W dniu 2014-09-16 o 06:25, Dominique Pellé pisze: > R.J. Baars <r.j.ba...@xs4all.nl> wrote: > >> There is an official advice for Dutch, stating that for understandable >> reading, an average of no more than 12 words a sentence is required. >> >> Since I can only make rule per sentence, I made a rule, warning for >> sentences of more than 18 words. That rule hits in about 45% of all >> sentences! >> >> I made another one, triggering from 30 up. That one still triggers in 11% >> of all sentences. >> >> Then there is one alerts from 50 upwards. That one is seen in about 1.5% >> of all sentences. >> >> So I am sure us Dutch make too long sentences overall. A rule triggering >> at that much sentences is a nuisance. Should I set the first 2 to be off >> by default? And have the one with 50 set to 'on'? Or should I try to stick >> to 'enforcing' the understandability of text? >> >> You probably dealt with issues like this, so I would like to hear your >> opinions. >> >> Ruud > > Hi Ruud > > Please don't turn such rules on by default. In my opinion, > warning on 45% of the sentences (or even 11%) will cause > more harm than good. Users will stop using LT if they see > that it warns for so many sentences, without even bothering > changing settings, especially users trying LT for the first time. > It's better focus on errors that are definitely mistakes. > I don't think that it's worth having such rules when they are > "off" by default either.
I completely agree. I think the official advice is simply wrong. There is a lot of mistaken linguistic prescription everywhere, for example, about the unreadability of passive voice or split infinitives in English. This advice is simply concocted out of thin air rather than based on what is really perceived as a mistake. If an official regulatory body says that Homer, Goethe or Shakespeare are bad writers (and they all used more than 12 words per sentence), then I suppose they have never read anything but an alarm clock manual. Such restrictive rules make sense only for special contexts for clarity purposes (legal documents, technical writing etc.). But not for general usage. Regards, Marcin ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Want excitement? Manually upgrade your production database. When you want reliability, choose Perforce. Perforce version control. Predictably reliable. http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=157508191&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Languagetool-devel mailing list Languagetool-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/languagetool-devel
