Well, I never write unnecessarily long sentences unless I absolutely have to, or unless I forget to take my medications, or on Tuesdays that fall on a full moon; and I avoid the use of too many punctuation marks, especially in the short sentences I firmly believe in; otherwise I might be guilty of what a grade school teacher I had long ago called "run-on sentences", but of course I would never do that.
----- Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list CHIPDIR-L" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, February 10, 2004 6:19 PM > > I think it's not our fault but that of the Englisch speakers: > > Their sentence structure is very rigid and doesn't lend itself > > much for the content rich long sentences that we are used too. > > Long sentences are perfectly possible in English, as long as you get the > punctuation right. Admittedly a lot of English speakers are lazy and break > the sentences up into small, easy to manage chunks just to alleviate the > need to work out where to put the commas etc! > > > But the main problem is the way that the use of short sentences > > has affected their brains over time: They just can't stay > > concentrated long enough during long sentences anymore to > > understand the subtle nuances of what we try to express. > > That last sentence doesn't scan to me... The just is superfluous. The > anymore needs to be worked into the sentence in a different manner to make > it sound right. You also mixed past and present tenses! ;-) > > Something like this is better: They can no longer stay concentrated for long > enough during long sentences to understand the subtle nuances of what we are > trying to express. > > Just to demonstrate, long sentences are perfectly acceptable in English > language, as long as you use the correct punctuation in the right places to > let the reader draw breath appropriately, as otherwise the reader doesn't > know how the sentence splits up until after they've read and thought about > it, which spoils the meaning and generally makes the words meaningless. > > I was taught there should be punctuation wherever you pause when reading a > sentence if the punctuation is right. > > Cheers, > > Richard - (not American... :) > (and trying to be educational, not having a go at anyone) > > -- > Author: Richard Purdie > INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Fat City Hosting, San Diego, California -- http://www.fatcity.com > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message > to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in > the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L > (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may > also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing). > -- Author: Syd Levine \(AnaLog\) INET: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Fat City Hosting, San Diego, California -- http://www.fatcity.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB CHIPDIR-L (or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from). You may also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).
