Author Topic: Dear Expert (Read 151584 times)

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #875 on:** December 08, 2014, 11:44:59 AM »

Have you guys ever seen people use technic for technique? I've seen several people do it, and I had a piano textbook once that did. It drives me batty because it's hard to squeeze the same pronunciation out of technic without feeling really weird.

Tante Shvester · « **Reply #876 on:** December 08, 2014, 11:51:02 AM »

I haven't seen that one. I'm wondering if the spellcheckers are driving the change in spelling

Jonathon · « **Reply #877 on:** December 08, 2014, 11:59:08 AM »

Apparently it's a thing. link

Quote

tech·nic noun \ˈtek-nik, for 1 also tek-ˈnēk\

Definition of TECHNIC

1 : technique 1
2 plural but sing or plural in constr : technology 1a

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #878 on:** January 08, 2015, 11:19:53 AM »

Is there any real reason at all to insist on differences among em-dashes, en-dashes and hyphens? Are there any cases of ambiguity? I can't understand why we still care about them, which I realize makes me obnoxious to fellow graphic designers and purists, but seriously. I see no reason we can't just use one size dash for everything.

Jonathon · « **Reply #879 on:** January 08, 2015, 11:47:09 AM »

I like the en dash, but I'll admit that it doesn't serve a real purpose that couldn't be served by a hyphen. I guess you could argue that there's a difference between a hyphen as a separator (as in a phone number) and an en dash as an indicator of an inclusive range, but there's no real risk of ambiguity.

I still think em dashes and hyphens should be separate, though. Using single hyphens for dashes leads to confusion because you can't tell the difference between a compound word and a break in the sentence, which are very different things.

rivka · « **Reply #880 on:** January 08, 2015, 01:12:45 PM »

Unless you put a space on either side of the hyphen-acting-as-emdash.

Jonathon · « **Reply #881 on:** January 08, 2015, 01:15:32 PM »

Yeah, that could work.

Keith · « **Reply #882 on:** January 09, 2015, 10:11:29 PM »

I actually have some trouble parsing Rakeesh's posts on fora because he uses hyphens without spaces instead of emulating emdashes with spaces.

Jonathon · « **Reply #883 on:** January 10, 2015, 08:32:33 AM »

Yeah, I was thinking of that too.

rivka · « **Reply #884 on:** January 11, 2015, 09:55:44 AM »

Me three.

dkw · « **Reply #885 on:** January 20, 2015, 06:10:11 AM »

Fourthed.

dkw · « **Reply #886 on:** January 20, 2015, 06:22:38 AM »

Is there an English word that refers to the word in another language that is translated into the language you are writing in? The source word? Used in a sentence like "Dikaiosune is the _____ of "justice" in Plato's Republic." I guess it would be the inverse of the word translation.

Jonathon · « **Reply #887 on:** January 20, 2015, 07:44:51 AM »

Hmm. I don't think I've ever encountered a word quite like that. Usually I see things phrased like "Dikaiosune is translated as 'justice' in Plato's Republic."

dkw · « **Reply #888 on:** January 20, 2015, 09:16:02 AM »

Yeah, me too. Or "The word "justice" is a translation of the Greek word "dikaiosune," if the starting point is the other side. It seems like there should be a word for it, though.

rivka · « **Reply #889 on:** January 20, 2015, 10:12:55 AM »

Original word?

dkw · « **Reply #890 on:** March 04, 2015, 12:54:54 PM »

If the title of a book ends with a question mark do you put a comma after the question mark in a situation where you would normally put a comma after a book title?

Jonathon · « **Reply #891 on:** March 04, 2015, 01:09:40 PM »

It depends on the style guide. The latest edition of Chicago says to do so, but only in source citations. APA says no, and I can't find anything in MLA.

dkw · « **Reply #892 on:** March 04, 2015, 01:13:05 PM »

I'm using Chicago. Thanks.

But here's a worse one . . . an article title that ends with a question mark. Comma inside the quotation marks after the question mark?

Jonathon · « **Reply #893 on:** March 04, 2015, 01:27:12 PM »

Inside. It's a little weird, but they're not budging on the in-or-out question.

dkw · « **Reply #894 on:** March 04, 2015, 01:30:59 PM »

Thanks.

Jonathon · « **Reply #895 on:** March 04, 2015, 01:31:45 PM »

No problem.

pooka · « **Reply #896 on:** March 05, 2015, 04:37:52 AM »

Can you rewrite the sentence to avert this abomination?
Now I'm thinking of a monster slayer hero that seeks out and corrects adjacent punctuation.

dkw · « **Reply #897 on:** March 05, 2015, 10:40:27 AM »

I'm thinking of an educational video game for teaching grammar and/or punctuation. When you rewrite the incorrect sentence the monster turns aside and doesn't eat you.

Annie Subjunctive · « **Reply #898 on:** March 22, 2015, 08:32:49 PM »

That's cool! I have a ton of half-developed educational apps that I just need to find a good enough programmer to help me finish. Do you make any games yourself?

dkw · « **Reply #899 on:** March 23, 2015, 05:03:47 AM »

No, that was a stray thought in response to pooka's post.