The problem you are addressing in #4 is sometimes called stream of consciousness writing, meaning that the person just dumps their thoughts onto the medium as they occur, then never goes back and organizes them.
Rules to make the content more sensible:
Do not overuse words. There is almost always more than one descriptive that can be applied to a situation.
Avoid excessive superlatives. The magnificently awesome description rarely is.
One thought, one sentence. (ex: Cats have fur. Sometimes, the fur is multiple colors.)
Group similar thoughts together; when the topic changes, new paragraph. Corollary: Even with the same topic, when the thought changes, new paragraphs apply.
Before you publish, try to read your material as if you are someone other than yourself. If you can't do it in your head, read it Slowly and Thoroughly out loud. Do not make the mistake of "knowing" what you wrote because you will miss places where you did not include words, where the word order is incorrect, or where the spell checker betrayed you with a correctly spelled, wrong, word choice.
If your writing is important, and you have time, have someone else read it before you publish, especially for "official" correspondence.
Admittedly, not all rules apply in every situation, but I use most of the above all the time.
For the record, before posting, I read the entire post twice, replaced several words, restructured a couple of lines, moved three of them and removed an entire paragraph.
(12-15-2019, 02:15 PM)Chance Wrote: The problem you are addressing in #4 is sometimes called stream of consciousness writing, meaning that the person just dumps their thoughts onto the medium as they occur, then never goes back and organizes them.
Rules to make the content more sensible:
Do not overuse words. There is almost always more than one descriptive that can be applied to a situation.
Avoid excessive superlatives. The magnificently awesome description rarely is.
One thought, one sentence. (ex: Cats have fur. Sometimes, the fur is multiple colors.)
Group similar thoughts together; when the topic changes, new paragraph. Corollary: Even with the same topic, when the thought changes, new paragraphs apply.
Before you publish, try to read your material as if you are someone other than yourself. If you can't do it in your head, read it Slowly and Thoroughly out loud. Do not make the mistake of "knowing" what you wrote because you will miss places where you did not include words, where the word order is incorrect, or where the spell checker betrayed you with a correctly spelled, wrong, word choice.
If your writing is important, and you have time, have someone else read it before you publish, especially for "official" correspondence.
Admittedly, not all rules apply in every situation, but I use most of the above all the time.
For the record, before posting, I read the entire post twice, replaced several words, restructured a couple of lines, moved three of them and removed an entire paragraph.
Perfect anti-example(taken from here) for wrong color which blends with background
(12-11-2019, 10:24 AM)Bannorn Wrote:
The hydrolics groaned in protest as the armoured bulkhead door slowly opened onto the exterior anteroom of Oderwerft's Dock One. The Rheinwehr soldiers within snapped to attention as the new arrival was revealed in the dim glow of the emergency lighting. Wearing a simple sanitized field uniform, the only indicator of the Director's rank was the small golden pin on his collar, and the armed guards that surrounded him.
Letting his eyes adjust for a moment, the director looked at the junior officer leading the quarantine troops on this deck. "Herr Leutnant," he nodded his acknowledgement of the man, but did not wait for a reply: "The quarantine is in full effect, ja?" The man nodded nervously by way of response, falling into step behind the director as he strode down the corridor toward the access hatches that led to the Archer Class ship sitting in the dock beyond.
Arriving at the bay's primary control, he Direktor wordlessly approached the console and busied himself tapping in a series of codes. Almost immediately the control center's screens flickered, the Quanartine Warning message disappeared and was replaced with the Buro's logo. Checking the displays Speer was pleased to see that the logs confirmed the quarantine remained in effect. "Gut, nobody in our out. Systems feed is stable, all command and control functions rerouted to this station. We can begin."
Turning to the group around him, he issued his orders in rapid staccato, not waiting for acknowledgement before moving on to the next officer. "Gut. Leutnant, double the guard on the external permiter and all adjoining hatches. Agent Sellers, there is an antechamber there," he pointed at a bulkhead door opposite the dock's disembarkation point, "set up a secure interrogation room there. Tiebe, speak to the station manager and arrange for a nearby cargo bay - transfer the necessary analysis equipment from my ship so that we can begin analysis of hardware as soon as possible."
The men wordlessly went to their work, while the director looked around the group, seeking out the Daumann representative quietly standing aside, unsure of what to do. Pointing at him, gesturing that he should come closer, the director's tone softened: "You are the Daumann representative Herr Mannlicher appointed, ja? Please assist these gentlemen with whatever they man need to carry out their orders. I must also remind you this matter ist eine Streng Geheime Staatsache - not a word to anyone." Glancing toward the embarcation point, he smiled as comfortingly as he could. "Now, I must ask you to vacate the quarantine area, danke."
As the various officers took to their tasks, the group around the director had shrunk to just a few armed guards, an agent and an officer of the Rheinwehr. The director addressed the two men directly: "Herr Klaus, Herr von Potsdam, you two gentlemen will conduct this investigation and report to me your findings. First things first: Potsdam, reports indicate the presence of at least twelve escape pods in the Seattle's primary cargo hold. They are not to leave the ship, I want them burned on site, ashes contained and prepared for shipment to a black site. Klaus, contain the crew - I want a full manifest, and a rundown of all damage to the ships systems and hardware. I will speak with Herr Webb. After that, both of you carry out a by the book Code Black Investigation. Ja? Ja. No excuses, get it done."
The director led the group toward the access hatch as he spoke. Quickly entering an override code, the gangway lit up, door slowly hissing up to reveal the access hatch of the Archer Class Cruiser beyond. He paused briefly to adjust his uniform before crossing the gangway and entering the ship, looking for the welcoming party.
Highly disagree with most of the points here, except for the Obiton one.
Using darker colors can look very nice but has to be done right.
Font's smaller than size 4 have their use as well, especially since letter sizes can differ from font to font and saying it is bad on ALL of them is not true.
4-6 Lines thing.. also debatable. Using a certain amount of indent's or a pi amount can very well result in texts with a size of 6+ lines that are easily readable and forcefully putting tabstops in your texts can end up making them harder to understand, which is the opposite of what you want.
Overall though I suppose if you follow all of the steps that you have listed here, you are going to make sure that everyone can read your comms/stories/whatever while they won't look too bad.
Highly disagree with most of the points here, except for the Obiton one. Using darker colors can look very nice but has to be done right. Font's smaller than size 4 have their use as well, especially since letter sizes can differ from font to font and saying it is bad on ALL of them is not true. 4-6 Lines thing.. also debatable. Using a certain amount of indent's or a pi amount can very well result in texts with a size of 6+ lines that are easily readable and forcefully putting tabstops in your texts can end up making them harder to understand, which is the opposite of what you want. Overall though I suppose if you follow all of the steps that you have listed here, you are going to make sure that everyone can read your comms/stories/whatever while they won't look too bad.
(12-15-2019, 07:09 PM)Liberty.In Wrote: Highly disagree with most of the points here, except for the Obiton one. Using darker colors can look very nice but has to be done right. Font's smaller than size 4 have their use as well, especially since letter sizes can differ from font to font and saying it is bad on ALL of them is not true. 4-6 Lines thing.. also debatable. Using a certain amount of indent's or a pi amount can very well result in texts with a size of 6+ lines that are easily readable and forcefully putting tabstops in your texts can end up making them harder to understand, which is the opposite of what you want. Overall though I suppose if you follow all of the steps that you have listed here, you are going to make sure that everyone can read your comms/stories/whatever while they won't look too bad.
Changed the color from white to blue afterward cause it didn't look too bad after all, huh?
