Is spelling important?

[Levo-Lon]

30 years ago my job involved reviewing Safety Case documents written by engineers designing Sizewell B nuclear power station before submission to the licencing authorities.

Occasionally they were well written, but it was by no means unusual to find 100 words plus, single sentence paragraphs that, when untangled, actually said the opposite of their intended meaning.

Sometimes precision and concise use of standard English are important.

In that context, er yes it would help, A lot

 

[PK99]

Er, you could have put that better.

Gotcha!

 

[Pale Rider]

30 years ago my job involved reviewing Safety Case documents written by engineers designing Sizewell B nuclear power station before submission to the licencing authorities.

Occasionally they were well written, but it was by no means unusual to find 100 words plus, single sentence paragraphs that, when untangled, actually said the opposite of their intended meaning.

Sometimes precision and concise use of standard English are important.

Mmm, licensing not licencing.

Starting a sentence with a number is poor style, so 'Thirty years ago'.

Last par, ' precision and concise use of standard English is important'.

That's me spending 30 seconds editing the last post of yours I randomly found.

Gotcha indeed.

 

[nickyboy]

Mmm, licensing not licencing.

Starting a sentence with a number is poor style, so 'Thirty years ago'.

Last par, ' precision and concise use of standard English is important'.

That's me spending 30 seconds editing the last post of yours I randomly found.

Gotcha indeed.

Split infinitive

 

[Pale Rider]

Split infinitive

True, infinitives should never ever be split.

 

[colly]

Being an old fogy, I pick up spelling mistakes (despite not being a great speller myself); punctuation and grammatical errors.

I often communicate with colleagues whose first language is not English, that makes me check and re-check emails to make sure that the language is clear and simple.

Our daughter is a linguist and repeatedly tells me that a language is is a living thing and naturally changes over time. I’m still annoyed.

PS Holding my breath for the first post pointing out a mistake!

Your biggest mistake is being too reasonable. No one likes that.

 

[CharlesF]

Your biggest mistake is being too reasonable. No one likes that.

That hurt!

 

[theclaud]

True, infinitives should never ever be split.

Why not?

 

[nickyboy]

Why not?

I couldn't give a monkey's myself

I only called out the split infinitive cos the poster was making a big thing about other folks' "errors".

 

[theclaud]

I couldn't give a monkey's myself

I only called out the split infinitive cos the poster was making a big thing about other folks' "errors".

I know - that's why I asked him and not you.

 

[Ian H]

True, infinitives should never ever be split.

Shakespeare was splitting infinitives before the split infinitive rule was invented (by pedants). Common-sense should prevail, so avoid splitting where it obscures the sense and meaning.

 

[PK99]

Why not?

The prescription against splitting the infinitive is a hangover from a classical education - the Latin infinitive is a single word and ergo cannot be split.

In English is has always seemed to me overly restrictive to always forbid splitting infinitive as doing so often introduces useful complexity/subtlety/emphasis by creating a compound verb eg "to boldly go", but extreme splitting eg "to boldly and with great courage and bravado go" hinders rather than assists in conveying meaning.

 

[theclaud]

The prescription against splitting the infinitive is a hangover from a classical education - the Latin infinitive is a single word and ergo cannot be split.

In English is has always seemed to me overly restrictive to always forbid splitting infinitive as doing so often introduces useful complexity/subtlety/emphasis by creating a compound verb eg "to boldly go", but extreme splitting eg "to boldly and with great courage and bravado go" hinders rather than assists in conveying meaning.

Extreme Infinitive Splitting - it'a a white-knuckle ride!

It was a bit of lawyerly question, TBH. I'm aware of the origins of the rule - I was more after a reason anyone might actually consider it valid or applicable.

 

[Ian H]

...I was more after a reason anyone might actually consider it valid or applicable.

Pedantry. It's a popular hobby.

 

[colly]

Glad I am I never studied Latin