> "Do what you like but it doesn't do to do it all the time." Fluent English speakers are not usually aware of it, but "do" is one of the more difficult English words. (For example, why do you say "What does XXY mean?" instead of "What means XXY?") I was told this by my high school German teacher. The above sentence has no less than four occurrences of this difficult word.
> Can anyone recommend a widely-used standard of technical English > that would gladden his heart to read? The following are not necessarily standards of technical English, being either not standard or not technical. But they are either suggestions on how to write clearly, or are examples of clear writing. If you can only read one I recommend the first. • Orwell, *Politics and the English Language <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Politics_and_the_English_Language>*, 1946. • Falkoff and Iverson, *The Design of APL <https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/APLDesign.htm>*, 1973. • Falkoff and Iverson, *The Evolution of APL <https://www.jsoftware.com/papers/APLEvol.htm>*, 1978. • Strunk and White, *Elements of Style <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_of_Style>*, 1959. (First published in 1919.) On Fri, Oct 19, 2018 at 10:39 AM Ian Clark <[email protected]> wrote: > For Dr XXY, English is a second language. One of many. His first language > has never been studied, let alone learnt, by an outsider: it is spoken by > hardly anyone outside his village, but they've all saved up to send him to > Harvard. > > Dr XXY is on the point of reconciling Quantum Theory with General > Relativity. > His English is now good enough to read a road-sign and to buy food without > pointing – and to use the internet. > Especially to read the pearls of technical wisdom that fall from my pen. > Not for pleasure, I might add: he wants to know more about J. > > I want to be helpful, so I adopt a chatty tone. Yesterday I wrote: "Do what > you like but it doesn't do to do it all the time." > It took Dr XXY an evening of intense investigation on ويكيبيديا to discover > what I was actually saying. He did so on the off-chance it might turn out > to be crucial. > A lifetime of deep study has taught him the importance of attending to > detail. > > Now Dr XXY is no dunce. > I am. (I used not to be, but as I get older it's getting worse.) > Dr XXY is not smart: he is super-smart. He holds the destiny of the world > in his fingertips. I don't. > He is not grateful to me for wasting his time. It mortifies me to know that > I do. > I'd have done better to write: > "You are free to adopt your own strategy, but it's not good to employ this > idiom in every situation." > He'd have sussed that out in less than minute, using nothing but his > well-thumbed Websters. Because the words I used, although they were big > ones, were unambiguous. > > When I write technical stuff, Dr XXY is very much in my mind. > Can anyone recommend a widely-used standard of technical English that would > gladden his heart to read? > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For information about J forums see http://www.jsoftware.com/forums.htm
