Sigh, how natural it is to say "This package ...", but you probably don't know a package can be easily rejected by CRAN simply because of this phrase "This package" (it has been clearly stated in the R-exts manual).
I don't think the grammar is the problem here. When in doubt, I always check what MASS does: http://cran.rstudio.com/web/packages/MASS/index.html Turns out its description is not a complete sentence, either. Sounds like R has become a language for statistical computing and graphics, plus English grammar since 3.0.x. Regards, Yihui -- Yihui Xie <xieyi...@gmail.com> Web: http://yihui.name On Fri, Jul 3, 2015 at 8:43 AM, Rolf Turner <r.tur...@auckland.ac.nz> wrote: > On 03/07/15 20:09, Federico Calboli wrote: >> >> Hi All, >> >> I am upgrading a package for CRAN, and I get this note: >> >> checking DESCRIPTION meta-information ... NOTE Malformed Description >> field: should contain one or more complete sentences. >> >> This is puzzling because: >> >> cat DESCRIPTION >> >> ... Description: Functions designed to test for single gene/phenotype >> association and for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic data. ... >> >> In my understanding "Functions designed to test for single >> gene/phenotype association and for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic >> data.” *is* a complete sentence. So, what is complete sentence in >> the opinion of whomever coded that check? > > > > If that is your understanding you need to go back to school and learn some > grammar. What you have is a noun ("Functions") modified by an adjectival > clause. No verb in sight. Ergo *not* a complete sentence. > > OTOH you are probably in good company in not knowing your grammar. The CRAN > folks most likely don't know grammar either. I suspect that they *don't* > actually demand a complete sentence. Such a demand would in fact be rather > pedantic. Moreover I really can't see how the package checker could > possibly check for complete sentences. This would require some very > sophisticated programming, it seems to me. > > If it turns out that you *really* need a complete sentence, you could say > (for instance): > > This package consists of functions designed to test for single > gene/phenotype association and for pleiotropy on genetic and genomic data. > > The foregoing *is* a complete sentence. > > cheers, > > Rolf Turner > > -- > Technical Editor ANZJS > Department of Statistics > University of Auckland > Phone: +64-9-373-7599 ext. 88276 ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.