Slovene Association for the Study of English

Here’s a structure to ponder:

‘Ludwig Wittgenstein is one of the most influential philosophers of language who explained the essential role of “family relationships” in his influential works.’

The phrasing is complicated and and, in fact, wrong (since there are not hoards of philosophers ‘who explained the essential role of…’).

Better (as in clearer, easier to understand and more natural-sounding):

‘Ludwig Wittgenstein, one of the most influential philosophers of language, explained the essential role of “family relationships” in his influential works.’

Try to avoid “in… in…” patterns. Use adjectives or adverbs to soothe the reader’s eye and ear.

1) “In an interview in 2001, Obama states…”

vs.

“In a 2001 interview, Obama states…”

2) “In general in Atwood’s work…”

vs.

“Atwood’s work generally…”
This and the other tips for this academic year are available at:

http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LW%20tips.pdf

Here are two quick ones:

1) “too long” can neatly be replaced by “overly long” when used before a noun.

“This too long novel is dull.”
“This overly long novel is dull.”

(Hyphenated “too-long” has a smidgen of humour. E.g. “‘Yet another of his too-long lectures,’ moaned Raul.” The humour comes from the intentional flouting of the rules.)

2) “The gossips were gossiping about gossip.”
a) “The gossips” – people
b) “to gossip” – verb
c) “gossip” – singular noun. No need for the plural, even if you have oodles of stories about your neighbour.

More here: http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/index.html#guides

Here’s a quick rule that you’ll be tempted to break often: don’t have two massive sentences in a row.

A fiction editor once told me that 20 words is already a long sentence. Two qualifications: “long” is not pythonesque; fiction is not academic writing.

In lieu of an example, a mathematical formula: 2x (where x means 50 or more) = pain for the reader.

All tips to date are available at:

http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/LW%20tips.pdf

Instead of a proper tip,a list of comma splices:

1) “The ending is also the climax, the whole story almost unveils in front of us, but when the friend tells him what the flower means, we are surprised and understand the meaning of the whole story.”
2) “Everything could have been easy, if the boy was a ‘homebody’, however he was mischievous.”
3) “She lays bare the structure of the story, she presents it very clearly.”
4) “I do not know what the idea was, I was very confused.”
5) “The content of Gilbert`s letter to Nevada is also revealed and indeed resolves an argument, at the same time it also alludes to the somewhat Biblical explanation of sisterhood between women in the story and which now reaches a definite end.”
6) “People would be very strange to think dead frozen horses are romantic, they are scary.”
7) “It was shown in the film that there are steeple-chases, in my country we rear horses mostly for rehabilitation.”
8) “He did not want to make the scene believable, he wanted the audience to see the irony he was trying to show by making it obviously fake.”
9) “These people have no sense of time, they can never remember what year it is.”

For some reason, this type of error is on the rise.
Remember: don’t glue two stand-alone sentence together with a piddly little comma!
More here: http://www2.arnes.si/~bjason/index.html#guides