry Dialogue"
Never usea verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
The line of dialogue belongs to the character;
the verb is the writer sticking his nose in.
But said is far less intrusive than grumbled, gasped, cautioned, lied.
I once noticed Mary McCarthy ending a line of dialogue with "she asseverated," and had to stop reading to get the dictionary.
—Elmore Leonard, "Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle," The New York Times, 16 July 2001
This is a rule that is often repeated,
something that is supposedly the province of "showing, not telling."
But this is less a rule of writing
and more of a personal preference of Leonard's.
There's plenty of lovely prose that uses dialogue verbs besides said:
It came out of the third storey; for it passed overhead. And overhead—yes, in the room just above my chamber-ceiling—I now heard a struggle: a deadly one it seemed from the noise; and a half-smothered voice shouted—“Help! help! help!” three times rapidly. “Will no one come?” it cried; and then, while the staggering and stamping went on wildly, I distinguished through plank and plaster:—“Rochester! Rochester! for God’s sake, come!”
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847
Brontë uses shouted and cried here, when we, as astute readers, could probably deduce that the disembodied voice was likely shouting, if Jane Eyre could hear it one floor down. Leonard's dictum that said should be substituted here substantially changes the meaning of the passage: instead of a loud struggle above Jane's room, we'd just have a lot of furniture moving and some mumbling indistinguishable from the floor below. Shouted and cried also serve to increase the tension of the passage.
One could argue that Brontë was, compared to Leonard, a florid writer and so a bad example of what Leonard means here. But even other writers who preferred a sparser style indulged in a few dialogue verbs apart from said every once in a while:
"Ain't she cute?" Red Sam's wife said, leaning over the counter. "Would you like to come be my little girl?"
"No I certainly wouldn't," June Star said. "I wouldn't live in a broken-down place like this for a minion bucks!" and she ran back to the table.
"Ain't she cute?" the woman repeated, stretching her mouth politely.
"Arn't you ashamed?" hissed the grandmother.
—Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," 1953
O'Connor, one of the American South's most iconic and spare writers, was a devotee of said, but this passage shows that a well-deployed repeated and hissed can add just the right amount of color to a passage, as well as obliquely show the reader something about the character. The hissed here shows that the grandmother in the story is embarrassed at June Star's impertinence, but is also too proper to holler, rant, or yell. The repeated here tells you that the woman is merely doing her social duty: though you don't know much about this woman, you know that she certainly doesn't believe that June Star is cute.
It goes beyond dialogue markers, too:
Beatrice: I / had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man / swear he loves me.
—Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing, 1598
How much more vehement is Beatrice's declaration when Shakespeare has her use "swear he loves me" over "says he loves me"?
Of course, lots of these non-said dialogue markers are almost as old as said itself is. Check your dictionary and you’ll see that dialogue verbs like crow, yell, whisper, and groan are contemporaries of said and had ample use in Old English as well as in Modern English.
Leonard does have one good bit of advice, however: don't use asseverate for said.
4 "Omit Needless Words"
Omit needless words.
Vigorous writing is concise.
A sentence should contain no unnecessary words,
a paragraph no unnecessary sentences,
for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines
and a machine no unnecessary parts.
This requires not that the writer make all sentences short, or avoid all detail and treat subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.
—Strunk & White, The Elements of Style, 1959 (2000)
Held to be The Writer’s Handbook,
The Elements of Style is an expanded pamphlet originally written by William Strunk, Jr., and expanded upon by E. B. White (he of Charlotte’s Web fame) in 1959. Along with advice about the passive voice and keeping your writing in the same verb tense is this oft-quoted axiom: omit needless words.
The question is, of course,
what’s a needless word and who gets to say? Take this paragraph:
Sitting beside the road, watching the wagon mount the hill toward her, Lena thinks, “I have come from Alabama: a fur piece. All the way from Alabama a-walking. A fur piece.” Thinking although I have not been quite a month on the road I am already in Mississippi, further from home than I have ever been before. I am now further from Doane’s Mill than I have been since I was twelve years old.
Ready your red pens: how many redundant statements and words are in this paragraph? Quite a few. The use of mount here implies that the motion is upward: do we need “the hill”? What about Lena’s first sentence? Or the last sentence? We could lose half this paragraph and the meaning would still be clear.
Luckily for William Faulkner, his editor let the sentences stand. This is the opening paragraph to A Light in August, one of Faulkner’s many novels, and it’s representative of his stream-of-consciousness style of writing. To edit out the needless words here would be to strip Faulkner of what makes him Faulkner.
Sometimes authors use words for rhythmic emphasis:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death.
—William Shakespeare, Macbeth, 1606
Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow: the rhythm of the first line of Macbeth’s famous soliloquy stops the reader and listener short and tells us something about Macbeth’s state of mind (spoiler alert: it’s not good!). “Tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day” means the same thing, but “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow / creeps in his petty place from day to day” slows the listener down so that they, too, can wallow with Macbeth.
If we have wordsin our language (and our dictionaries),
then it is because they are needful, not needless.
And though we tend to focus on the meaning of words,
we can’t deny that they can have extra-semantic uses:
authors can employ them for emphasis, zip, bite.
They are there to be used, and used with skill and abandon.
5 "Avoid Colloquial Language"
Slang is everywhere.
When we use it in everyday life to communicate with friends informally,
it’s usually fine.
In fact, sounding too formal around our friends is kinda weird.
Slang, or colloquial language—to use the formal term
—is not appropriate in academic writing and many professional communication situations.
—Karen Langbehn, USF Writing Studio blog post, 18 May 2012
Some writing teachers tell their students to avoid certain classes of words: slang, jargon, new words whose meaning isn’t apparent.
The idea behind this is that
you don’t want the words you use to snag the audience’s attention
and detract from the point you’re making.
This is a guidelinethat many of us learn as we go through school,
where most of our writing is more formal and academic,
and it’s a good guideline to follow in academic and formal writing.
But context is everything.
Sometimes writers and editors will forget that
not all writing isacademic writing,
and they’ll expand on the rule a bit to say that
one shouldn’t use words that aren’t entered into a dictionary
(regardless of what one is writing).
Take it from the dictionary: this way madness lies.
No dictionary you consultwill be a complete record of the language,
but merely a snapshotof some of the language in use at a particular time.
We’re not saying that your writing will be terrible
if you limit yourself to the words entered in that $5 paperback dictionary you picked up at the bookstore, but we will be sad that you won’t have the word smellfungus (which has nothing to do with smells or fungus) at your disposal.
Additionally,
dictionaries follow the language.
A new word appears; people begin to use that word more and more;
it shows up consistently in edited prose;
we eventually enter it into the dictionary.
If writers are supposed to
avoid words that aren’t entered into the dictionary,
then the whole process falls apart at the third step.
Plenty of writers have used words that aren’t entered into dictionaries. From a purely chronological point of view,
there were centuries of authors who wrote before general English dictionaries were even a thing—Shakespeare, for instance.
Even now, writers may choose to use words or jargon not in dictionaries for world-building purposes.
Anthony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange is full of a fictional slang called Nadsat; the Harry Potter series is full of words that aren’t in dictionaries.
In short,keep your audience in mind,
but certainly, use words that aren’t in the dictionary.
We like reading them as much as we like collecting them.
Dictionary.com
What Is Technical Writing?
Technical writing.
It’s one of those things that you likely see nearly every day,
without giving it a second thought.
It’s therewhen you need it,
but it’s not something you probably know much about
unless you do it for a living.
We’re here to change that.
What is technical writing, anyway?
Well, if we’re getting, you know … technical,
the first definitionof the word technical is
“belonging or pertaining to an art, science, or the like.”
It can also mean “peculiar to or characteristic of a particular
art, science, profession, trade, etc.”
include high-tech, specialized, and scientific.
The word write, of course,
“means to express or communicatein writing;
give a written account of.”
So, technical plus writing in the simplest terms
means giving a written account of technical topics,
or topics that relate to the arts, sciences, professions, or trades.
Technical writing is frequently used in complicated fields
like biotechnology, computer hardware and software,
and chemistry with a goal to break down
complicated gobbledegook intosimple, understandable language.
‘'It’s often used to compose manuals or instructional materials,
but can also be used to write briefs,
reports, white papers, website copy,
and other communications in a technical field.
Topics rangefrom the intricate workings at NASA
to a guide on how to use your coffee pot.
According to the Society for Technical Communication,
technical writing meets at least
one of the following three characteristics:
- Communicating about technical or specialized topics,
such ascomputer applications, medical procedures,
orenvironmental regulations.
- Communicating by using technology,
such asweb pages, help files, or social media sites.
- Providing instructions about how to do something,
regardless of how technical the task is
oreven if technology is used to create
ordistribute that communication.
Unlike creative writing,
technical writing is pretty cut and dry.
It’s about taking complicated materials
and breaking them down
in a straight-forward, easy-to-understand manner.
It takes great attention
to detail and meticulous accuracy.
Writing must be organized, direct, and exhaustive.
The history of technical writing
While it may seem like a modern skill,
technical writing has actually been around for centuries.
According to some, it was Aristotle back around 384–322 BCE
who kicked off the profession with his writing,
which included a dictionary of philosophical terms.
Technical writing continued through the years,
but really came to life during World War I
as advancesin nuclear technologies, medicine, and aerospace proliferated, along with a need for documents to accompany them.
In 1953, both the Society of Technical Writers
and the Association of Technical Writers and Editors were established.
In the years since,
the field has only grown with the introduction of personal computers, mobile phones, and countless other products
and innovations that all need documentation and supporting materials.
Oops! We could not locate your form.
Working as a technical writer
Technical writing is a hot skill to have, too.
According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics,
the jobs for technical writers are projected to grow 7 percent between 2019 to 2029, which is better than the average rate for all occupations.
As of 2019, the median pay rate for technical writers was $72,850 per year or about $35 per hour.
To becomea technical writer, you’ll likely need a bachelor’s degree,
usually in English, journalism, or some sort of communications.
Beyond writing skills,
it helps to have knowledge of the industry in which you’re writing.
There’s typicallya lot of industry-specific jargon
and terms you’ll need to know in order to write clearly,
and you must be able to learn as you go.
If you’re looking for the buzz of a byline or pine for a Pulitzer Prize,
technical writing probably isn’t for you.
Nor is it forthose creative souls who yearn to craft
memorable characters and paint gorgeous scenes with their words.
If, however, you’re looking for a solid career
and like the challenge of distilling complicated information
and helping people understand things,
then it may be a skill worth pursuing.
And even if a career as a technical writer isn’t for you,
we hope you now at least appreciate that coffee maker manual a little bit more.
Common Errors In English Usage Dictionary
Writting & writing
One of the comments English teachers dread to seeon their evaluations is
“The professor really helped me improve my writting.”
When “-ing” is added to a word
which ends in a short vowel
followed only by a single consonant,
that consonantis normally doubled,
but “write” has a silent E on the end
to ensure the long I sound in the word.
Doubling the Tin this case would make the word rhyme with “flitting.”
Dictionary of Problem Words in English
Write-up
This fabricated word has become a standardnoun and verb,
but the same usagethat has elevated it to respectability
has reduced itto triteness.
Possible substitute:
report, account, notice, article, review, description, analysis.
“This is an excellent report of the meeting.”
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