qid int64 4 8.14M | question stringlengths 20 48.3k | answers list | date stringlengths 10 10 | metadata list | input stringlengths 12 45k | output stringlengths 2 31.8k |
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219,022 | <p>What evolutionary pressures would result in metabolic <em>IN</em>-efficiency being a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_(biology)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">fitness</a>-increasing adaptation in an animal?</p>
<p>By "metabolic efficiency", I mean "percentage of usable energy extracted from ingested energy-containing substances", not "how <em>much</em> energy does this animal use at rest". It's not about how much it uses overall, it's about how much it can extract without wasting. As such "metabolic inefficiency" would mean that the animal extracts little of the energy in the food it eats. <strong>For a benchmark of "metabolic inefficiency", let's say that this animal is capable of utilizing, at most, 10% of the energy in the food it ingests.</strong></p>
<p>By "evolutionary pressure", I mean "a reason an animal would evolve such an aspect of its biology".</p>
<p>By "fitness", I mean "the animal's ability to survive long enough to produce offspring".</p>
<p>Generally speaking, evolutionary pressure leads to <em>more</em> metabolic efficiency, not <em>less</em> metabolic efficiency; after all, not having to spend as much time and energy eating means that an animal is more evolutionary fit in other areas.</p>
<p>Note that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleiber%27s_law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Kleiber's law</a> is a thing - the idea that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate" rel="nofollow noreferrer">basal metabolic rate</a> scales to the 3/4 power of an animal's body mass. In other words, it states that an animal of mass 100M consumes about 32 times more energy than an animal of mass M, with the relevant equation being</p>
<pre><code>[energy used] = roughly [mass^0.75]
</code></pre>
<p>However, this is less of an evolutionary adaption and more of a natural constant that appears to have something to do with heat dissipation, efficiency of nutrient distribution, ratio of structural mass to growth mass, or other such reasons (no individual reason has been actually found that fully fits Kleiber's law); nor is it an evolutionary pressure. <strong>As such, please do not cite Kleiber's law as an answer.</strong></p>
<p>Additionally, "the animal is small" or "the animal is big" or "the animal is slow-moving" are not properties related to how efficient this animal is at extracting energy from its food, nor are they evolutionary pressures. They might be reasons that an animal uses a lot of energy or not a lot of energy, but they're not related to why the animal can't extract much energy from its food. <strong>As such, please do not use the animal's size or activity rate as answers.</strong></p>
<p>Good answers will explain a reason or reasons why an animal would be more evolutionarily fit if it was less metabolically efficient.</p>
<p>The <em>best</em> answers will cite evolutionary pressures that could actually exist on Earth, or a planet relatively similar to Earth in terms of atmospheric pressure and composition, type of life (carbon-based, of course), gravity, composition, and the like - no <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Earth" rel="nofollow noreferrer">super-Earths</a>, no living in a gas giant's atmosphere, etc.</p>
| [
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"text": "<p><strong>Energy goes to feed microbial commensals in the gut.</strong></p>\n<p>The microbes get the energy. ... | 2021/12/11 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/219022",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/87100/"
] | What evolutionary pressures would result in metabolic *IN*-efficiency being a [fitness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitness_(biology))-increasing adaptation in an animal?
By "metabolic efficiency", I mean "percentage of usable energy extracted from ingested energy-containing substances", not "how *much* energy does this animal use at rest". It's not about how much it uses overall, it's about how much it can extract without wasting. As such "metabolic inefficiency" would mean that the animal extracts little of the energy in the food it eats. **For a benchmark of "metabolic inefficiency", let's say that this animal is capable of utilizing, at most, 10% of the energy in the food it ingests.**
By "evolutionary pressure", I mean "a reason an animal would evolve such an aspect of its biology".
By "fitness", I mean "the animal's ability to survive long enough to produce offspring".
Generally speaking, evolutionary pressure leads to *more* metabolic efficiency, not *less* metabolic efficiency; after all, not having to spend as much time and energy eating means that an animal is more evolutionary fit in other areas.
Note that [Kleiber's law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleiber%27s_law) is a thing - the idea that [basal metabolic rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal_metabolic_rate) scales to the 3/4 power of an animal's body mass. In other words, it states that an animal of mass 100M consumes about 32 times more energy than an animal of mass M, with the relevant equation being
```
[energy used] = roughly [mass^0.75]
```
However, this is less of an evolutionary adaption and more of a natural constant that appears to have something to do with heat dissipation, efficiency of nutrient distribution, ratio of structural mass to growth mass, or other such reasons (no individual reason has been actually found that fully fits Kleiber's law); nor is it an evolutionary pressure. **As such, please do not cite Kleiber's law as an answer.**
Additionally, "the animal is small" or "the animal is big" or "the animal is slow-moving" are not properties related to how efficient this animal is at extracting energy from its food, nor are they evolutionary pressures. They might be reasons that an animal uses a lot of energy or not a lot of energy, but they're not related to why the animal can't extract much energy from its food. **As such, please do not use the animal's size or activity rate as answers.**
Good answers will explain a reason or reasons why an animal would be more evolutionarily fit if it was less metabolically efficient.
The *best* answers will cite evolutionary pressures that could actually exist on Earth, or a planet relatively similar to Earth in terms of atmospheric pressure and composition, type of life (carbon-based, of course), gravity, composition, and the like - no [super-Earths](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super-Earth), no living in a gas giant's atmosphere, etc. | **Energy goes to feed microbial commensals in the gut.**
The microbes get the energy. In return they synthesize vitamins and protein that the host cannot, and those are passed to the host. The host uses its food gathering and chewing ability to support the microbes that live inside of it. In return those microbes support their host with their metabolic and synthetic abilities.
This is not fiction. |
220,440 | <p>For a story, I'm having a character invent a new kind of calculus.</p>
<h2>Halting Problem</h2>
<p>The new math efficiently solves the Halting Problem.</p>
<p>What is the Halting Problem?</p>
<p>Provided you have code like this --</p>
<blockquote>
<p>x = input(); while (x <> 0) { x = input(); }</p>
</blockquote>
<p>How many cycles will it take for this code to stop running? The answer that's obvious to a human is that this will run until the user input is = 0</p>
<p>And that's what the new fictional calculus will provide as an answer -- that this will run until x is zero.</p>
<h2>The Barber Paradox</h2>
<p>The new match also efficiently solves the Barber Paradox.</p>
<p>What is the Barber Paradox?</p>
<blockquote>
<p>A law requires all the men in the town to be shaved (A). All of the men who do not shave themselves (B) must be shaved by the town barber. Who shaves the town barber?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Like the Halting Problem, the answer is obvious to people, but hard to encode mathematically -- which is what this fictional calculus does. Either the assumption that the town barber is a member of set A is mistaken (maybe the barber is a woman, maybe the law has an exception for the town barber), or the proposed rule of set B is incomplete. More information is required to answer the question -- and that's the answer in this fictional calculus.</p>
<h2>Use Case</h2>
<p>This math is intended to be simplified to the point where the results above are as simple as <span class="math-container">$\lim_{ x \to 0 } {{\sin{x}} \over x} = 1 $</span>. Individuals can solve extremely complicated problems on a piece of paper, much like real calculus enabled folks to look at dynamic systems of all kinds. The exact formalism doesn't matter.</p>
<p>The use case is that characters will be able to rapidly evaluate engineering conditions in extreme environments (like Venus, for example). Provided a set of our assumed relationships and actual test results, the mathematician identifies where an assumed relationship is incomplete, and either -- identifies precisely what the mis-assumption is (the barber is a woman; x will equal 0 in 30 seconds), a variable that stands-in for the incomplete part, or at least that the incomplete part exists. Hopefully, very quickly replacing the trial-and-error of years of turning over rocks and trying things out with a few weeks of things that can be done with a probe.</p>
<h2>The Question</h2>
<p>So, my question is this -- does this make sense? Does the use case make sense? Most importantly -- is this a kind of math that already exists, and I just didn't know about it? I see that there are similarities to the Halting Problem example and <a href="https://infogalactic.com/info/Big_O_notation" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Big O notation</a>, specifically.</p>
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"text": "<p>Since you have tagged this as hard-science:\n<strong>No, it does not make sense.</strong> There is ... | 2021/12/17 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/220440",
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] | For a story, I'm having a character invent a new kind of calculus.
Halting Problem
---------------
The new math efficiently solves the Halting Problem.
What is the Halting Problem?
Provided you have code like this --
>
> x = input(); while (x <> 0) { x = input(); }
>
>
>
How many cycles will it take for this code to stop running? The answer that's obvious to a human is that this will run until the user input is = 0
And that's what the new fictional calculus will provide as an answer -- that this will run until x is zero.
The Barber Paradox
------------------
The new match also efficiently solves the Barber Paradox.
What is the Barber Paradox?
>
> A law requires all the men in the town to be shaved (A). All of the men who do not shave themselves (B) must be shaved by the town barber. Who shaves the town barber?
>
>
>
Like the Halting Problem, the answer is obvious to people, but hard to encode mathematically -- which is what this fictional calculus does. Either the assumption that the town barber is a member of set A is mistaken (maybe the barber is a woman, maybe the law has an exception for the town barber), or the proposed rule of set B is incomplete. More information is required to answer the question -- and that's the answer in this fictional calculus.
Use Case
--------
This math is intended to be simplified to the point where the results above are as simple as $\lim\_{ x \to 0 } {{\sin{x}} \over x} = 1 $. Individuals can solve extremely complicated problems on a piece of paper, much like real calculus enabled folks to look at dynamic systems of all kinds. The exact formalism doesn't matter.
The use case is that characters will be able to rapidly evaluate engineering conditions in extreme environments (like Venus, for example). Provided a set of our assumed relationships and actual test results, the mathematician identifies where an assumed relationship is incomplete, and either -- identifies precisely what the mis-assumption is (the barber is a woman; x will equal 0 in 30 seconds), a variable that stands-in for the incomplete part, or at least that the incomplete part exists. Hopefully, very quickly replacing the trial-and-error of years of turning over rocks and trying things out with a few weeks of things that can be done with a probe.
The Question
------------
So, my question is this -- does this make sense? Does the use case make sense? Most importantly -- is this a kind of math that already exists, and I just didn't know about it? I see that there are similarities to the Halting Problem example and [Big O notation](https://infogalactic.com/info/Big_O_notation), specifically. | We can't check your fictional calculus because you didn't provide us with it. However, we can look at your descriptions.
The halting problem example gives a fair bit of insight into what you seek. There is no solution to the halting problem as defined by mathematicians. The language used to describe the halting problem formally includes the limitations of the language used to act upon it.
Likewise, the shaving of the barber has a well understood set of translations into set theory, and those formal definitions offer no opportunities to break free with a new form of calculus. Just as we will never find a calculus that proves 2 + 1 = 1, we will never find a calculus which resolves the issues arising in the formal language description of these problems.
Of course, I keep throwing around this phrase, "formal language." You've given us an English gloss of several problems which cause mathematicians' hair to stand on end. But the English version isn't so bad. You yourself point out the loopholes that might resolve the barber problem.
To that end, I'd like to point out the halting problem's big brother: [Rice's theorem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice%27s_theorem). You're welcome to follow the link to read the formal language version of the theorem, but the English gloss will be sufficient here. Rice's theorem states that *all* non-trivial semantic properties of any algorithm are undecidable. In this sense, "semantic" means it's referring to what the algorithm does, as opposed to "syntactic" properties which simply refer to the content of the algorithm (such as "does it have a if-then branch?"). And non-trivial just means that the property is true for some algorithms and false for others. Its trivial to prove that an algorithm "either halts or does not halt," because all programs do that.
I call Rice's Theorem the "big brother" to the halting problem because the halting problem is just one specific instance. If your property is "does the program terminate," Rice's Theorem becomes the halting problem. But Rice's theorem points to the key thing your calculus looks to be working towards: semantics. Your calculus needs to operate on the semantic meaning of these phrases, not just its syntax. For example, the issue with the Barber is a non-issue in semantics because the loopholes are rather explicit.
How explicit? Well, you talked of wanting to know if there was an existing caluclus for this. There are. There are several, because semantics is a big deal. Now none of them claim to be "complete," but they all have their places. The most calculus-y one I can think of are the [Description Logics](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Description_logic) (DL). These are semantic tools which are designed to permit "turn the crank" style approaches to arrive at answers. For example, the barber problem can be rendered in a language, [OWL](https://www.w3.org/OWL/)\*:
```
# The class of men is a subset of the class of shaved things
SubClassOf(Man Shaved)
# Everyone who is shaved is shaved by the barber.
EquivalentClasses(Shaved ObjectHasValue(shavedBy theBarber))
# Nobody shaves themselves
IrreflexiveObjectProperty(shavedBy)
# the person we seek is the person who shaves the barber
ObjectPropertyAssertion(shavedBy theBarber thePersonWeSeek)
```
Within this construct, we can ask "is this satisfiable?" Is it theoretically possible to assign values to `thePersonWeSeek` such that all of the criteria are met? And the answer is yes. By the inference rules of OWL, we can determine that this system works. Now, of course, one way is to consider that the class "Man" has 0 elements in it -- no men in the town! To fix that,
```
# Assert that there is at least one person (someone) who is a man
ClassAssertion(Man someone)
```
Now, with that loophole closed, we find that yes, it is *still* satisfiable. We can even make statements about theBarber, such as `ClassAssertion(ObjectComplement(Man) theBarber)`, which is the loophole you mentioned -- the barber isn't a man (the barer is a member of the complement of the class "Man").
This resolves your use case rather cleanly. Depending on *how* you translate the English phrases into OWL, you'll find different loop holes, or you might even find that you closed the loophole and the entire system is considered "unsatisfiable." For example, if you add rules that a barber is a human, and that all humans are men or women, you would be able to deduce that the barber is a woman.
Likewise, your goal of sidestepping the halting problem is supported by DL as well. If you can *describe* a program semantically, you can sometimes manipulate that to arrive at the answer you seek. This is what optimizing compilers do. They find a way to describe your program that lets them make useful statements.
Now DL is *absolutely* not a panacea. It doesn't rewrite mathematics. DLs were carefully designed to be quite powerful semantic tools, but to always be *decidable*. If you turn the crank on any consistency query you might make on a DL system, you can always find an answer. There's no undecidability here. How do they do it? Well they are intentionally weakened to sidestep the sorts of issues here. They can't actually describe Turing machines sufficiently to put together the phrase "does this Turing machine halt?" They do this by eschewing counting (amongst other brilliant little choices). You can't do [mathematical induction](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathematical_induction) in them, because they have no way to notate `n+1` in a way that permits proving anything.
But I do believe they are as close to a "calculus" to answer your kinds of questions as I have come across. They're fascinating beasts too. Looking up from this nice easy calculus into the larger world of semantics, there is [Model Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Model_theory), where we say "given this set of true statements in our Model, what other true statements can we make?" The rule of Description Logics closely follow the concepts of entailment of Model Theory, they just operate on a particular language which has nice properties. You can do Model Theory with the English phrases, without translating it into OWL. It's just harder to really get anywhere when your sentences are in a natural language. [Category Theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category_theory) may help with that. There are some who investigate category theory who claim it is the fundamental basis of language: all natural language phrasings can be transformed into the language of categories. A daunting claim indeed!
So, reading between the lines a great deal, your caluclus is probably a calculus of semantics. And, because you seek to make some proofs easy, it probably has an easy core of something like DL which is decidable. But, if you want to keep it fictional, it should trampoline off of this decidable DL core into something more magical. Something like [psychohistory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychohistory_(fictional)), a fictional statistical calculus that Asimov used to build a character that predicted the course of all of humanity for thousands of years.
---
\* I use OWL, rather than the native language of DL, because its a bit more accessable. DL is full of terse exacting symbology. It might look like:
$$M\sqsubseteq S$$
$$\forall\_{p, q} (p, q): s \to (q = b)$$
$$\forall\_{p, q} (p, q): s \to (p \ne q)$$
$$(b, x): s$$
While this is a very well defined notation, I find this is harder to read with all the symbols. The words used in OWL seem to help. If you're interested in the connection, the dialect of OWL I am using, OWL-DL is a ${\displaystyle {\mathcal {SHOIN}}^{\mathcal {(D)}}}$ language, where that mess of mathcal capital letters describes a particular kind of Description Logic. It happens to be one that has received a great deal of attention thanks to OWL's success. |
222,359 | <p><strong>Roombas scurry everywhere in my robot city</strong>, cleaning every surface diligently using power provided by those very surfaces using induction. They aren't limited to floors. Their design, mimicking starfish, allows them to cling to and crawl on any surface effectively cleaning every corner of the robot city. Occasionally they clean the robots themselves as they are considered as 'surfaces'. This relationship is similar to cleaner wrasses in the sea. Due to their very specific purpose, they are programmed with a similarly simple AI. If anything exceeds their knowledge, they call a supervising robot.</p>
<p>Cleaner Unit Bots (C.U.B.s for short) process their environment as follows: surfaces, obstacles and contaminants. Surfaces are cleaned, obstacles are surmounted then also cleaned and <strong>contaminants are analyzed to best choose the method of cleaning.</strong></p>
<p>Humans are a case in point. You see, my robot city isn't on earth. It resides deep in space on a commonly lifeless planet. This means these robots have never encountered organics before. In other words, the C.U.B.s have never had to clean organic waste. Their little AIs will do their best to analyze the foreign material to try and clean it. They will adorably climb on a human and try to clean them (not kill them brutally). Humans aren't made of metal or polymers, so this confuses the C.U.B.'s AI. [I'm cleaning the surface but it is still not sterile, what is this?]</p>
<h2>So to sum it up: what kind of filth are humans?</h2>
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"text": "<p>Humans are walking blobs of salty water and organic goo, all wrapped around some calcium based su... | 2022/01/15 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/222359",
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] | **Roombas scurry everywhere in my robot city**, cleaning every surface diligently using power provided by those very surfaces using induction. They aren't limited to floors. Their design, mimicking starfish, allows them to cling to and crawl on any surface effectively cleaning every corner of the robot city. Occasionally they clean the robots themselves as they are considered as 'surfaces'. This relationship is similar to cleaner wrasses in the sea. Due to their very specific purpose, they are programmed with a similarly simple AI. If anything exceeds their knowledge, they call a supervising robot.
Cleaner Unit Bots (C.U.B.s for short) process their environment as follows: surfaces, obstacles and contaminants. Surfaces are cleaned, obstacles are surmounted then also cleaned and **contaminants are analyzed to best choose the method of cleaning.**
Humans are a case in point. You see, my robot city isn't on earth. It resides deep in space on a commonly lifeless planet. This means these robots have never encountered organics before. In other words, the C.U.B.s have never had to clean organic waste. Their little AIs will do their best to analyze the foreign material to try and clean it. They will adorably climb on a human and try to clean them (not kill them brutally). Humans aren't made of metal or polymers, so this confuses the C.U.B.'s AI. [I'm cleaning the surface but it is still not sterile, what is this?]
So to sum it up: what kind of filth are humans?
----------------------------------------------- | **1: Organic Molecules**
In chemistry, 'organic' refers to any compound containing carbon, excluding carbon dioxide. Since carbon has a million uses even to robots, such as forming the backbone of [plastic](https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/POLYPROPYLENE), the robots should be familiar with organic compounds enough to tell the CUB how to deal with them.
Plastics and proteins are polymers made mostly of carbon. Considering the biggest difference is that proteins has a nitrogen atom for every 2 carbon atoms in the backbone, the CUBs' may lead it to conclude proteins are simply plastics with an unusually high number of trace elements. Therefor, it should clean collections of proteins (e.g. dead skin cells) they same way it would flecks of plastic: vacuum or brush it up.
**2: Water**
Water also has a lot of uses for robots as a very strong but stable solvent. Since reactions almost always happen [faster](https://www.chemguide.co.uk/physical/basicrates/surfacearea.html) solution, water should be all over the place in chemical factories and laboratories. Again, the robots should have enough uses for water that they would bother programming the CUB should with instructions on what to do.
Sweat is a solution of water and a [very](https://journals.physiology.org/doi/epdf/10.1152/physrev.1954.34.2.202) few trace elements, so cleaning it should be the equivalent of a small chemical spill.
**3: Human as a Whole Part 1**
Even if the traces left by humans are nothing special, maybe the human itself is. So lets go step-by-step and see exactly what happens when a CUB climbs up a human the first time.
```
1: Move forward (CUB climbs up human)
2: Examine compounds on surface (CUB runs scans of the human's skin)
3: List detected compounds:
a) Dilute solution of ions in H2O (sweat)
b) Anomalous plastic (skin cells)
4: Reexamine plastic for anomalies
High levels of nitrogen detected
High levels of sodium detected
Abnormal carbon-hydrogen-oxygen groups detected
5: Consult safety protocols
No danger is posed to this this CUB by anomalous compounds. Continue cleaning protocol.
6: Engage cleaning mechanisms number 1 and 2
7: Apply cleaning mechanism 1 (however the CUB clean up minor spills)
8: Apply cleaning mechanism 2 (however the CUB clean up plastic)
9: Move forward...
```
This is how I interpret the CUB as you describe. The overall effect on a human would be insignificant.
You could change step 9 so it only moves forward if it no longer detects material to clean. In this case the CUB would just be stuck in a loop. Your body is always going to be producing sweat and skin is held together by a tough [extracellular matrix](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82395132.pdf) that a simple cleaning is not going to damage. If the CUB did use tools harsh enough to damage human skin, then the CUB would also damage the plastic casings on regular robots. I suppose a CUB could get stuck in an infinite loop constantly using weaker techniques on the human until the human got hurt, but a good programmer would have told the CUB to move on if it cannot successfully clean a surface after a certain number of attempts. Besides, the human would simply manually remove the CUB long before it got to that point.
**3: Humans as a Whole Part 2**
I have been thinking of the CUB as very simple and basic, like a starfish or an automatic vacuum. Another way to think of it is that CUB are like the robots from Wall-E: a robot with advanced AI is given a goal and told to complete this goal however it sees fit. These types of robots have minds much closer to what we understand them as. While the primitive robot will try to clean whatever is in front of it, this more advanced robot will actually ask the question 'What is that' and try to identify new things by relating them to its prior experiences and knowledge. How would this type of CUB react to a human?
First, it would identify the things about a human that are different from the things it usually deals with. The human contains a large variety of organic compounds suspended liquid H2O, with a few other trace compounds randomly thrown about. This planet is located "deep in space". The closest star is about [4 light years away](https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/nearest_star_info.html), so lets say the robot's planet is somewhere between 2 to 3 light years from the Sun. Is there anything at [about that distance](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/solar-system/oort-cloud/overview/) with a [similar composition](https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/in-depth/) to a human... |
224,551 | <p>There's some pattern within our solar system and many others as well such as the planetary orbits lay within some gradually increasing distances. I assume they could be spread less regularly (looking at SS because extrasolars are still eclipsed by many instrumental errors and no one from my neighborhood was there himself and seen their complete picture) but natural forces kept them away from each other. Maybe at the creation moment like one stone creates circles on water - I'm not sure, but I would like to know is there any point where 2 planets having very tightly planned circular orbits (say 1AU and 1.01 AU) from which their orbits would be not stable because when planet A closing up to B it suddenly got bigger acceleration from her than the Sun. I assume there's the case but how to calculate this point if my conclusion is good?</p>
<p>When I take gravitational force equation like this:</p>
<pre><code>U = {'G': 6.6743e-11, 'jm': 1.89813e+27, 'sm': 1.98847e+30, 'em': 5.9722e+24, 'au': 1.495978707e+11,
'mm': 7.34767309e+22}
Fsun = U['G']*U['sm']*U['em']/U['au']**2
Fmoon = U['G']*U['mm']*U['em']/384000000**2
print(Fsun, Fmoon, Fsun/Fmoon)
</code></pre>
<p>and get <code>3.5416715752424943e+22 1.986220425457726e+20 178.31211127668843</code> I see that Sun is still almost 200 times stronger to attract the Earth than the Moon. I assume it's the case that Moon doesn't do his orbit alone around Sun but together with Earth. But what if for example Earth (or earth-like body) overtake a planet from AU=1.01 and meet conditions to bind together with that body? Is it the right equation to decide whether if the gravity of <code>Fbody</code> were stronger than <code>Fsun</code> then those orbit wouldn't be separated no more?</p>
<p>Is it right approach? Or maybe it's much more complicated? How close should pass a Jupyter some Earth planet to disturb the latter orbit within a Sun's system?</p>
<p>** EDIT **</p>
<p>The 3-body problem it appears to be. Found some nice simulation imaging what happens when 500x mass Jupyter orbits the same star.
<a href="https://github.com/zaman13/Restricted-Three-Body-Problem-Gravitational-System/blob/master/sample_output_1.gif" rel="noreferrer">3 body movement</a> taken from [<code>https://github.com/zaman13/Three-Body-Problem-Gravitational-System</code>]</p>
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"text": "<p>When two objects orbit a central body, the closer their orbits pass to one-another's, the more likely they a... | 2022/02/20 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/224551",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/94526/"
] | There's some pattern within our solar system and many others as well such as the planetary orbits lay within some gradually increasing distances. I assume they could be spread less regularly (looking at SS because extrasolars are still eclipsed by many instrumental errors and no one from my neighborhood was there himself and seen their complete picture) but natural forces kept them away from each other. Maybe at the creation moment like one stone creates circles on water - I'm not sure, but I would like to know is there any point where 2 planets having very tightly planned circular orbits (say 1AU and 1.01 AU) from which their orbits would be not stable because when planet A closing up to B it suddenly got bigger acceleration from her than the Sun. I assume there's the case but how to calculate this point if my conclusion is good?
When I take gravitational force equation like this:
```
U = {'G': 6.6743e-11, 'jm': 1.89813e+27, 'sm': 1.98847e+30, 'em': 5.9722e+24, 'au': 1.495978707e+11,
'mm': 7.34767309e+22}
Fsun = U['G']*U['sm']*U['em']/U['au']**2
Fmoon = U['G']*U['mm']*U['em']/384000000**2
print(Fsun, Fmoon, Fsun/Fmoon)
```
and get `3.5416715752424943e+22 1.986220425457726e+20 178.31211127668843` I see that Sun is still almost 200 times stronger to attract the Earth than the Moon. I assume it's the case that Moon doesn't do his orbit alone around Sun but together with Earth. But what if for example Earth (or earth-like body) overtake a planet from AU=1.01 and meet conditions to bind together with that body? Is it the right equation to decide whether if the gravity of `Fbody` were stronger than `Fsun` then those orbit wouldn't be separated no more?
Is it right approach? Or maybe it's much more complicated? How close should pass a Jupyter some Earth planet to disturb the latter orbit within a Sun's system?
\*\* EDIT \*\*
The 3-body problem it appears to be. Found some nice simulation imaging what happens when 500x mass Jupyter orbits the same star.
[3 body movement](https://github.com/zaman13/Restricted-Three-Body-Problem-Gravitational-System/blob/master/sample_output_1.gif) taken from [`https://github.com/zaman13/Three-Body-Problem-Gravitational-System`] | When two objects orbit a central body, the closer their orbits pass to one-another's, the more likely they are to become co-orbital, collide, or for one to be ejected from the system.
What will happen is dependent upon a great many factors, including the masses of the bodies involved. Given that this is a potentially chaotic situation, there is no easy way to say which will occur other than to simulate the system and see what happens. |
227,578 | <p>The <em>mammilia</em> class is tired of just being a class. They want to be a kingdom. However the problem is: they can't communicate very well. The humans didn't want to give up their powerful syntax, but the cow complained that they don't understand them 99% of the time. As the class-wide assembly proceeded, it also became apparent that many of the high-ranking elephants couldn't hear the little brown bats. Why, between their broad hearing and voice ranges layed dozens of distinct calls, conceptual repertoires, and communication patterns! Obviously, a common set of languages will be needed to maintain unity across the Kingdom, but the question is: how few?</p>
<p><strong>Edit</strong>: The got idea got started when humans began using TV and robots to automate dog obediance schools. Then a group of psycho/neuro/socio/zoologists realized that the methods employed could scale much further that dog obedience. They began teaching dogs to execute complex scripts like:</p>
<pre><code>001. beg until he looks at you
002. stand up
003. get in lap
004. bark for Sammy to come inside
005. sit
</code></pre>
<p>What started out as obedience school became primary school for dogs. On completing priary school, they or their owner could then choose a vocational path for them such as being a service dog, drug dog, disease-detecting dog, or a role model for new dogs in primary school. Then the program scaled out to cats, and other domestic creatures. Elephants and other gentle giants followed. Even carnivores preferred the human-managed arrangement over autonomy since humans gave them all the food they needed.</p>
<p>The problem is: once human-kind started actually taking care of the rest of the mammals, their populations boomed and translators were quickly outnumbered. So humans decided to channel their efforts on establishing and maintaining a reasonably small set of languages to promote ecological synergy.</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 227582,
"author": "Loren Pechtel",
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>One is enough, but it will need to use digital encoding.</p>\n<p>The question is focusing on the limit... | 2022/04/01 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/227578",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/94290/"
] | The *mammilia* class is tired of just being a class. They want to be a kingdom. However the problem is: they can't communicate very well. The humans didn't want to give up their powerful syntax, but the cow complained that they don't understand them 99% of the time. As the class-wide assembly proceeded, it also became apparent that many of the high-ranking elephants couldn't hear the little brown bats. Why, between their broad hearing and voice ranges layed dozens of distinct calls, conceptual repertoires, and communication patterns! Obviously, a common set of languages will be needed to maintain unity across the Kingdom, but the question is: how few?
**Edit**: The got idea got started when humans began using TV and robots to automate dog obediance schools. Then a group of psycho/neuro/socio/zoologists realized that the methods employed could scale much further that dog obedience. They began teaching dogs to execute complex scripts like:
```
001. beg until he looks at you
002. stand up
003. get in lap
004. bark for Sammy to come inside
005. sit
```
What started out as obedience school became primary school for dogs. On completing priary school, they or their owner could then choose a vocational path for them such as being a service dog, drug dog, disease-detecting dog, or a role model for new dogs in primary school. Then the program scaled out to cats, and other domestic creatures. Elephants and other gentle giants followed. Even carnivores preferred the human-managed arrangement over autonomy since humans gave them all the food they needed.
The problem is: once human-kind started actually taking care of the rest of the mammals, their populations boomed and translators were quickly outnumbered. So humans decided to channel their efforts on establishing and maintaining a reasonably small set of languages to promote ecological synergy. | One language
* One Grammar
* One Lexicon (dictionary).
* Multiple morpheme and phoneme sets (pronunciation).
For a good example of this, I will start with English (discounting the changes in pronunciation that happened a few centuries back).
* Spoken English is common.
* Written English is common.
* Braille English, in simple form, is surprisingly wide spread. In more complex usage, it replaces morphemes instead of phonemes.
* Sign language, in simple form, spells out letters.
* Morse code is a rare form, based on 4 or 5 primitives.
* Tapping code (that I heard originated in World War 2 POW camps) is another rare form (and often mistaken for morse code).
The point is, all these forms have a common grammar, and a common lexicon.
If you build a sentence in one, it works for any.
If you learn a word for one, it works for any.
For your all mammals language, most species will be able to hear and understand many pronunciations, but will be able to produce only a few. Some might even need to use something like a tapping code. (I believe there are some mute mammals.) Some species (Cetaceans?) might produce sounds that are difficult for most others to hear, but probably not impossible.
So, some individuals may work as "translators" just repeating the words in a different pronunciation, but it really is just one language.
And two individuals needing a "translator" may learn to understand each other directly with experience. |
229,766 | <p>Background information:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>According to various sources, the human heart pumps <a href="https://www.webmd.com/heart/heart-cardiac-output" rel="nofollow noreferrer">5 liters of blood/minute at rest and 15-20 liters of blood/minute during running or exercise</a>, <a href="https://www.smm.org/heart/lessons/lesson2.htm" rel="nofollow noreferrer">6,000 to 7,500 liters of blood/day (which is equal to 4⅙ to 5 5/24 liters of blood/minute)</a>, <a href="https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/VitaliyShchupak.shtml" rel="nofollow noreferrer">4.73 to 6.62 liters of blood/minute</a>, and so on and so forth. As such, 5 liters of blood/minute seems a reasonable placeholder value in regards to flow rate through the heart for the purposes of this question.</p>
</li>
<li><p>According to various sources, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity" rel="nofollow noreferrer">specific heat capacity</a> of blood is <a href="https://www.zuniv.net/physiology/book/chapter21.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3.49</a>, <a href="https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/44493/which-is-the-specific-heat-of-human-body">3.5</a>, or <a href="https://itis.swiss/virtual-population/tissue-properties/database/heat-capacity/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">3.617</a> kilojoules per kilogram per degree Celsius increase in temperature. I'll use 3.5 KJ/KG/C for the purposes of this question.</p>
</li>
<li><p>There are more sources than I can list in regards to the density of blood, but most agree that it's roughly 1,025 to 1,060 kilograms per cubic meter.</p>
<pre><code>5 liters blood pumped/minute = 0.005 m^3 blood pumped/minute.
0.005 m^3 blood pumped/minute * 1,060 KG/m^3 blood
density = 5.3 KG blood pumped/minute.
5.3 KG blood pumped/minute * 3.5 KJ/KG/C = 18.55 KJ required to
cool 5.3 KG blood by 1 degree C.
</code></pre>
</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="http://chemistry-reference.com/reaction.asp?rxnnum=492&func=stoich" rel="nofollow noreferrer">According to chemistry-reference.com</a>, there's a chemical reaction that uses up a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">mole</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_chloride" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ammonium chloride/sal ammoniac</a>, a mole of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lye/sodium hydroxide</a>, and 30.56 kilojoules of energy to produce a mole of water, a mole of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chloride" rel="nofollow noreferrer">salt/sodium chloride</a>, and a mole of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia" rel="nofollow noreferrer">ammonia</a>. In other words, I only need a single mole each of lye and ammonium chloride to cool <em>more</em> than a minute's worth of pumped blood by 1 degree Celsius - as a matter of fact, we can probably cool the blood as much as we want, since the reaction really doesn't need much of this stuff in order to function - the primary problem is venting the ammonia waste product.</p>
<p>A creature I'm working on takes advantage of this. Right before its blood vessels feed into its heart, a web of them - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rete_mirabile" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a rete mirabile</a>, or, in technical terms, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batch_reactor#Single_external_jacket" rel="nofollow noreferrer">a cooling jacket</a> - wraps around a biological <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_reactor" rel="nofollow noreferrer">chemical reactor</a> within the creature's body, which is where this reaction occurs. When physically exerting itself, it triggers a valve in that chamber (<em>a la</em> a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle" rel="nofollow noreferrer">bombardier beetle</a>'s chemical-mixing mechanism), carries out the above chemical reaction, vents the resultant ammonia - which it can regenerate later - to the atmosphere, stores the salt in some kind of special receptacle, and pees the water out later. In exchange, the creature's blood gets heat sucked out of it, thereby reducing the rate at which it overheats.</p>
<p><strong>The question: how cold can this creature make its own blood before said blood stops working?</strong> After all, as I said above, the blood can be cooled as much as I want; the unknown variable here is <em>how</em> much it can be cooled before bad stuff starts happening.</p>
<p>I recognize that <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ajh/article/14/5/433/205476" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the viscosity of blood increases as its temperature decreases</a>, meaning that low-temperature blood is harder to pump, but that's not really the problem here since, after getting the heat pulled out of it, the blood will rapidly begin picking up more heat and its temperature will increase again. However, is there a temperature at which <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_blood_cell" rel="nofollow noreferrer">red blood cells</a> can no longer carry oxygen, or at which they freeze so much that they can't function again - i.e. where it doesn't matter how much they get re-heated, because the sudden drop in temperature irreparably destroyed them? I'm currently thinking that that's somewhere between "freezing" and "normal body temperatures".</p>
<p><strong>Don't worry about anything else related to this creature's rather unique biology</strong> - i.e. how it produces/stores ammonium chloride and lye or vents ammonia. That's not what this question is about. Moreover, <strong>this creature is, for all other aspects - including the makeup of and chemical structure of its blood - a relatively normal human being</strong>.</p>
<p>Inspired by <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/219135/87100">Gilgamesh's answer</a> to <a href="https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/219040/how-do-i-stop-bob-the-gigantic-animal-from-overheating">this question of mine</a>.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 229767,
"author": "Daron",
"author_id": 14322,
"author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/14322",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>Ten Celsius</strong></p>\n<p><a href=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com/iI8o4.png\" rel=\"nofollow noreferr... | 2022/05/09 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/229766",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/87100/"
] | Background information:
* According to various sources, the human heart pumps [5 liters of blood/minute at rest and 15-20 liters of blood/minute during running or exercise](https://www.webmd.com/heart/heart-cardiac-output), [6,000 to 7,500 liters of blood/day (which is equal to 4⅙ to 5 5/24 liters of blood/minute)](https://www.smm.org/heart/lessons/lesson2.htm), [4.73 to 6.62 liters of blood/minute](https://hypertextbook.com/facts/2001/VitaliyShchupak.shtml), and so on and so forth. As such, 5 liters of blood/minute seems a reasonable placeholder value in regards to flow rate through the heart for the purposes of this question.
* According to various sources, the [specific heat capacity](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specific_heat_capacity) of blood is [3.49](https://www.zuniv.net/physiology/book/chapter21.html), [3.5](https://chemistry.stackexchange.com/questions/44493/which-is-the-specific-heat-of-human-body), or [3.617](https://itis.swiss/virtual-population/tissue-properties/database/heat-capacity/) kilojoules per kilogram per degree Celsius increase in temperature. I'll use 3.5 KJ/KG/C for the purposes of this question.
* There are more sources than I can list in regards to the density of blood, but most agree that it's roughly 1,025 to 1,060 kilograms per cubic meter.
```
5 liters blood pumped/minute = 0.005 m^3 blood pumped/minute.
0.005 m^3 blood pumped/minute * 1,060 KG/m^3 blood
density = 5.3 KG blood pumped/minute.
5.3 KG blood pumped/minute * 3.5 KJ/KG/C = 18.55 KJ required to
cool 5.3 KG blood by 1 degree C.
```
[According to chemistry-reference.com](http://chemistry-reference.com/reaction.asp?rxnnum=492&func=stoich), there's a chemical reaction that uses up a [mole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_(unit)) of [ammonium chloride/sal ammoniac](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonium_chloride), a mole of [lye/sodium hydroxide](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hydroxide), and 30.56 kilojoules of energy to produce a mole of water, a mole of [salt/sodium chloride](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chloride), and a mole of [ammonia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammonia). In other words, I only need a single mole each of lye and ammonium chloride to cool *more* than a minute's worth of pumped blood by 1 degree Celsius - as a matter of fact, we can probably cool the blood as much as we want, since the reaction really doesn't need much of this stuff in order to function - the primary problem is venting the ammonia waste product.
A creature I'm working on takes advantage of this. Right before its blood vessels feed into its heart, a web of them - [a rete mirabile](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rete_mirabile), or, in technical terms, [a cooling jacket](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batch_reactor#Single_external_jacket) - wraps around a biological [chemical reactor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemical_reactor) within the creature's body, which is where this reaction occurs. When physically exerting itself, it triggers a valve in that chamber (*a la* a [bombardier beetle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_beetle)'s chemical-mixing mechanism), carries out the above chemical reaction, vents the resultant ammonia - which it can regenerate later - to the atmosphere, stores the salt in some kind of special receptacle, and pees the water out later. In exchange, the creature's blood gets heat sucked out of it, thereby reducing the rate at which it overheats.
**The question: how cold can this creature make its own blood before said blood stops working?** After all, as I said above, the blood can be cooled as much as I want; the unknown variable here is *how* much it can be cooled before bad stuff starts happening.
I recognize that [the viscosity of blood increases as its temperature decreases](https://academic.oup.com/ajh/article/14/5/433/205476), meaning that low-temperature blood is harder to pump, but that's not really the problem here since, after getting the heat pulled out of it, the blood will rapidly begin picking up more heat and its temperature will increase again. However, is there a temperature at which [red blood cells](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_blood_cell) can no longer carry oxygen, or at which they freeze so much that they can't function again - i.e. where it doesn't matter how much they get re-heated, because the sudden drop in temperature irreparably destroyed them? I'm currently thinking that that's somewhere between "freezing" and "normal body temperatures".
**Don't worry about anything else related to this creature's rather unique biology** - i.e. how it produces/stores ammonium chloride and lye or vents ammonia. That's not what this question is about. Moreover, **this creature is, for all other aspects - including the makeup of and chemical structure of its blood - a relatively normal human being**.
Inspired by [Gilgamesh's answer](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/219135/87100) to [this question of mine](https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/219040/how-do-i-stop-bob-the-gigantic-animal-from-overheating). | **Ten Celsius**
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iI8o4.png)
Lizards are cold blooded and can survive as low as 10C. For comparison a pitiful human will simply stop working if the internal temperature goes outside the 35C - 40C range for too long.
The lizard is not happy at this low temperature. In fact it can barely move. But its blood certainly still works as blood, evidenced by how the animal is not dead.
Your creature can survive at 10C if you make it more lizardy. |
232,817 | <p>In the world(not Earth, but eath-like), I am building there was a nuclear exchange recently. Recently, I mean 25(subject to change) years into the past. I am describing a small clump of cities near the coast, they were protected enough that they were unharmed by nuclear impacts.</p>
<p>After surviving initial <em>difficulties</em> they now need power. Among those cities, there is one big city, like New York or Shanghai and there are some nuclear power stations.</p>
<p>Nobody knows if any more parts of the world maintained the pre-war level of technology.</p>
<p>Speaking of the level of technology.</p>
<p>It is similar to Saraksh from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_Power" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Prisoners of Power</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noon_Universe" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Noon Universe</a>. There is nuclear power, but there are no personal computers and no internet, there is some advanced crop designing, but everything is controlled via buttons and sliders. Computers are big, slow, and expensive.</p>
<p>The question is if no uranium or thorium mines are present and provided that significantly large quantities of depleted uranium are stored. How feasible it is to recollect <strong>enriched</strong> uranium particles from nuclear explosion sites to power a nuclear reactor?</p>
<p>The type of nuclear reactor is subject to change, there may be even different reactors in different blocks for pre-war research reasons. The same applies to the design of nuclear warheads, what is inside them is a degree of freedom to play with.</p>
<p>I know it is probably insanely inefficient, but if no other options are present, how much can be recovered?</p>
<p>I would really appreciate some upper bounds relative to the nuclear explosion center. My google-fu is not strong enough.</p>
<p>My thoughts so far:</p>
<ul>
<li>One can find unexploded warheads. That's a win, but one needs to have a special reactor if the warhead has plutonium in it.</li>
<li>Found uranium is already highly enriched, so one can use it almost immediately after decreasing enrichment to the desired level. So only chemical extraction is required, no need for power-hungry centrifuges.</li>
<li>Maybe it is a good idea to use something like a <a href="http://projectrho.com/rocket/images/macguffinite/helium3.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">lunar harvester</a> concept for harvesting helium-3 or <a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/L6bKp.jpg" rel="nofollow noreferrer">spice harvester</a> from Dune. Several things are the same: the dust, the preciousness, and the need for a mobile factory for the initial processing.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>Edit1 with some numbers:</p>
<ul>
<li>according to <a href="https://www.nuclear-power.com/nuclear-power-plant/nuclear-fuel/fuel-consumption-of-conventional-reactor/uranium-235-consumption/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this</a> only 4% of uranium is used in nuclear fuel</li>
<li>according to <a href="https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq2.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">this(2.1.4.3)</a> only 25% of uranium is used in a nuclear explosion</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<p>Edit2:</p>
<p>This is not Earth, but an Earth-like planet with one big continent that was nuked to hell, and many islands that were not, but are controlled by a very closed society with Japan-like culture. They have big naval forces(post-WWI-like vessels with a lot of big cannons). Their tech level is lower than on the pre-war continent and they probably do not know how to make energy via fission.</p>
<hr />
<p>Edit3:</p>
<p>I am dropping the hard-science tag because the idea of spice or helium harvester seems appropriate as a solution, but not appropriate in a hard-science setting.</p>
<hr />
<p>Edit4:</p>
<p>As I understood from the answers below there are some problems with the idea of collecting uranium in desired way:</p>
<ol>
<li>Airborn explosion lifts everything too high up. All unreacted fissile material will be effectively scattered uniformly around the globe. No gathering will be possible here.</li>
<li>Pure fissile bombs were produced only in a very short window of our history. And most of them were plutonium ones.</li>
<li>It is far more productive to go to other cities and collect natural uranium or unused fuel rods.</li>
</ol>
<p>The third one is easy: I know it is far more feasible to do. I just think that it is might be interesting to explore another possibility.</p>
<p>The solution to the first problem is provided by <code>Starfish Prime</code> in his answer below. Bunker busters and nuclear mines explode on the surface and leave very radioactive areas. If they are made from uranium it is possible to recollect some from them. Not much is needed if it is highly enriched uranium.</p>
<p>The solution for the second problem is the most complex one. As only one bomb design is feasible for all this to work, I need to create an environment where only one design is possible. A good way to do it is when such design is stolen, given, or captured.</p>
<p>Initial idea is that somewhere among the islands there was a former empire. With technology ahead of everybody else for about 35-50 years. A good way to set up this is to make the continent into a prolonged everybody-for-themselves-styled war.</p>
<p>After the war on a continent is settled there is tension between the former empire and the new upper dog of the continent. After some time another war bursts out. Due to superior numbers, the continent's armies are able to win. Not without paying a heavy price. The first nuclear explosion in this world appears on the outskirts of the capital city. It does not save it from capture, though. The former empire fell, but the effort is made not to let new destructive technology to fell into the wrong hands. Much of it is destroyed.</p>
<p>The winners are trying to replicate the technology, with a 35-50 year technology gap it is possible to replicate the existing technology, but not to improve it.</p>
<p>So the first bomb was made from uranium, resembling Little Boy. The enrichment process was likely the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaseous_diffusion#History" rel="nofollow noreferrer">same</a> as for early nuclear devices. Thus, no centrifuges are involved.</p>
<p>After the end of the second war in a row and many dead from the use of a new weapon, civil unrest is splitting territories of the former upper dog of the continent while newly acquired technology is leaked.</p>
<p>Each independent state is trying to replicate new technology and many eventually succeed. As design can not be improved, only stockpiled in large quantities while borders are mined with nuclear devices.</p>
<p>After some local conflicts, it is recognized that nuclear weapons are not very usage-friendly and many major countries agree to ban the usage and production of such weapons, while research continues.</p>
<p>After some time the situation is as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>Each independent country has a stockpile of old nuclear warheads made from the same initial design. With some low quantity of illegal new ones.</li>
<li>Each of them implemented some kind of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand" rel="nofollow noreferrer">dead hand protocol</a>.</li>
<li>Research is approaching the post-WWII level. Civil reactors are built and computers are invented.</li>
</ul>
<p>Then some event triggers dead hand protocols and nuclear exchange happens. Making the world in a state it was before this post was made.</p>
<p>P.S. I know there are a lot of details to figure out for this scenario to be realistic. I just tried to come up with an initial painting to satisfy all constraints. I would like to hear suggestions though.</p>
<hr />
<p>Edit5:</p>
<p>How hard it is to fuel a nuclear power station using fuel from unexploded Little-Boy-type bombs?</p>
<p><a href="https://www.world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/how-is-uranium-made-into-nuclear-fuel.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Assuming</a> these facts hold:</p>
<ol>
<li>Reactor is 1GW PWR</li>
<li>Reactor eats 27 tonnes of 1% enriched uranium per year</li>
<li>Little Boy <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy" rel="nofollow noreferrer">contains</a> 64 kg of 80% enriched uranium</li>
</ol>
<p>Math:</p>
<pre><code>Little boy Fissile uranium mass = 64 * 0.8 = 50 kg
Fissile uranium needed for PWR = 27'000 * 0.01 = 270 kg per year per GW
Total GW-year per Little boy = 50 / 270 = 0.18
</code></pre>
<p>To summarize: It is hard to power a full-scale power station with unexploded little-boy-styled bombs. It is not impossible though.</p>
<p>P.S. If one has heavy water figured out then it is possible just to use a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor" rel="nofollow noreferrer">CANDU</a> reactor and never think about fuel enrichment ever again :)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 232820,
"author": "FluidCode",
"author_id": 71443,
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"text": "<p>The <a href=\"https://hypertextbook.com/facts/1999/SimonFung.shtml\" rel=\"noreferrer\">temperature</a>... | 2022/07/16 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/232817",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/71549/"
] | In the world(not Earth, but eath-like), I am building there was a nuclear exchange recently. Recently, I mean 25(subject to change) years into the past. I am describing a small clump of cities near the coast, they were protected enough that they were unharmed by nuclear impacts.
After surviving initial *difficulties* they now need power. Among those cities, there is one big city, like New York or Shanghai and there are some nuclear power stations.
Nobody knows if any more parts of the world maintained the pre-war level of technology.
Speaking of the level of technology.
It is similar to Saraksh from [Prisoners of Power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_Power) of [Noon Universe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noon_Universe). There is nuclear power, but there are no personal computers and no internet, there is some advanced crop designing, but everything is controlled via buttons and sliders. Computers are big, slow, and expensive.
The question is if no uranium or thorium mines are present and provided that significantly large quantities of depleted uranium are stored. How feasible it is to recollect **enriched** uranium particles from nuclear explosion sites to power a nuclear reactor?
The type of nuclear reactor is subject to change, there may be even different reactors in different blocks for pre-war research reasons. The same applies to the design of nuclear warheads, what is inside them is a degree of freedom to play with.
I know it is probably insanely inefficient, but if no other options are present, how much can be recovered?
I would really appreciate some upper bounds relative to the nuclear explosion center. My google-fu is not strong enough.
My thoughts so far:
* One can find unexploded warheads. That's a win, but one needs to have a special reactor if the warhead has plutonium in it.
* Found uranium is already highly enriched, so one can use it almost immediately after decreasing enrichment to the desired level. So only chemical extraction is required, no need for power-hungry centrifuges.
* Maybe it is a good idea to use something like a [lunar harvester](http://projectrho.com/rocket/images/macguffinite/helium3.jpg) concept for harvesting helium-3 or [spice harvester](https://i.stack.imgur.com/L6bKp.jpg) from Dune. Several things are the same: the dust, the preciousness, and the need for a mobile factory for the initial processing.
---
Edit1 with some numbers:
* according to [this](https://www.nuclear-power.com/nuclear-power-plant/nuclear-fuel/fuel-consumption-of-conventional-reactor/uranium-235-consumption/) only 4% of uranium is used in nuclear fuel
* according to [this(2.1.4.3)](https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq2.html) only 25% of uranium is used in a nuclear explosion
---
Edit2:
This is not Earth, but an Earth-like planet with one big continent that was nuked to hell, and many islands that were not, but are controlled by a very closed society with Japan-like culture. They have big naval forces(post-WWI-like vessels with a lot of big cannons). Their tech level is lower than on the pre-war continent and they probably do not know how to make energy via fission.
---
Edit3:
I am dropping the hard-science tag because the idea of spice or helium harvester seems appropriate as a solution, but not appropriate in a hard-science setting.
---
Edit4:
As I understood from the answers below there are some problems with the idea of collecting uranium in desired way:
1. Airborn explosion lifts everything too high up. All unreacted fissile material will be effectively scattered uniformly around the globe. No gathering will be possible here.
2. Pure fissile bombs were produced only in a very short window of our history. And most of them were plutonium ones.
3. It is far more productive to go to other cities and collect natural uranium or unused fuel rods.
The third one is easy: I know it is far more feasible to do. I just think that it is might be interesting to explore another possibility.
The solution to the first problem is provided by `Starfish Prime` in his answer below. Bunker busters and nuclear mines explode on the surface and leave very radioactive areas. If they are made from uranium it is possible to recollect some from them. Not much is needed if it is highly enriched uranium.
The solution for the second problem is the most complex one. As only one bomb design is feasible for all this to work, I need to create an environment where only one design is possible. A good way to do it is when such design is stolen, given, or captured.
Initial idea is that somewhere among the islands there was a former empire. With technology ahead of everybody else for about 35-50 years. A good way to set up this is to make the continent into a prolonged everybody-for-themselves-styled war.
After the war on a continent is settled there is tension between the former empire and the new upper dog of the continent. After some time another war bursts out. Due to superior numbers, the continent's armies are able to win. Not without paying a heavy price. The first nuclear explosion in this world appears on the outskirts of the capital city. It does not save it from capture, though. The former empire fell, but the effort is made not to let new destructive technology to fell into the wrong hands. Much of it is destroyed.
The winners are trying to replicate the technology, with a 35-50 year technology gap it is possible to replicate the existing technology, but not to improve it.
So the first bomb was made from uranium, resembling Little Boy. The enrichment process was likely the [same](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaseous_diffusion#History) as for early nuclear devices. Thus, no centrifuges are involved.
After the end of the second war in a row and many dead from the use of a new weapon, civil unrest is splitting territories of the former upper dog of the continent while newly acquired technology is leaked.
Each independent state is trying to replicate new technology and many eventually succeed. As design can not be improved, only stockpiled in large quantities while borders are mined with nuclear devices.
After some local conflicts, it is recognized that nuclear weapons are not very usage-friendly and many major countries agree to ban the usage and production of such weapons, while research continues.
After some time the situation is as follows:
* Each independent country has a stockpile of old nuclear warheads made from the same initial design. With some low quantity of illegal new ones.
* Each of them implemented some kind of [dead hand protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand).
* Research is approaching the post-WWII level. Civil reactors are built and computers are invented.
Then some event triggers dead hand protocols and nuclear exchange happens. Making the world in a state it was before this post was made.
P.S. I know there are a lot of details to figure out for this scenario to be realistic. I just tried to come up with an initial painting to satisfy all constraints. I would like to hear suggestions though.
---
Edit5:
How hard it is to fuel a nuclear power station using fuel from unexploded Little-Boy-type bombs?
[Assuming](https://www.world-nuclear.org/nuclear-essentials/how-is-uranium-made-into-nuclear-fuel.aspx) these facts hold:
1. Reactor is 1GW PWR
2. Reactor eats 27 tonnes of 1% enriched uranium per year
3. Little Boy [contains](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy) 64 kg of 80% enriched uranium
Math:
```
Little boy Fissile uranium mass = 64 * 0.8 = 50 kg
Fissile uranium needed for PWR = 27'000 * 0.01 = 270 kg per year per GW
Total GW-year per Little boy = 50 / 270 = 0.18
```
To summarize: It is hard to power a full-scale power station with unexploded little-boy-styled bombs. It is not impossible though.
P.S. If one has heavy water figured out then it is possible just to use a [CANDU](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CANDU_reactor) reactor and never think about fuel enrichment ever again :) | TL;DR:
* hardly anyone used pure uranium devices in history, especially by the time civilian nuclear reactors existed
* airbursts leave you no recoverable uranium
* only very specific weapon designs are going to be of use (pure uranium ground penetrating ones)
* you'd be better off reprocessing nuclear waste than scavenging nuclear blasts, if all you want is uranium (but plutonium might be another matter).
---
So, there's a certain amount of ambiguity and possible anachronicity in your setting, so lets start by listing some real world things:
* Highly enriched uranium weapons exist in a very brief technological window. The Manhattan project showed that if you can make a HEU device like [Little Boy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy), then you aren't far off being able to make a working plutonium device like [Fat Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_Man). The US did make a number of Little Boy-type weapon assemblies, but apparently retired them all by the early 50s and went with the plutonium flavor only until they had working thermonuclear devices.
* The British (initially working with the US) and the Soviets (spying on the US) went directly to plutonium-fuelled warheads.
* Working thermonuclear weapons appeared pretty promptly. [Castle Bravo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_Bravo) was in '54, just 9 years after the bombing of Hiroshima.
* Pure uranium-based warheads seem to have been phased out by 1960 by the US and USSR.
* Nuclear reactors were used to make weapons-grade plutonium before they were used for power generation.
* The first civilian power generating nuclear reactor, at [Obninsk](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obninsk_Nuclear_Power_Plant), went online in '54, having started construction in '51.
So what does this all mean?
**There's a very brief window in real world history when it would have been possible to dismantle an active-service nuclear weapon and use it to fuel a conventional power-generating reactor, and suitable warheads would likely have been outnumbered by plutonium and thermonuclear devices.**
>
> * only 4% of uranium is used in nuclear fuel
>
>
>
4% is used *per cycle*. Real world uranium is cheap, so we don't make much effort to reprocess "spent" fuel. This means that nuclear waste depositories are actually surprisingly reach sources of uranium. The problem is that they're often hot and toxic and radioactive, and so if other options were available you probably wouldn't want to "mine" them, but you might consider that reprocessing waste is a much better way to get reactor-grade fuel than scavenging a battlefield.
>
> * only 25% of uranium is used in nuclear explosion
>
>
>
If you're making a 40s-era pure-fission uranium bomb, it might be even worse... wikipedia suggests that burnup might have been under 2%. That means over 60 kilos of highly enriched uranium remained. It would have been thoroughly vaporised in the explosion though, and as uranium is highly [pyrophoric](https://web.archive.org/web/20100824105716/http://www.hss.doe.gov/nuclearsafety/ns/techstds/standard/hdbk1081/hbk1081e.html) it would have reacted with the air and formed fine uranium dioxide dust which will readily disperse in the atmosphere and spread over a large area. [Wikipedia implies](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boy#Radiation) that there was little fallout from the Little Boy explosion, as it was an airburst... the uranium dioxide would likely have been lofted into the stratosphere and spread around the world.
In order to keep a reasonable amount of the unfissioned uranium in a small enough area to make it worth trying to mine it, I suspect that you'd need an *underground* blast. Weapons intended for this purpose have been called [Atomic Demolition Munitions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_demolition_munition). The US-built [W54 warhead](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W54) would have been used as part of such a weapon, but it was a plutonium-based device. No pure-uranium devices of this sort were designed to my knowledge, but you could handwave such a thing if it seemed useful.
Your best option might be a [nuclear bunker buster](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_bunker_buster), a bomb optimised for penetrating ground or construction over a target before detonating. The US built the [Mark 8 nuclear bomb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_8_nuclear_bomb) for this purpose... this was [apparently a gun-time uranium device](https://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Weapons/Allbombs.html), though I haven't found a better source for that information. The Mk. 8 was in service from 1951 to 1957, and so definitely existed and was ready for use at the same time as the earliest civilian power plants.
The cryptically named [Buster-Jangle Uncle](http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Usa/Tests/Busterj.html) test was intended to simulate the use of a gun-type ground-penetrating device. The blast did breach the surface, as you can see from photos of the test:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/bAq5P.png)
but much more of the fallout (including unburnt uranium) would have been deposited in the ground at the blast site and on the surface immediately around the blast area, something confirmed by the very high levels of radioactivity around the site after the blast. This seems to be the most plausible way to get macroscopic quantities of enriched uranium from a nuclear blast site. I'm not going to estimate concentration of fissiles, or whether it is sensible or economical to recover them, because it seems like if you have nuclear power plants then going after nuclear waste is far easier and will likely yield far more uranium in greater concentration. |
235,950 | <p>In my world, fortune tellers and psychics aren't con men but actually possess supernatural abilities. People born into the Romani lifestyle can make repeated and accurate predictions via tarot cards, palm reading, dowsing, astrology, abacomancy, crystal balls, and other forms of divination. Fortune tellers cannot scry more than one year in the future. A future prediction can also be wrong if a new event occurs (like hearing a fortune) and people change their actions. Of course, there is also a chance that the prediction included other people's predictions and created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortune tellers initially use their abilities to great effect on the stock market, casinos, lotteries, sporting events, foreign policy, etc.</p>
<p>So if you are an entrepreneur who runs a lottery or owns a casino, and you're tired of fortune tellers winning all the time, what do you do? Banning fortune tellers wouldn't work because others would simply hire them. You could hire fortune tellers of your own and try to change the predictions but that could create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Random number generation won't make a difference because the fortune teller knows what the final result is going to be.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 235954,
"author": "Tom",
"author_id": 19221,
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"selected": false,
"text": "<h2>Games of chance would not work</h2>\n<p>Things like gambling and other games of chance only work when it's i... | 2022/09/23 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/235950",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/97812/"
] | In my world, fortune tellers and psychics aren't con men but actually possess supernatural abilities. People born into the Romani lifestyle can make repeated and accurate predictions via tarot cards, palm reading, dowsing, astrology, abacomancy, crystal balls, and other forms of divination. Fortune tellers cannot scry more than one year in the future. A future prediction can also be wrong if a new event occurs (like hearing a fortune) and people change their actions. Of course, there is also a chance that the prediction included other people's predictions and created a self-fulfilling prophecy. Fortune tellers initially use their abilities to great effect on the stock market, casinos, lotteries, sporting events, foreign policy, etc.
So if you are an entrepreneur who runs a lottery or owns a casino, and you're tired of fortune tellers winning all the time, what do you do? Banning fortune tellers wouldn't work because others would simply hire them. You could hire fortune tellers of your own and try to change the predictions but that could create a self-fulfilling prophecy. Random number generation won't make a difference because the fortune teller knows what the final result is going to be. | Maximize the impact of the fortune-tellings on the outcome of the draw
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't use a normal random-number generator to draw the number. Instead use a cryptographic hash function (like SHA-1), to generate a random result from the data describing all the bets.
The beauty of this is that anyone can predict the outcome, but if they then try to use this prediction to place another bet, they would change the outcome.
>
> A future prediction can also be wrong if a new event occurs (like hearing a fortune) and people change their actions.
>
>
>
Thus, any predictions about the drawing would be no better than a random guess if someone hearing a fortune uses this information to change whether or not they place a bet (or how large their bet is).
### EDIT: Example
I initially didn't want to bog down the answer with too much details, but I'll try to give an example, as it might make the idea more clear:
Say the lottery needs to draw six random numbers between 0 and 99, allowing duplicates. The lottery allows bets of any amount on combinations of numbers (and somehow pays out based on the number of correct guesses, but that's not important to the drawing itself).
As @JohnO points out, a random string of letters can be added to the end of the list to avoid non-fortune-tellers to easily compute the result ahead of the announcement. Obviously, a fortune teller would be able to predict this random number, and the outcome of the draw.
The list of bets would look something like this:
```
John Smith $10 10,10,20,30,50,80
Jane Clark $99 5,45,89,90,95,99
Jack Locke $11 4,8,15,16,23,42
Adam Baker $200 1,2,4,8,16,32
MIWPTIUWRSOGBBNLRDEG
```
During the draw, this list (as a text-file) would be passed through a hash-algorithm, to obtain a number such as
```
aa56985b538cf846dee1366cf20fb7f05a08fb59
```
This hash is in fact just a number written in hexadecimal, so we can easily get our 6 numbers by [converting to base 10](https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=aa56985b538cf846dee1366cf20fb7f05a08fb59+base+16+to+base+10) and taking the last 12 digits, giving us the numbers 90, 85, 31, 49, 78, and 17.
Now, a fortune teller could predict all of this, and know the numbers ahead of time. However any change to the bets based on this newly devined information would completely change the hashed value, and thus the outcome of the draw. |
236,194 | <p>I'm currently running a campaign set in a world where the calendar is based on two things.</p>
<ol>
<li>The moon takes the entire year to cycle through its phases. So instead of full moon to full moon being a month, it takes 400 days.</li>
<li>The year ends on a solar eclipse that happens on the same day every year.</li>
</ol>
<p>They are weird parameters, I know but was wondering if an planet/moon orbit like this was possible in our universe. I do enjoy mixing science and fantasy and thought it would be neat if it <em>could</em> be possible under natural laws. I don't know where to start to answer that question and suspect that it might not be physically possible. But thought I would ask here anyway. Thanks everyone!</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I am afraid it is impossible.</p>\n<p>From Kepler's laws we know that the orbital periods depend only fro... | 2022/09/29 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/236194",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/98689/"
] | I'm currently running a campaign set in a world where the calendar is based on two things.
1. The moon takes the entire year to cycle through its phases. So instead of full moon to full moon being a month, it takes 400 days.
2. The year ends on a solar eclipse that happens on the same day every year.
They are weird parameters, I know but was wondering if an planet/moon orbit like this was possible in our universe. I do enjoy mixing science and fantasy and thought it would be neat if it *could* be possible under natural laws. I don't know where to start to answer that question and suspect that it might not be physically possible. But thought I would ask here anyway. Thanks everyone! | Regarding orbits, your condition is possible. For this, you want your moon to revolve around the planet with a period of exactly half a year. A depiction follows:
You want your planet have a solar eclipse in a certain time of year. Let's position your solar system so that your planet is on the left of its sun, so the planet, its moon and the sun would be positioned like this:
```
P---M----...---S
```
Then, you want the moon to phase in/out for the entire year. Let's check where the moon should be to change phase to 180 degrees in half a year. It will be a full moon, so it should be about behind the planet when viewed from the sun, and the planet itself would complete half a round of its own orbit, now it will be on the right from the sun. Like this:
```
S---...---P---M
```
Notice, the moon's position *relative to the planet* has not changed. Should we use a quarter period (sorry no hand drawings here), the configuration from the same view would be either like this:
```
^ (to the sun)
|
|
P---M
```
Or like this:
```
^ (to the sun)
|
|
M---P
```
The first variant means that the moon either does not revolve around the planet, or does 4\*X revolutions around it over a year. The non-revolving moon is not physically possible, since it will plain fall to the planet making a big BOOM, the 4\*X variant does not satisfy the requirement of changing phases over a year, so that variant is out. The second variant means that the moon did 1/2+X (X is integer) rounds around the planet during the planet's 1/4 years. Solving with both conditions to be satisfies yields X=0, thus the moon's orbital period is (1/4)/(1/2) years, or half a year.
The thing that would be impossible is a solar eclipse, or at least a **full** solar eclipse, if your moon is just a moon. For example, here on Earth we have a full solar eclipse because our Moon is pretty close to the planet, having its angular diameter about the same as the Sun when viewed from the planet's surface. Should we position the Moon far enough so that its orbital period would be 1/2 of a year (183 days instead of 27.32), it will have its orbital radius of `384.4*(183/27.32)^(2/3) = 1365.9` thousand km, and its angular radius when viewed from Earth would decrease `(183/27.32)^(2/3) = 3.553` times, making the Moon's disc cover only 1/(3.553^2) = 0.079 or 7.9% of the Sun's disc. Still plausible to be detected from the planet, though. And for our Earth, this distance is still within its Hill sphere radius which is about 10% larger, so the moon at that distance will still be Earth's satellite, but its orbit would be noticeably affected by the sun, thus a minor correction downwards could be made to the estimated radius in order to retain the moon's period of exactly half a year.
If you would want a moon to be of enough size to cover the entire sun's disc, it will have its radius to be 3.553 times larger, and its mass about `3.553^3 = 44.87` times bigger, this is no longer a moon but another planet, a tad larger than half of Earth. So your planet is no longer a single entity but two planets revolving around their common barycenter at a period of half a year, eclipsing their common sun from each other once a year. Probably that other planet also has an atmosphere, some life on its surface, and there's a possibility for interplanetary travel for either side... Ohhh the possibilities!
So to summarize. Yes it's possible, for that you want to have your planet to be a double, revolving at period of half a year around common barycenter. The masses of counterparts should likely be divided as half-and-half, or a rough estimate of that. There would be a likely problem of tidally locking the planets to each other, or at least some serious tides because the "moon" would be pretty heavy, yet these can be estimated in another question. |
240,963 | <p>So, this world has three moons.
Blue, Red, Yellow.</p>
<p>There are eight months in the year. Each month has a unique "full moon" combination resulting in a different colored sky. That is the only requirement.</p>
<p>In no particular order, they are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Blue</li>
<li>Red</li>
<li>Yellow</li>
<li>Green (Blue and Yellow together)</li>
<li>Purple (Blue and Red together)</li>
<li>Orange (Red and Yellow together)</li>
<li>White (All three together)</li>
<li>Black (All new moons)</li>
</ul>
<p>I came across this amazing <a href="https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/calendar/" rel="noreferrer">calendar tool</a> which makes it easy to try various setups.</p>
<p>I had been trying to use three tenday weeks, so a month is 30 days and a year is 240 days, but I haven't been able to figure out right cycle for the moons. You're able to specific the length of each moons cycle, as well as give it an offset.</p>
<p>My world is based on eight elements, each tied to one of the colors, so it's important to keep the calendar to eight months, but how the months are structured doesn't matter to me at all, nor does how long the full moons last. It also doesn't matter which order they happen in.</p>
<p>I've included the "restore code" needed to generate my calendar so far, if you'd like to take a shot at using the tool. Just paste it into the box on the Save/Restore tab! You can ignore the month names, I'll move those around based on the resulting colors :)</p>
<p>Thank you for your time!</p>
<pre><code>{"year_len":240,"events":1,"n_months":8,"months":["Shashti (Earth)","Hansa (Air)","Docar (Fire)","Okraz (Water)","Mitne (Light)","Whedabra (Darkness)","Cygat (Chaos)","Gavir (Order)"],"month_len":{"Shashti (Earth)":30,"Hansa (Air)":30,"Docar (Fire)":30,"Okraz (Water)":30,"Mitne (Light)":30,"Whedabra (Darkness)":30,"Cygat (Chaos)":30,"Gavir (Order)":30},"week_len":10,"weekdays":["Dask (Mother)","Deevdru (Son)","Yavsis (Aunt)","Autgabin (Grandson)","Nafldask (Grandmother)","Naflopsola (Grandfather)","Autnaril (Granddaughter)","Iosta (Uncle)","Hianag (Daughter)","Opsola (Father)"],"n_moons":3,"moons":["Blue","Yellow","Red"],"lunar_cyc":{"Blue":60,"Yellow":60,"Red":60},"lunar_shf":{"Blue":10,"Yellow":30,"Red":50},"year":1476,"first_day":0,"notes":{}}
</code></pre>
| [
{
"answer_id": 240971,
"author": "Aos Sidhe",
"author_id": 63429,
"author_profile": "https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/63429",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p><strong>This looks like a case for Grey Codes!</strong></p>\n<p><a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... | 2023/01/20 | [
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/questions/240963",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com",
"https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/users/347/"
] | So, this world has three moons.
Blue, Red, Yellow.
There are eight months in the year. Each month has a unique "full moon" combination resulting in a different colored sky. That is the only requirement.
In no particular order, they are:
* Blue
* Red
* Yellow
* Green (Blue and Yellow together)
* Purple (Blue and Red together)
* Orange (Red and Yellow together)
* White (All three together)
* Black (All new moons)
I came across this amazing [calendar tool](https://donjon.bin.sh/fantasy/calendar/) which makes it easy to try various setups.
I had been trying to use three tenday weeks, so a month is 30 days and a year is 240 days, but I haven't been able to figure out right cycle for the moons. You're able to specific the length of each moons cycle, as well as give it an offset.
My world is based on eight elements, each tied to one of the colors, so it's important to keep the calendar to eight months, but how the months are structured doesn't matter to me at all, nor does how long the full moons last. It also doesn't matter which order they happen in.
I've included the "restore code" needed to generate my calendar so far, if you'd like to take a shot at using the tool. Just paste it into the box on the Save/Restore tab! You can ignore the month names, I'll move those around based on the resulting colors :)
Thank you for your time!
```
{"year_len":240,"events":1,"n_months":8,"months":["Shashti (Earth)","Hansa (Air)","Docar (Fire)","Okraz (Water)","Mitne (Light)","Whedabra (Darkness)","Cygat (Chaos)","Gavir (Order)"],"month_len":{"Shashti (Earth)":30,"Hansa (Air)":30,"Docar (Fire)":30,"Okraz (Water)":30,"Mitne (Light)":30,"Whedabra (Darkness)":30,"Cygat (Chaos)":30,"Gavir (Order)":30},"week_len":10,"weekdays":["Dask (Mother)","Deevdru (Son)","Yavsis (Aunt)","Autgabin (Grandson)","Nafldask (Grandmother)","Naflopsola (Grandfather)","Autnaril (Granddaughter)","Iosta (Uncle)","Hianag (Daughter)","Opsola (Father)"],"n_moons":3,"moons":["Blue","Yellow","Red"],"lunar_cyc":{"Blue":60,"Yellow":60,"Red":60},"lunar_shf":{"Blue":10,"Yellow":30,"Red":50},"year":1476,"first_day":0,"notes":{}}
``` | **This looks like a case for Grey Codes!**
[Grey Codes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_code) were always one of my favourite parts of computer science. In short, it's a way of ordering binary values so that every step changes only one bit/digit at a time, but it loops smoothly through all possible values. In this instance, that's exactly what we want: we can represent each month as either being "lit" by a moon or not. To demonstrate:
One moon has a cycle of 240 days, one moon has a cycle of 120, and one moon has a cycle of 60. This results in the following:
| | Blue | Red | Yellow | Outcome |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | X | X | X | Black |
| 2 | O | X | X | Blue |
| 3 | O | O | X | Purple |
| 4 | X | O | X | Red |
| 5 | X | O | O | Orange |
| 6 | O | O | O | White |
| 7 | O | X | O | Green |
| 8 | X | X | O | Yellow |
Now, there are a number of ways you can tweak this. For instance:
* What determines if a moon is "lit"? It might be anything past 50% brightness, or it might be while it's waxing (or waning). Offsetting the cycles should fix this, depending on what you want. Just set the "start" of the cycle to be either the day of/after the new moon, or the day of waning/waxing gibbous (depending on preference).
* Are you using RGB rules, pigment rules, or a mix? This is up to you, but it seems like you're using additive light rules, with all three combining to white and using RGB. In that case, you'd have a different combination set (RG= yellow, RB = pink/magenta, GB = cyan). But that's entirely unrelated to the question, and might screw with the rest of your building.
* What order do you want? I went with the aforementioned, but there are two cyclical grey code patterns (note White Month is on either the 4th or 6th):
| Op. 1 | Op. 2 |
| --- | --- |
| 000 | 000 |
| 100 | 100 |
| 110 | 110 |
| 010 | 111 |
| 011 | 101 |
| 111 | 001 |
| 101 | 011 |
| 001 | 010 | |
21 | <p>I'll begin:</p>
<pre><code>What kind of questions can I ask here?
{Our future name} is for writers and is about writing of any kind. If you have a question about …
* writing as an art or as a labour and its niceties
and it is not about …
* specific languages and their grammar
* linguistics
… then you're in the right place to ask your question!
</code></pre>
<p>(I cannot see the community wiki checkbox, so I'll flag it to moderators)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 23,
"author": "justkt",
"author_id": 20,
"author_profile": "https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/20",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd add for on-topic:</p>\n\n<ul>\n<li>General editing and copy-editing proceedures</li>\n<li>Submitting work for pub... | 2010/11/19 | [
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/21",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/96/"
] | I'll begin:
```
What kind of questions can I ask here?
{Our future name} is for writers and is about writing of any kind. If you have a question about …
* writing as an art or as a labour and its niceties
and it is not about …
* specific languages and their grammar
* linguistics
… then you're in the right place to ask your question!
```
(I cannot see the community wiki checkbox, so I'll flag it to moderators) | I'd add for on-topic:
* General editing and copy-editing proceedures
* Submitting work for publication
* Finding an agent
* Working with illustrators and layout professionals ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/32/illustrations-and-layouts-for-books))
* Technical tools which aid in the writing process ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/31/how-technical-should-questions-on-writer-be))
For off-topic
* Technical details about a character's occupation, skills, or hobbies that might best be asked on a occupation, skill, or hobby-focused question and answer site ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/20/is-it-appropriate-to-ask-questions-on-specialist-knowledge-areas))
* The graphic design side of illustration or layouts ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/32/illustrations-and-layouts-for-books))
* Specific details of the usage of a computer program for writing ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/31/how-technical-should-questions-on-writer-be))
* "Critique my writing. What do you think? How can it be improved?" ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/58/should-we-encourage-users-to-give-samples-of-their-writing-for-critique))
* Questions about grammar and usage. These are covered by [English Language and Usage](https://english.stackexchange.com/) ([meta question](https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/q/93/26).)
Feel free to tighten these up, combine them, and create a set of high quality lists from this start. |
1,522 | <p>Since this was brought up in another thread, I'll make it a question just so it can be "official".</p>
<p>I asked a question yesterday and got 5 great answers. However, the question seems to be a Hot Network Question because views are over 2k (normal views on Writing are typically >100). I appreciate the boost in privilege points, and I don't want to sound ungrateful. Hot Network is like a door prize, say thank you and smile.</p>
<p>But, I got THREE pointless comments on my question today from users with 101, 103, and 111 points – one troll deliberately misgendered a character as an insult, one needed to correct spelling, one needed to tell everyone we are all using a common marketing term incorrectly (according to him). Obviously NONE contributed in the least to the question….</p>
<p>Being a grownup, I wouldn't even care except that I've left another SE community because it is almost nothing BUT trolls. I removed the link from my sidebar and now avoid it like the plague (there are other WB communities online where we can use <em>standard</em> social media tools to block bad actors and serial harassers). One ubiquitous troll there has over 14,000pts and has <em>never</em> asked a question – sorry, at that point you are professional troll who is using the site to attack and insult people while never using functions that might get you treated in-kind. He is not participating in the community, just abusing other users. That tone spreads quickly on the site, and it becomes Lord of the Flies where everyone plays aggressive defense. That site has become useless to me. I continued to answer there for a while I had ~6000pts so I wasn't a casual user) but as I said, there are other communities that actually have user tools to prevent harassment. SE doesn't. I left.</p>
<p>Writers has a smaller community, but the tone here is encouraging and positive. I get the feeling we are actually <em>writers</em>. There are fewer closed posts and fewer problems. I'd even say fewer egos. I hate to say it, but I got nothing useful from the boosted question (other than a SE points), just a bad reminder that posting here is sometimes inviting random webtrolls who aren't site participants and often have some agenda. Obviously I did not respond to comments that contribute nothing. It's still tedious to get notices and see they are silly, anti-social, or useless.</p>
<p>Ok, I already know the answer because HNQ is treated like some favor from the gods that no one has any control over, but <strong>can I opt out of the Hot Network Questions?</strong> I'd rather get fewer views from people in the group who regularly participate. The signal to noise here was almost perfect. I never before had a series of useless comments, usually I see really good answers. Being in the HNQ just boosted random noise and added no useful signal.</p>
<p>Thanks for hearing me out. I'm not complaining, I'm trying to keep what is great about Writing. I don't participate in the other communities here. I'm not trying to make Writers out to be my precious domain where no one should touch me, but I don't see how Writers is really going to benefit from the random peanut gallery. If there is a way I could opt-out of the HNQ across all the communities, that would be ok for me.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 1526,
"author": "Secespitus",
"author_id": 23159,
"author_profile": "https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23159",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can see the Hot Network questions <a href=\"https://stackexchange.com/questions\">here</a>. As of wri... | 2018/03/20 | [
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1522",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/23253/"
] | Since this was brought up in another thread, I'll make it a question just so it can be "official".
I asked a question yesterday and got 5 great answers. However, the question seems to be a Hot Network Question because views are over 2k (normal views on Writing are typically >100). I appreciate the boost in privilege points, and I don't want to sound ungrateful. Hot Network is like a door prize, say thank you and smile.
But, I got THREE pointless comments on my question today from users with 101, 103, and 111 points – one troll deliberately misgendered a character as an insult, one needed to correct spelling, one needed to tell everyone we are all using a common marketing term incorrectly (according to him). Obviously NONE contributed in the least to the question….
Being a grownup, I wouldn't even care except that I've left another SE community because it is almost nothing BUT trolls. I removed the link from my sidebar and now avoid it like the plague (there are other WB communities online where we can use *standard* social media tools to block bad actors and serial harassers). One ubiquitous troll there has over 14,000pts and has *never* asked a question – sorry, at that point you are professional troll who is using the site to attack and insult people while never using functions that might get you treated in-kind. He is not participating in the community, just abusing other users. That tone spreads quickly on the site, and it becomes Lord of the Flies where everyone plays aggressive defense. That site has become useless to me. I continued to answer there for a while I had ~6000pts so I wasn't a casual user) but as I said, there are other communities that actually have user tools to prevent harassment. SE doesn't. I left.
Writers has a smaller community, but the tone here is encouraging and positive. I get the feeling we are actually *writers*. There are fewer closed posts and fewer problems. I'd even say fewer egos. I hate to say it, but I got nothing useful from the boosted question (other than a SE points), just a bad reminder that posting here is sometimes inviting random webtrolls who aren't site participants and often have some agenda. Obviously I did not respond to comments that contribute nothing. It's still tedious to get notices and see they are silly, anti-social, or useless.
Ok, I already know the answer because HNQ is treated like some favor from the gods that no one has any control over, but **can I opt out of the Hot Network Questions?** I'd rather get fewer views from people in the group who regularly participate. The signal to noise here was almost perfect. I never before had a series of useless comments, usually I see really good answers. Being in the HNQ just boosted random noise and added no useful signal.
Thanks for hearing me out. I'm not complaining, I'm trying to keep what is great about Writing. I don't participate in the other communities here. I'm not trying to make Writers out to be my precious domain where no one should touch me, but I don't see how Writers is really going to benefit from the random peanut gallery. If there is a way I could opt-out of the HNQ across all the communities, that would be ok for me. | You can see the Hot Network questions [here](https://stackexchange.com/questions). As of writing this your question is on the third page and is therefore shown all around the network, which means that other users might see the title and think it's interesting, so they check it out. And everyone with more than 200 reputation on any site of the network gets the association bonus of 100 rep when joining another community, which unlocks basic privileges like commenting and upvoting.
There are lots of discussions about the Hot Network Questions. For example [many people don't want to see any on the right side of their site](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/222721/how-to-avoid-hot-network-questions-on-the-sidebar). There have also been a lot of discussions about implementing features that act similar to the Protection feature (10 on-site rep required to answer; association bonus doesn't count) so that for example [voting on HNQs would only unlock after 15 on-site rep](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/238420/prevent-questions-on-hot-list-from-being-upvoted-by-casual-visitors-only-rep-is).
What's important is to look at [What is the Goal of “Hot Network Questions”?](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/219922/what-is-the-goal-of-hot-network-questions) The idea is:
>
> The goal of the hot questions should be to drive up interest in the site. The hot questions should be a lure to encourage SE network users to contribute to other content, not just do a drive-by on the hot question.
>
>
>
But looking at [what Shog9 has to say about this topic](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/220099/352819):
>
> Don't get me wrong: a big part of the SE 2.0 model for site creation relies on folks having a wide range of interests, and jumping at the chance to participate in sites dedicated to those interests when they emerge. I have no doubt that pervasive, network-wide "hot" lists help in this goal, but calling that the primary purpose is akin to saying the primary purpose of convenience stores is to fund The March of Dimes.
>
>
>
That discussion also has some ideas that look like they might be helpful for what you have in mind, like [here](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/221457/352819) (no emphasis added):
>
> ### Allow Removal from the List
>
>
> Give trusted users (10k or 20k+) the ability to remove posts from the hot questions list. For whatever reason, if a question shouldn't be on there, the community should be able to purge it.
>
>
> I would suggest allowing a tag to be added to posts that prevents it from showing up on the list, like a mod tag, but accessible to trusted users too.
>
>
>
Currently, as far as I am aware of, there is no way to opt-out - neither individually, nor as a whole site.
---
Personally I think that the HNQs are doing a good job of bringing people to the site. New users bring new perspectives and potentially new interesting questions and answers. Most of the people are looking for a distraction - they see something interesting and want to check it out for a few minutes. These people are what you seem to refer to as "noise". They are going through the question, voting a bit, maybe writing a comment and then they are probably gone. At least until the next interesting HNQ pops up. But I don't see too much harm in that in general. Random people interacting with questions and answers increases the amount of perspectives that look at the questions and answers and can potentially increase the quality.
And if there are low-quality entries, for example because an opinion-based question hit the HNQ and people are dropping low-quality duplicate half-answers - well, users with enough rep or mods can protect the question and end that. It's a bit more traffic than compared to the usual question on the site, but nothing out of the ordinary. And if these people don't bother to read the on-topic rules of the site where they just registered, maybe their answers get deleted.
**I think we should not add a feature to opt-out, which is why I am downvoting this feature-request. I don't see big problems with the current setup and I think that the increased traffic is overall good and healthy for the site. Adding the possibility for single users to opt-out would probably mean quite some time for implementation and I am not sure if that is a good idea overall. It feels like wanting to close off the community from the rest of the network.**
---
I wrote a bit about [the comments to your question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/34409/writing-an-honest-blurb) you mentioned, as I did in the original post from you [here](https://writing.meta.stackexchange.com/a/1521/23159).
The first one, that got deleted by now, was something like "I would expect you to write about that Alex guy." I can only speculate on the intention of this user, but maybe he was trying to point out that the name Alex can be used for male and female characters alike in some languages. Anyway, it wasn't really explicit if he had any intentions and it didn't add anything to the question about how to write a useful "blurb". Comments are ephemeral on StackExchange and can be deleted at any point for any reason - just flag stuff like that as "No longer needed."
The second one was pointing out what he perceived as a typo. As he doesn't have the reputation to edit posts and there is a character limit of 6 characters that need to be changed at minimum he left a comment. I think that's a nice thing to do. Maybe it's because I am not a native speaker myself, but I think that it would be nice to point out to him why that is the correct word you used or edit your post and then flag the post as "No longer needed" - you acted on it after all. If it's obvious to a native speaker why that word is correct simply go to the flagging and be done with it.
The third comment was trying to clarify the usage of the word. Judging by his profile he is quite active on English Language & Usage, so it's quite natural that he would try to clarify this aspect. And that's what comments are meant for - clarifying things in the question. If the word you used is correct then explaining to this new user why it's correct as you did is the correct thing to do. We want to be a welcoming community after all. The comments could then be left there for future readers with a possibly similar confusion or be flagged as "No longer needed" after some time, as the need for clarification is not there anymore.
The first comment was quite useless, but not really trolling. It looked like a failed attempt at being funny to me and the other two seemed actually useful in the sense that comments are supposed to be used for this stuff. In that sense they did contribute to the question by trying to improve the information that future readers will find when reading your question.
Your notion about WorldBuilding.SE is quite difficult, especially because your criteria match only one person and by taking half a minute it's easy to find out who that is... I don't think attacking users is a good thing to do and saying that this user didn't contribute as they haven't asked a single question is not okay. There are lots of ways you can contribute to a site. Asking, answering, commenting, welcoming users, editing, voting, flagging, ... For more information about my stance on this you can read [my answer to the question *What does being a 'Contributor' look like on Worldbuilding?*](https://worldbuilding.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/5924/what-does-being-a-contributor-look-like-on-worldbuilding/5925#5925) Only answering is not making you automatically a troll and you are still exposed to comments. SE is protecting relatively good against trolls as you need a minimum of rep to even comment somewhere, let alone VTC or do other things.
I also don't see what "BASIC user-content block controls that every other online community has" you mean. I have never encountered a community that could block trolls before they posted a comment that aims to ask for clarification on a term for example. There were times when I wished I could block a single user (two in fact over my time here on StackExchange), but most of the time it was enough to act on their posts like I would act with every other posts - voting (up or down), flagging if not appropriate, VTCing when I think that a question should not be answered on the site, flagging for moderator attention when I encounter something rude, ... Our mods are really, really good at handling all sorts of trolls. It might take some time, but in the end I haven't encountered trolls a lot here - not by a long shot as many as on other forums.
The thing is: getting away from the HNQ won't save you. It's just that there are more people interacting with your questions/answers. The more a site grows the more people there are interacting with your stuff. And the amount of experience varies. You will always encounter new users that need to learn the basics. And there will always be people that have harsher criteria for some things. More people simply mean more chances for someone needing help - because if someone doesn't know a term is used correctly they need help and we are all here to help others.
There are fewer closed posts here and fewer problems - which is partly simply because there are fewer posts in total. Yes, according to the mod tools in the last 30 days WB had a close rate of a bit over 40%. But Writing had nearly 30%. That's not so terribly far away. And WB had 436 new questions while Writing had 164. You would see far more closed questions here - if there were more questions. And as there are fewer questions and fewer answers and fewer users there tend to be less problems. The biggest problem as far as I am aware of seems to be the lack of questions, which is why Writing hasn't graduated so far though there is a [definite consensus among the users that Writing should graduate](https://writing.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1478/time-to-exit-beta) .
If you are really bent on not wanting new users to interact with your questions the easiest thing would be to protect them as soon as possible (3.5k reputation feature here; mods might be able to help you), though that would hardly be an appropriate use of this feature and would not block of comments. Another way would be to make sure your question doesn't reach the HNQ, though that's probably even harder. You can see the way "Hotness" is calculated, for example on [Chemistry.SE](https://chemistry.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/4002/how-did-these-questions-make-it-to-the-hnq-list-one-with-only-18-views-and-the/4003#4003). Or taken from [here](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/61343/352819):
```
(MIN(AnswerCount, 10) * QScore) / 5 + AnswerScore
-------------------------------------------------
MAX(QAgeInHours + 1, 6) ^ 1.4
``` |
2,308 | <p>You lost your “beta” label in 2019, so welcome to your very first edition of <strong>Community Promotion Ads</strong>, for the year of 2020!</p>
<h3>What are Community Promotion Ads?</h3>
<p>Community Promotion Ads are community-vetted advertisements that will show up on the main site, in the right sidebar. The purpose of this question is the vetting process. Images of the advertisements are provided, and community voting will enable the advertisements to be shown.</p>
<h3>Why do we have Community Promotion Ads?</h3>
<p>This is a method for the community to control what gets promoted to visitors on the site. For example, you might promote the following things:</p>
<ul>
<li>useful tools or resources for exploring writing</li>
<li>cool events or conferences</li>
<li>anything else your community would genuinely be interested in</li>
</ul>
<p>The goal is for future visitors to find out about <em>the stuff your community deems important</em>. This also serves as a way to promote information and resources that are <em>relevant to your own community's interests</em>, both for those already in the community and those yet to join. </p>
<h3>Why do we reset the ads every year?</h3>
<p>Some services will maintain usefulness over the years, while other things will wane to allow for new faces to show up. Resetting the ads every year helps accommodate this, and allows old ads that have served their purpose to be cycled out for fresher ads for newer things. This helps keep the material in the ads relevant to not just the subject matter of the community, but to the current status of the community. We reset the ads once a year, every December.</p>
<p>The community promotion ads have no restrictions against reposting an ad from a previous cycle. If a particular service or ad is very valuable to the community and will continue to be so, it is a good idea to repost it. It may be helpful to give it a new face in the process, so as to prevent the imagery of the ad from getting stale after a year of exposure.</p>
<h3>How does it work?</h3>
<p>The answers you post to this question <em>must</em> conform to the following rules, or they will be ignored. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>All answers should be in the exact form of:</p>
<pre><code>[![Tagline to show on mouseover][1]][2]
[1]: http://image-url
[2]: http://clickthrough-url
</code></pre>
<p>Please <strong>do not add anything else to the body of the post</strong>. If you want to discuss something, do it in the comments.</p></li>
<li><p>The question must always be tagged with the magic <a href="/questions/tagged/community-ads" class="post-tag moderator-tag" title="show questions tagged 'community-ads'" rel="tag">community-ads</a> tag. In addition to enabling the functionality of the advertisements, this tag also pre-fills the answer form with the above required form.</p></li>
</ol>
<h3>Image requirements</h3>
<ul>
<li>The image that you create must be 300 x 250 pixels, or double that if high DPI.</li>
<li>Must be hosted through our standard image uploader (imgur)</li>
<li>Must be GIF or PNG</li>
<li>No animated GIFs</li>
<li>Absolute limit on file size of 150 KB</li>
<li>If the background of the image is white or partially white, there must be a 1px border (2px if high DPI) surrounding it.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Score Threshold</h3>
<p>There is a <strong>minimum score threshold</strong> an answer must meet (currently <strong>6</strong>) before it will be shown on the main site.</p>
<p>You can check out the ads that have met the threshold with basic click stats <a href="https://writing.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/2308">here</a>.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 2309,
"author": "Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2",
"author_id": 22808,
"author_profile": "https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/22808",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"https://writing.codidact.com/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"https://i.stack.imgur.com... | 2020/03/05 | [
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2308",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13317/"
] | You lost your “beta” label in 2019, so welcome to your very first edition of **Community Promotion Ads**, for the year of 2020!
### What are Community Promotion Ads?
Community Promotion Ads are community-vetted advertisements that will show up on the main site, in the right sidebar. The purpose of this question is the vetting process. Images of the advertisements are provided, and community voting will enable the advertisements to be shown.
### Why do we have Community Promotion Ads?
This is a method for the community to control what gets promoted to visitors on the site. For example, you might promote the following things:
* useful tools or resources for exploring writing
* cool events or conferences
* anything else your community would genuinely be interested in
The goal is for future visitors to find out about *the stuff your community deems important*. This also serves as a way to promote information and resources that are *relevant to your own community's interests*, both for those already in the community and those yet to join.
### Why do we reset the ads every year?
Some services will maintain usefulness over the years, while other things will wane to allow for new faces to show up. Resetting the ads every year helps accommodate this, and allows old ads that have served their purpose to be cycled out for fresher ads for newer things. This helps keep the material in the ads relevant to not just the subject matter of the community, but to the current status of the community. We reset the ads once a year, every December.
The community promotion ads have no restrictions against reposting an ad from a previous cycle. If a particular service or ad is very valuable to the community and will continue to be so, it is a good idea to repost it. It may be helpful to give it a new face in the process, so as to prevent the imagery of the ad from getting stale after a year of exposure.
### How does it work?
The answers you post to this question *must* conform to the following rules, or they will be ignored.
1. All answers should be in the exact form of:
```
[![Tagline to show on mouseover][1]][2]
[1]: http://image-url
[2]: http://clickthrough-url
```
Please **do not add anything else to the body of the post**. If you want to discuss something, do it in the comments.
2. The question must always be tagged with the magic [community-ads](/questions/tagged/community-ads "show questions tagged 'community-ads'") tag. In addition to enabling the functionality of the advertisements, this tag also pre-fills the answer form with the above required form.
### Image requirements
* The image that you create must be 300 x 250 pixels, or double that if high DPI.
* Must be hosted through our standard image uploader (imgur)
* Must be GIF or PNG
* No animated GIFs
* Absolute limit on file size of 150 KB
* If the background of the image is white or partially white, there must be a 1px border (2px if high DPI) surrounding it.
### Score Threshold
There is a **minimum score threshold** an answer must meet (currently **6**) before it will be shown on the main site.
You can check out the ads that have met the threshold with basic click stats [here](https://writing.meta.stackexchange.com/ads/display/2308). | [](https://writing.codidact.com/) |
2,419 | <p><strong>September update:</strong> Community Ads are now live network-wide. All ads with a score of 6 or higher, or with a score of 4 or higher <em>and</em> no downvotes will be displayed (except for any that have a note from the CM Team explaining why it wasn't selected). Go to <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/364556/208518">the main post on MSE</a> for a list of the ads that are being displayed. And stay tuned for 2022's edition for the next opportunity to submit more ad proposals!</p>
<hr />
<p><strong>AUGUST NOTE:</strong> This post has now been locked and new submissions are not being accepted. Ad submissions are now undergoing review by the Community Team, and this question will be updated once the ads are live.</p>
<hr />
<p>We're almost halfway through 2021, and <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/364556/208518">in case you missed it</a>, Community Promotion Ads are gonna be a bit different this time! <strong>TL;DR: submit and vote for ad proposals before August 2nd!</strong></p>
<h3>What are Community Ads?</h3>
<p>Community Ads are community-vetted advertisements that will show up on the main site, or on other sites in the network. They can show up in the right sidebar, or in banners in question pages. The purpose of this question is the vetting process. Images of the advertisements are provided, and community voting will enable the advertisements to be considered by <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/99341/208518">the Community Management Team</a> to be displayed.</p>
<h3>Why do we have Community Ads?</h3>
<p>This is a method for the community to control what gets promoted to visitors on the site. The goal of this initiative is for future visitors to find out about <em>the stuff your community deems important</em>. This also serves as a way to promote information and resources that are <em>relevant to your own community's interests</em>, both for those already in the community and those yet to join. You may want to promote external resources, or Meta guidance for newcomers, for instance.</p>
<p>This initiative has an added goal of providing your community with <em>an opportunity to showcase exemplary questions from your main site, as well as frequently-linked-to guides from your Meta site</em>. While the latter makes sense to be shown solely on this site, the former can be shown all across the network. These should avoid hot button topics, and instead focus more on evergreen questions that show what your community’s all about.</p>
<h3>Why do we reset the ads?</h3>
<p>Some services will maintain usefulness over the years, while other things will wane to allow for new faces to show up. Resetting the ads every year helps accommodate this, and allows old ads that have served their purpose to be cycled out for fresher ads for newer things. This helps keep the material in the ads relevant to not just the subject matter of the community, but to the current status of the community. Historically, we've reset the ads every year — since this is the first run of a new format, we'll run the ads collected in this post through the end of 2021 and reassess the rotation cycle then.</p>
<p>The community ads have no restrictions against reposting an ad from a previous cycle. If a particular service or ad is very valuable to the community and will continue to be so, it is a good idea to repost it. It may be helpful to give it a new face in the process, so as to prevent the imagery of the ad from getting stale after a previous exposure.</p>
<h3>Are there restrictions to the ads I can post?</h3>
<p>All proposed ads need to abide by <a href="/conduct">our Code of Conduct</a>. <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/advertising/guidelines">Our ad creative guidelines</a> also generally apply (note that the first 2 bullet points on the “Tracking” section do not apply, and a lot of the guidelines surrounding claims, comparisons, proof, etc., while still applicable, may not be particularly relevant). Finally, ads can not be promoting products nor soliciting programmer time or resources for: knowledge sharing or collaboration tools for technologists, or for sites where ad buyers are primarily targeting technologists.</p>
<h3>How does it work?</h3>
<p>The answers you post to this question <em>must</em> conform to the following rules, or they will be ignored:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>Each answer must relate to a single ad submission.</strong> Please do not post multiple ad submissions in the same answer.</p>
</li>
<li><p>All answers must be in one of the below formats:</p>
<ol>
<li>If you have an image for the ad you want to display on this site (must be the case for ads to external sources):</li>
</ol>
<pre><code>[![Image name. Example: "community_ad_name_300x250"][1]][2]
[1]: https://image-url
[2]: https://clickthrough-url
</code></pre>
<ol start="2">
<li>If you want to create an ad for a question from your main or meta site, to be advertised on this or other sites in the network (staff will generate a frame for the ad with this site's theme, for brand consistency):</li>
</ol>
<pre><code>Question title
Question URL
Ad size (right sidebar or banner ads)
Site(s) to be displayed in. Can be:
- "self" for ads to be displayed on this site
- "all" for ads to be displayed all over the network
- a specific subset of sites
</code></pre>
</li>
<li><p>Please <strong>do not add anything else to the body of the post</strong>. If you want to discuss something, do it in the comments.</p>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>Image requirements</h3>
<ul>
<li>The image that you create must be 300 x 250 pixels for right sidebar ads or 728 x 90 pixels for banner ads. Images can be double that if high DPI.</li>
<li>Must be hosted through our standard image uploader (imgur)</li>
<li>Must be GIF, PNG, or JPG</li>
<li>No animated GIFs</li>
<li>Absolute limit on file size of 150 KB</li>
<li>If the background of the image is white or partially white, there must be a 1px border (2px if high DPI) surrounding it.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Selection process</h3>
<p><strong>This post will remain open for ad submissions and voting until August 2nd</strong>. At that point, the question will be closed/locked, and no more ad submissions will be accepted. For ad submissions to be considered for selection by the Community Management Team, they must have <strong>a minimum score of 6 at the time the post was closed/locked for submissions.</strong> Given this is the first run with this new format, we may adjust the score threshold to be a bit lower if we see ads struggling to get to it (especially if the ads are not getting downvotes) by the time submissions and voting are closed.</p>
<h3>Reporting statistics</h3>
<p>Once this cycle is over, at the end of 2021, the Community Management Team will provide you with reporting statistics, as described in the "reporting" section of <a href="https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/364556/208518">this post</a>.</p>
<hr />
<p>Feel free to use the question's comment section to ask for any clarifications.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 2425,
"author": "Standback",
"author_id": 1046,
"author_profile": "https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/1046",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><a href=\"http://www.kittywumpus.net/blog/upcoming-online-classes/\" rel=\"nofollow noreferrer\"><img src=\"... | 2021/06/17 | [
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2419",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/13317/"
] | **September update:** Community Ads are now live network-wide. All ads with a score of 6 or higher, or with a score of 4 or higher *and* no downvotes will be displayed (except for any that have a note from the CM Team explaining why it wasn't selected). Go to [the main post on MSE](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/364556/208518) for a list of the ads that are being displayed. And stay tuned for 2022's edition for the next opportunity to submit more ad proposals!
---
**AUGUST NOTE:** This post has now been locked and new submissions are not being accepted. Ad submissions are now undergoing review by the Community Team, and this question will be updated once the ads are live.
---
We're almost halfway through 2021, and [in case you missed it](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/364556/208518), Community Promotion Ads are gonna be a bit different this time! **TL;DR: submit and vote for ad proposals before August 2nd!**
### What are Community Ads?
Community Ads are community-vetted advertisements that will show up on the main site, or on other sites in the network. They can show up in the right sidebar, or in banners in question pages. The purpose of this question is the vetting process. Images of the advertisements are provided, and community voting will enable the advertisements to be considered by [the Community Management Team](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/99341/208518) to be displayed.
### Why do we have Community Ads?
This is a method for the community to control what gets promoted to visitors on the site. The goal of this initiative is for future visitors to find out about *the stuff your community deems important*. This also serves as a way to promote information and resources that are *relevant to your own community's interests*, both for those already in the community and those yet to join. You may want to promote external resources, or Meta guidance for newcomers, for instance.
This initiative has an added goal of providing your community with *an opportunity to showcase exemplary questions from your main site, as well as frequently-linked-to guides from your Meta site*. While the latter makes sense to be shown solely on this site, the former can be shown all across the network. These should avoid hot button topics, and instead focus more on evergreen questions that show what your community’s all about.
### Why do we reset the ads?
Some services will maintain usefulness over the years, while other things will wane to allow for new faces to show up. Resetting the ads every year helps accommodate this, and allows old ads that have served their purpose to be cycled out for fresher ads for newer things. This helps keep the material in the ads relevant to not just the subject matter of the community, but to the current status of the community. Historically, we've reset the ads every year — since this is the first run of a new format, we'll run the ads collected in this post through the end of 2021 and reassess the rotation cycle then.
The community ads have no restrictions against reposting an ad from a previous cycle. If a particular service or ad is very valuable to the community and will continue to be so, it is a good idea to repost it. It may be helpful to give it a new face in the process, so as to prevent the imagery of the ad from getting stale after a previous exposure.
### Are there restrictions to the ads I can post?
All proposed ads need to abide by [our Code of Conduct](/conduct). [Our ad creative guidelines](https://stackoverflow.com/advertising/guidelines) also generally apply (note that the first 2 bullet points on the “Tracking” section do not apply, and a lot of the guidelines surrounding claims, comparisons, proof, etc., while still applicable, may not be particularly relevant). Finally, ads can not be promoting products nor soliciting programmer time or resources for: knowledge sharing or collaboration tools for technologists, or for sites where ad buyers are primarily targeting technologists.
### How does it work?
The answers you post to this question *must* conform to the following rules, or they will be ignored:
1. **Each answer must relate to a single ad submission.** Please do not post multiple ad submissions in the same answer.
2. All answers must be in one of the below formats:
1. If you have an image for the ad you want to display on this site (must be the case for ads to external sources):
```
[![Image name. Example: "community_ad_name_300x250"][1]][2]
[1]: https://image-url
[2]: https://clickthrough-url
```
2. If you want to create an ad for a question from your main or meta site, to be advertised on this or other sites in the network (staff will generate a frame for the ad with this site's theme, for brand consistency):
```
Question title
Question URL
Ad size (right sidebar or banner ads)
Site(s) to be displayed in. Can be:
- "self" for ads to be displayed on this site
- "all" for ads to be displayed all over the network
- a specific subset of sites
```
3. Please **do not add anything else to the body of the post**. If you want to discuss something, do it in the comments.
### Image requirements
* The image that you create must be 300 x 250 pixels for right sidebar ads or 728 x 90 pixels for banner ads. Images can be double that if high DPI.
* Must be hosted through our standard image uploader (imgur)
* Must be GIF, PNG, or JPG
* No animated GIFs
* Absolute limit on file size of 150 KB
* If the background of the image is white or partially white, there must be a 1px border (2px if high DPI) surrounding it.
### Selection process
**This post will remain open for ad submissions and voting until August 2nd**. At that point, the question will be closed/locked, and no more ad submissions will be accepted. For ad submissions to be considered for selection by the Community Management Team, they must have **a minimum score of 6 at the time the post was closed/locked for submissions.** Given this is the first run with this new format, we may adjust the score threshold to be a bit lower if we see ads struggling to get to it (especially if the ads are not getting downvotes) by the time submissions and voting are closed.
### Reporting statistics
Once this cycle is over, at the end of 2021, the Community Management Team will provide you with reporting statistics, as described in the "reporting" section of [this post](https://meta.stackexchange.com/q/364556/208518).
---
Feel free to use the question's comment section to ask for any clarifications. | [](https://writing.codidact.com) |
2,450 | <p>As decided by popular vote, the challenge this month is:</p>
<blockquote>
<h2>Tell a story with a terminal log.</h2>
<p>Somebody is poking through a computer through the terminal. Try to tell what they're after and who they are by what they're looking at.</p>
<p>Maybe it's somebody trying to track down their father who disappeared and was presumed dead, and so hacked into a government server. Perhaps somebody is trying to expose the SCP Foundation and is gathering information to pass on to the public.</p>
<p>Take a bunch of creative liberties and create your terminal log. Who knows what file you'll dig up next.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Thanks goes to <a href="https://writing.stackexchange.com/users/46506/ceramicmrno0b">Ceramicmrno0b</a> for coming up with the prompt.</p>
<hr />
<p>Go onward and write! Then post your story here as an answer, and get feedback in the comments. If you <a href="https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/ask">ask a main site question</a> while writing for this challenge, leave a comment below this question.</p>
<p>You can also vote on future challenges here: <a href="https://writing.meta.stackexchange.com/q/2446/34330">The next writing challenge could be yours</a></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 2451,
"author": "Ceramicmrno0b",
"author_id": 46506,
"author_profile": "https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/46506",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>2/3/2022<br>\n1:35:22 [Power on]<br>\n1:35:24 [Loading systems...]<br>\n1:35:25 [Accessing terminal...... | 2022/02/02 | [
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/2450",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.meta.stackexchange.com/users/34330/"
] | As decided by popular vote, the challenge this month is:
>
> Tell a story with a terminal log.
> ---------------------------------
>
>
> Somebody is poking through a computer through the terminal. Try to tell what they're after and who they are by what they're looking at.
>
>
> Maybe it's somebody trying to track down their father who disappeared and was presumed dead, and so hacked into a government server. Perhaps somebody is trying to expose the SCP Foundation and is gathering information to pass on to the public.
>
>
> Take a bunch of creative liberties and create your terminal log. Who knows what file you'll dig up next.
>
>
>
Thanks goes to [Ceramicmrno0b](https://writing.stackexchange.com/users/46506/ceramicmrno0b) for coming up with the prompt.
---
Go onward and write! Then post your story here as an answer, and get feedback in the comments. If you [ask a main site question](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/ask) while writing for this challenge, leave a comment below this question.
You can also vote on future challenges here: [The next writing challenge could be yours](https://writing.meta.stackexchange.com/q/2446/34330) | **[ STARGAZER OS BOOT PROCEDURE INITIATED ]**
Emergency system restart initiated. Power restored.
~ Booting...
**OS:** Bluemoon StargazerOS x86\_64
**Host System:** MDK2J3L23BUS\_TX Asukari LunarLander S13
**LunarIP:** 8238.23Y44.09872.138AA
**Lunar Coordinates:** 872'302'2427&AH2UOxo'121 SE -- *WARNING: System corruption detected. Coordinates may not be accurate.*
**Timestamp:** 05/27/UY-2091 (Universal Time) -- *WARNING: System corruption detected. Timestamp may not be accurate.*
~ Performing system check...
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Low oxygen level detected (12%).
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Hull damage detected. Unable to estimate severity. Manual check required.
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Uplink lost. Communications array damage detected. Please perform network diagnostics.
**[!] CRITICAL SYSTEM WARNING: Oxygen leak detected. Estimated time remaining: 30 minutes.**
System check complete. Critical maintenance required. Please reference maintenance procedures in order of severity. Please do not attempt to leave the vehicle without performing appropriate maintenance procedures.
~ Performing biometric crew scan...
**[!] BIOMETRIC WARNING:** Unable to verify biometric data for crew members:
~~ **HUTCHINSON, DAVID.** (0 BPM)
~~ **GARCIA, MELINA.** (0 BPM)
~~ **CHRISTOFFER, JAKKOB.** (0 BPM)
~~ **ORSEN, BAILEY.** (0 BPM)
Biometric crew scan complete. Biometric data was successfully detected for crew members:
~~ **JANSSEN, AMELIA.** (85 BPM)
~ Performing equipment check...
**SYSTEM NOTICE:** Foreign objects are present in the airlock. Please be advised that leaving foreign objects in the airlock may result in injury to exiting astronauts.
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** The following mission objects have been removed from storage without being logged. Please verify the location of the missing objects.
~ FIRE EXTINGUISHMENT DEVICE (2)
~ FIRST AID KIT (1)
~ PERSONAL STORAGE BIN: BAILEY
~ PERSONAL STORAGE BIN: CHRISTOFFER
~ PERSONAL STORAGE BIN: GARCIA
~ PERSONAL STORAGE BIN: HUTCHINSON
~ STORAGE-BIN A (4)
~ Scanning for system file corruption...
**SYSTEM NOTICE:** 128 corrupted files found.
~ Repairing corrupted data files...
82% restoration complete. Some restored files were unable to be recovered fully. Please check logs.
~ Loading user interface...
~ Loading administrative profile...
**[ WELCOME TO STARGAZER OS ]**
```
_ _ ____________.--.
|\|_|//_.-"" .' \ /| |
|.-"""-.| / \_/ | |
\ || /| __\_____________ |
_\_||_/_| .-"" ""-. __
.' '. \// ".\/
|| '. >()_ |()<
||__.-' |/\ \ |/\
| / "| \__________________/.""
/ // | / \ "-.__________/ /\
___|__/_|__|/___\___".______//__/__\
/|\ [____________] \__/ |\
//\ \ | |=====| | /\\ |\\
// |\ \ | |=====| | | \\ | \\ ____...
.//__| \ \ | |=====| | | |\\ |--\\---"""" .
_____....-//___| \_\ | |=====| | |_|_\\ |___\\ .
. .//-.__|_______|__|_____|_|_____[__\\_____|__.-\\ .
// // / \ `-_\\/ \\
-... // . / / /____________\ \\ . \ \ .
// .. .-/_/-. . \\ .-\_\-.
/ / '-----' . \ \ '._____.'
.-/_/-. . .-\_\-.
'._____.' . '._____.'
.
```
**Username:** sg-sergeant-amelia
**Password:** \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
~ Access granted to [sg-sergeant-amelia@stargazer-desktop].
~ Biometrics verified. Heart rate nominal (87 BPM).
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** System instability detected due to presence of corrupted files. Please proceed with caution.
Please enter a command:
~$ directorylist
Current directory: /home
Sub-directories: /admin /bin /data /data-bin /network /sys /usr /var
Please enter a command:
~$ changedirectory network
Current directory has changed to: /home/network
Please enter a command:
~$ filelist
Files in /home/network:
~ README.txt - Text Document - 28 KB
~ SYSGUIDE.txt - Text Document - 782 KB
~ netshell-2.3.1.exe - Application - 28,173 KB
Please enter a command:
~$ execute netshell-2.3.1.exe
**SYSTEM NOTICE:** This action is an administrative action. Please re-verify administrative credentials.
**Username:** sg-sergeant-amelia
**Administrative password:** \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
Credentials verified.
Executing netshell-2.3.1.exe...
Pinging from LunarIP 8238.23Y44.09872.138AA to EarthIP 1627.81M11.78271.316AA...
Awaiting packet response...
Awaiting packet response... (x2)
No packet response detected. Pinged system failed to respond. Error code: 787-19.
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Critically low oxygen level detected (10%). Please take immediate action.
Please enter a command:
~$ christ please help me
**ERROR:** "christ please help me" is not a valid command. Please try again.
Please enter a command:
~$ execute netshell-2.3.1.exe -parameter response\_wait\_time:3000
**SYSTEM NOTICE:** This action is an administrative action. Please re-verify administrative credentials.
**Username:** sg-sergeant-amelia
**Administrative password:** \*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*\*
Credentials verified.
Executing netshell-2.3.1.exe...
Pinging from LunarIP 8238.23Y44.09872.138AA to EarthIP 1627.81M11.78271.316AA...
Awaiting packet response...
Awaiting packet response... (x2)
Awaiting packet response... (x3)
No packet response detected. Pinged system failed to respond. Error code: 787-19.
Please enter a command:
~$
**Timeout warning:** User inaction of over 5 minutes detected. Please take action soon or you will be logged out.
Please enter a command:
~$
**BIOMETRIC WARNING:** Unusual change in neurological activity detected. Please verify readings and undergo a psychological check before further interacting with machinery.
Please enter a command:
~$ please
**ERROR:** "please" is not a valid command. Please try again.
Please enter a command:
~$
**Timeout warning:** User inaction of over 5 minutes detected. Please take action soon or you will be logged out.
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Critically low oxygen level detected (7%). Please take immediate action.
Please enter a command:
~$ i don't know what to do
**ERROR:** "i don't know what to do" is not a valid command. Please try again.
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Critically low oxygen level detected (6%). Please take immediate action.
Please enter a command:
~$ exitdirectory
Current directory has changed to: /home
Please enter a command:
~$ newfile -name "note.txt" -contents ""
New file created: "note.txt"
Please enter a command:
~$ texteditor "note.txt"
**[[--TEXT EDITOR--]]**
**[[Editing file: note.txt]]**
```
+ God, save my soul.
```
**[[File closed.]]**
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Critically low oxygen level detected (5%). Please take immediate action.
Please enter a command:
~$
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Critically low oxygen level detected (4%). Please take immediate action.
Please enter a command:
~$
**[!] SYSTEM WARNING:** Critically low oxygen level detected (3%). Please take immediate action.
**[!] SYSTEM OVERRIDE WARNING:** Airlock locking mechanism manually disabled. Please do not attempt to open doors while atmosphere is sealed.
**SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:** Airlock door opened.
**ERROR:** Biometrics measurements lost. Heart rate could not be verified. |
550 | <p>How do you vary dialogue within stories? I often find myself writing "'sentence/dialogue' said character", and it sometimes gets really repetitive. How is this managed?</p>
<p>These are the only words that I can think of that can be used alternatively, but I don't find this problem when reading books. </p>
<ul>
<li>said</li>
<li>replied</li>
<li>agreed</li>
</ul>
| [
{
"answer_id": 552,
"author": "JMC",
"author_id": 86,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/86",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Be repetitive and stay with \"said\", but don't overuse it. Write in a way so it is implied who is speaking. You normally do... | 2010/11/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/550",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/88/"
] | How do you vary dialogue within stories? I often find myself writing "'sentence/dialogue' said character", and it sometimes gets really repetitive. How is this managed?
These are the only words that I can think of that can be used alternatively, but I don't find this problem when reading books.
* said
* replied
* agreed | I agree with @JMC: try to avoid the [said-bookism](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SaidBookism).
As an alternative to "said", you can always insert a physical action by (or thoughts of) the speaker. For example:
```
"Let's see here." Jimmy flicked through the survival guide. "Damn. I could have
sworn there was an entry on how to outrun a greased Scotsman."
```
On the topic of dialogue, I have a great memory of reading the novella *Memorare* by Gene Wolf. At some point through it I thought: *this is some great dialogue*. He often has characters, while having a conversation, talk to each other about different topics or on different wavelengths, yet it is all perfectly understandable to the reader. Worth checking out. |
554 | <p>There are various ways for mapping out the storyline that you will use for a story. One of them is to create a bullet-point outline, which would theoretically be useful because of the hierarchy system that you can make, but as it goes along you can't really visualise how the story goes along. Another system would be to use mindmaps to map out the storyline, because subsets of one idea could be branched off. </p>
<p>What ways do you use to map out your storyline/content?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 557,
"author": "JSBձոգչ",
"author_id": 78,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/78",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>One technique that I've used has been a simple spreadsheet. I make a number of columns, one for every major thread of the... | 2010/11/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/554",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/88/"
] | There are various ways for mapping out the storyline that you will use for a story. One of them is to create a bullet-point outline, which would theoretically be useful because of the hierarchy system that you can make, but as it goes along you can't really visualise how the story goes along. Another system would be to use mindmaps to map out the storyline, because subsets of one idea could be branched off.
What ways do you use to map out your storyline/content? | One technique that I've used has been a simple spreadsheet. I make a number of columns, one for every major thread of the novel, and I color each column differently to make them stand out. Then I write a one-sentence summary of each scene and put it in the appropriate column, in chronological order from top to bottom, so that it looks like this:
```
X Y Z
*
*
*
*
* *
```
Imagine that X, Y, and Z are characters or subplots, and the asterisks are short scene summaries. In this outline, the action starts with X, moves to Y for two scenes, then to Z, then X and Z are in a scene together.
That way, I can read the chronological sequence of events by reading down all the columns, but I can also which threads aren't getting enough attention, and how the action moves from thread to thread. |
607 | <p>I'm publishing a tales book and I don't have a title for it. It's not for children and it's in spanish.</p>
<p><strong>update:</strong></p>
<p>These are the titles of the tales:</p>
<pre><code>El hijo del escritor
Celular
El pelo en el jabón
El último en la cola
Instante cero
La máquina de los cuentos
La entrevista
La Oficina Media
Schwarzweiss
Personajes
Dulce Poppy
</code></pre>
| [
{
"answer_id": 627,
"author": "bennybdbc",
"author_id": 98,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/98",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It really should be up to you. But how about: 'Juanjo Conti: a collection', translated obviously. I'm assuming you're ... | 2010/11/30 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/607",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/196/"
] | I'm publishing a tales book and I don't have a title for it. It's not for children and it's in spanish.
**update:**
These are the titles of the tales:
```
El hijo del escritor
Celular
El pelo en el jabón
El último en la cola
Instante cero
La máquina de los cuentos
La entrevista
La Oficina Media
Schwarzweiss
Personajes
Dulce Poppy
``` | If you're not the publisher, I wouldn't sweat it. The publisher will come up with a title; they always do. |
1,284 | <p>What guidelines and language should be used to write a prompt email? Ideally I would like it to be:</p>
<ul>
<li>Respectful</li>
<li>Not too formal</li>
</ul>
<p>In particular I am thinking in terms of business, and communication between businesses.</p>
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"text": "<p>Well, makes sure you're clear what you're asking about and don't assume they have the same information that you do... | 2011/02/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/1284",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/113/"
] | What guidelines and language should be used to write a prompt email? Ideally I would like it to be:
* Respectful
* Not too formal
In particular I am thinking in terms of business, and communication between businesses. | When following up on an e-mail:
I usually forward the original e-mail to the original recipient, with some added text at the top.
```
Hello [Name],
Have you had time to look into this?
Kind Regards,
...
Forwarded message:
From: ....
Date: ...
Subject: ...
To: ...
...
``` |
1,291 | <p>I have an idea for a series of science articles, but I don't have a strong background in the particular field.</p>
<p>What's a good way to identify experts who I could interview to shore up the details and make sure I get the facts straight? The local college might be a good start, but where do I go from there if I need more information?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Well, makes sure you're clear what you're asking about and don't assume they have the same information that you do... | 2011/02/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/1291",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/641/"
] | I have an idea for a series of science articles, but I don't have a strong background in the particular field.
What's a good way to identify experts who I could interview to shore up the details and make sure I get the facts straight? The local college might be a good start, but where do I go from there if I need more information? | When following up on an e-mail:
I usually forward the original e-mail to the original recipient, with some added text at the top.
```
Hello [Name],
Have you had time to look into this?
Kind Regards,
...
Forwarded message:
From: ....
Date: ...
Subject: ...
To: ...
...
``` |
2,354 | <p>When trying to strengthen my writing on how to correctly describe a location I try to write a small text on each location I am. (These are then saved in Evernote so that I can search for them) I found a tip in a book (can't remember name, will look it up) which said a good way to practice is to write a small article with the following headings in it. SEE, HEAR, SMELL & FEEL. </p>
<p>Example of the format I use today:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>SEE</strong> From the window of my apartement I see the ocean. Baots tied
at the shoreline slowly moves by the
gentle rock of waves...</p>
<p><strong>HEAR</strong> Birds looking for food are loudly competing with the
fishing-boats for the catch of the
day.</p>
<p><strong>SMELL</strong> The sea water release its salty touch in all and everyone.</p>
<p><strong>FEEL</strong> There is a feeling of hard labour in the air and it is almost as
one can feel the sad hugs as fishermen
leave land to go hunt on the ocean.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What other ways are there to document and keep locations for later use in stories?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>This is excellent advice, and is definitely the right way to go about observing your environment and locations... | 2011/04/01 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/2354",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1666/"
] | When trying to strengthen my writing on how to correctly describe a location I try to write a small text on each location I am. (These are then saved in Evernote so that I can search for them) I found a tip in a book (can't remember name, will look it up) which said a good way to practice is to write a small article with the following headings in it. SEE, HEAR, SMELL & FEEL.
Example of the format I use today:
>
> **SEE** From the window of my apartement I see the ocean. Baots tied
> at the shoreline slowly moves by the
> gentle rock of waves...
>
>
> **HEAR** Birds looking for food are loudly competing with the
> fishing-boats for the catch of the
> day.
>
>
> **SMELL** The sea water release its salty touch in all and everyone.
>
>
> **FEEL** There is a feeling of hard labour in the air and it is almost as
> one can feel the sad hugs as fishermen
> leave land to go hunt on the ocean.
>
>
>
What other ways are there to document and keep locations for later use in stories? | Sensual observations are all well and good, but there is also the landscape of the mind to consider. What associations do you make when you see/hear/feel/taste a scene? What makes that scene come alive *in your mind*? And above all, what does the scene mean and to whom? Remember that landscapes are like stages: they are inert until an actor strides out upon the boards.
Here is the opening paragraph from Joyce's "Two Gallants":
>
> THE grey warm evening of August had descended upon the city and a mild warm air, a memory of summer, circulated in the streets. The streets, shuttered for the repose of Sunday, swarmed with a gaily coloured crowd. Like illumined pearls the lamps shone from the summits of their tall poles upon the living texture below which, changing shape and hue unceasingly, sent up into the warm grey evening air an unchanging unceasing murmur.
>
>
>
The whole evening has a persona; it is at once the stage and the actor upon that stage. The impression is both literal and figurative, the weather and the type of day have a personality, which interacts with the personality of the crowd. Joyce repeats the adjectives "warm" and "grey" and reverses their order, giving the impression of undulation, and this is reinforced with the alliteration of *m* (*mild*, *memory*, *illumined*, *summits*, *murmur*) and numerous sibilances (*descended upon the city*, *streets ... shuttered ... Sunday, swarmed*, etc.). This is not just a scene but an impression of a scene.
Here is another landscape, this one from a poem, "**The Snow Man**" by Wallace Stevens. Observe how evocative this scene is, how it draws a response from the reader simply by citing objects and connecting them to emotions.
```
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
```
Note the scant use of adjectives: a handful serve for the entire poem, yet the picture of isolation and desolation is complete and poignant. Who is the actor here? The listener, the observer, who becomes, finally, the reader.
Let's narrow the focus to a single room, with a scene from Arturo Perez-Reverte's *The Club Dumas* (translated by Sonia Soto):
>
> She was asleep. He stretched out an arm, carefully so as not to wake her, and searched for a cigarette inside his coat. When it was lit, he propped himself up on an elbow and stared at her. She was on her back, naked, her head tilted back on the pillow spotted with dry blood, breathing gently through her half-open mouth. She still smelled of fever and warm flesh. In the glow from the bathroom, which traced her outline in light and shadow, Corso admired her perfect body ... He saw the pulse at her neck, the almost imperceptible beat of her heart, the gentle curve from her back to her waist, widening at the hips.
>
>
>
There are two actors here, one male and one female. There are scant few details about the room (a pillow spotted with blood, glow from the bathroom) but these are enough to paint a picture. The focus is confined to the actors, as if they were illuminated by a pencil spotlight, bringing them into sharp detail. The sleeping woman's body becomes the real landscape, and its texture is revealed through the impressions it makes on Corso's imagination.
The point I want to leave you with is that writing is about people, what they do and feel. Your example starts to get interesting when you bring on the actors and their conflicts: birds fighting fishermen for the catch of the day, the feeling of "hard labour" and "sad hugs" of those going to work upon the sea. I sense that you feel those things innately, but I want to make clear that those are the things that speak to the reader more than any bright aperçu you may make about boats and waves. |
2,499 | <p>How do I designate the footnotes that are mine inside a quote?</p>
<p>I tried "our note", "note ours" and "remark is ours". Which one is the correct one and most commonly used?
Or is there some other way?</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre><code>He provides an argument for it:
"Before the Greeks, the ancient Egyptians
used it[1] in the construction of their great pyramids."
------
[1] The Golden Section - note ours. <-- this is MY (drozzy's) note, not the original author's
</code></pre>
<p>So you can see there is my note inside a quote.</p>
<p>Or if I have something without a footnote. </p>
<pre><code>He provides an argument for it:
"Before the Greeks, the ancient Egyptians
used it (Golden Section - note ours) in
the construction of their great pyramids."
</code></pre>
<p><br>Note where I use <strong>note ours</strong>, to clarify that <strong>it</strong> is a <strong>Golden Section</strong>.</p>
<p>Any help appreciated.</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>If I understand you, you are writing a book and you have both your own citations and quoted material with ci... | 2011/04/15 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/2499",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
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] | How do I designate the footnotes that are mine inside a quote?
I tried "our note", "note ours" and "remark is ours". Which one is the correct one and most commonly used?
Or is there some other way?
For example:
```
He provides an argument for it:
"Before the Greeks, the ancient Egyptians
used it[1] in the construction of their great pyramids."
------
[1] The Golden Section - note ours. <-- this is MY (drozzy's) note, not the original author's
```
So you can see there is my note inside a quote.
Or if I have something without a footnote.
```
He provides an argument for it:
"Before the Greeks, the ancient Egyptians
used it (Golden Section - note ours) in
the construction of their great pyramids."
```
Note where I use **note ours**, to clarify that **it** is a **Golden Section**.
Any help appreciated. | If I understand you, you are writing a book and you have both your own citations and quoted material with citations and you want to distinguish the two types of citations. Is this correct? I don't see much need to distinguish them -- they are all just reference material, put them all in the end-notes (I hate numbered foot-notes personally, they're very distracting). If, as an ethical matter, you feel obliged to make the distinction, just write "citation in the original" in the end-note.
Or do you mean you have parenthetical material that was in foot-notes in the original? I would be inclined to omit them altogether in most cases, and if one were vital, I would include it in the main text:
>
> Hamlet famously soliloquized
>
>
>
> >
> > To be or not to be
> >
> >
> >
>
>
> and Shakespeare added in a foot-note "That is the question"
>
>
>
If you have *so many* quoted foot-notes that it becomes distracting, well, what the hell are you doing? |
3,095 | <p>Links are useful to add additional information or second meaning or special flavour to certain words. This is especially useful for informal texts. Example:</p>
<pre><code>[Some programs](wiki://Metasploit_Project) allow [users](wiki://Script_kiddie) to launch
security attacks with ease and comfort. This [certainly](wiki://Wishful_thinking) puts them
to the position of the [respectable IT security specialists](tvtropes://SeriousBusiness).
</code></pre>
<p>When writing electronic text sometimes I can use various technical things: collapsible "spoilers", usual links, formatting, that-dashy-underlined-text-with-a-tooltip.</p>
<p>In chats all that is usually not available, so I use wiki, html or markdown syntax to show how that text expected to look (as well is made-up elements like <code><joke></joke></code>)</p>
<p>When writing the text on paper we on one hand can format it (using bold/italic, subscript/superscripts, drawing frames and arrows in the text), but on the other hand can't use dynamic things like hidable sections or links or tooltips. Sometimes preceding the word with stroked "implied" word produce what I should attain, but it more looks like fixing something, not adding. </p>
<p>How to put links from written text? Requirements:</p>
<ul>
<li>It should not detract from the main text too much. For example just using markdown syntax will put too many '['s and ')'s and make the link too noticeable;</li>
<li>The range of text which is a link should be visible. For example just using subscript looks well only for one word;</li>
<li>The link destination should be provided. For example, just underlining it ("There's a link here") is not enough.</li>
</ul>
<p>Are there established ways how to use computer-originated features in plain old written text? Should it be underlined, should there be any brackets or arrows?</p>
<p>Note: <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/29548/how-its-better-to-format-links-in-text-written-on-paper">Migrated</a> from english.stackexchange.com.</p>
| [
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"text": "<p><strong>1) If piece is only printed:</strong></p>\n\n<p>I would footnote it, and put the full link ... | 2011/06/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3095",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2167/"
] | Links are useful to add additional information or second meaning or special flavour to certain words. This is especially useful for informal texts. Example:
```
[Some programs](wiki://Metasploit_Project) allow [users](wiki://Script_kiddie) to launch
security attacks with ease and comfort. This [certainly](wiki://Wishful_thinking) puts them
to the position of the [respectable IT security specialists](tvtropes://SeriousBusiness).
```
When writing electronic text sometimes I can use various technical things: collapsible "spoilers", usual links, formatting, that-dashy-underlined-text-with-a-tooltip.
In chats all that is usually not available, so I use wiki, html or markdown syntax to show how that text expected to look (as well is made-up elements like `<joke></joke>`)
When writing the text on paper we on one hand can format it (using bold/italic, subscript/superscripts, drawing frames and arrows in the text), but on the other hand can't use dynamic things like hidable sections or links or tooltips. Sometimes preceding the word with stroked "implied" word produce what I should attain, but it more looks like fixing something, not adding.
How to put links from written text? Requirements:
* It should not detract from the main text too much. For example just using markdown syntax will put too many '['s and ')'s and make the link too noticeable;
* The range of text which is a link should be visible. For example just using subscript looks well only for one word;
* The link destination should be provided. For example, just underlining it ("There's a link here") is not enough.
Are there established ways how to use computer-originated features in plain old written text? Should it be underlined, should there be any brackets or arrows?
Note: [Migrated](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/29548/how-its-better-to-format-links-in-text-written-on-paper) from english.stackexchange.com. | The immediate thing to bear in mind is that the use you're describing is something very specific and unique to hypertext documents. You might as well ask "onstage I can wink at the audience, how can I do that in text?" or "I want my screenplay to be filmed with some equivalent of footnotes." You're not going to find a full equivalent, because you're adapting a very medium-dependent effect into a completely different medium.
That said, you can try to achieve the same *kind* of effect, using similar tools. But the best way to do that may vary widely according to the particular piece you're writing.
* If you're actually interested in referring readers to websites, in a consistent and unobtrusive way throughout a substantial document, then footnotes serve your purpose admirably.
* If you're going for a comic effect, and doing so only once or twice, then you really need to tailor the phrasing to the punchline. Often a parenthetical "(see <http://clever.url.com> )" will do the trick.
* If you want to repeatedly use the sort of doublespeak you gave in your example - where the URLs serve as snarky subtext for your main text - URLs probably aren't your best bet to begin with. You want to convey extra meaning *somehow*, but URLs are long and cumbersome in prose, and don't fit in naturally with the flow. (And of course the hypertext element, of being able to actually follow the link, practically disappears.) So you can look for some other way to get across double meanings.
Probably the most straightforward way to achieve the last goal would be to use footnotes here too, with snarky asides rather than URLs:
>
> Some programs allow users[1] to launch
> security attacks with ease and comfort. This certainly[2] puts them
> to the position of the respectable IT security specialists[3].
>
>
> [1] read: script kiddies.
>
>
> [2] At least, *they* seem awfully certain of it.
>
>
> [3] They wear ties and everything!
>
>
>
I've also seen formatting where you've got typed text, and "scribbled" comments in the margins, or on top of particular phrases. Similarly, strikethroughs can be used to good effect:
>
> Some programs allow script kiddies users to launch security attacks with ease and comfort.
>
>
>
But note that hardly covers all the cases you'd like it to! For example, the next line would hardly work as proposed:
>
> This wishful thinking certainly puts them in the position of the Serious Business Trope respectable IT security specialists.
>
>
>
In this context it's worth noting Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket, who employed a "double meaning" device heavily throughout *A Series of Unfortunate Events*: he would constantly explain what words mean, as in:
>
> "You say these programs put us in the position of respectable security specialists?" Violet asked. "Indubitably, said Klaus - a word which here means "highly dubious."
>
>
>
Handler made this device very much part of his narrative voice - this isn't something you could just stick anywhere, or use inconsistently. And if you use this device verbatim, it'll mostly sound like your copying the Snicket tone. But if that's a type of humor you want to employ, then just as Handler has done, you can figure out your own device, your own running gag, and put it to good use. |
3,437 | <p>I've found myself extensively referencing parts of theses and dissertations for my own research paper. The IEEE editorial style manual suggests that they should be referenced in the following form:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>[1] J. K. Author, “Title of thesis,” M.S. thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.
[2] J. K. Author, “Title of dissertation,” Ph.D. dissertation, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I have a 120 page paper that I reference heavily and I find it unusual that there aren't any suggestions or examples that attempt to reference parts of theses or dissertations. I feel like readers would be dissinterested to pursue the paper to locate the source information.</p>
<p>Perhaps I am confused about how frequently references are pursued by readers? When reading internet articles, or PDFs from research papers that aren't published in an academic institution, I enjoy how authors place hyperlinks to provide further reading on information that readers might wish to pursue further. Could it be that readers aren't really engaged into further pursuing references and that it's not an issue if I don't reference parts of these or dissertations?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Citing specific pages of a long source is quite common. There are two ways of doing it:</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li><p>Cite the ... | 2010/09/18 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3437",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2935/"
] | I've found myself extensively referencing parts of theses and dissertations for my own research paper. The IEEE editorial style manual suggests that they should be referenced in the following form:
>
> [1] J. K. Author, “Title of thesis,” M.S. thesis, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.
> [2] J. K. Author, “Title of dissertation,” Ph.D. dissertation, Abbrev. Dept., Abbrev. Univ., City of Univ., Abbrev. State, year.
>
>
>
I have a 120 page paper that I reference heavily and I find it unusual that there aren't any suggestions or examples that attempt to reference parts of theses or dissertations. I feel like readers would be dissinterested to pursue the paper to locate the source information.
Perhaps I am confused about how frequently references are pursued by readers? When reading internet articles, or PDFs from research papers that aren't published in an academic institution, I enjoy how authors place hyperlinks to provide further reading on information that readers might wish to pursue further. Could it be that readers aren't really engaged into further pursuing references and that it's not an issue if I don't reference parts of these or dissertations? | According to the third edition of [How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper](http://rads.stackoverflow.com/amzn/click/0313330409) that I have, one should list only significant, published references. References to unpublished data, papers in press, abstracts, theses, and other secondary materials should not clutter up the References or Literature Cited section (i.e. Bibliography). If such a reference seems absolutely necessary, one may add it parenthetically, or as a footnote in the text.
I do not necessarily agree with this since, I have seen theses (at least) being cited in the Bibliography, not to mention URL's to websites (where information is more transient).
As for the use of inclusive pagination (i.e. first and last page numbers), it makes it easier for potential users to distinguish between one-page notes and 50 page review articles. The only time I have seen this done is to distinguish between articles/chapters in @journal, @incollection, @book or @inbook type references to say the least. Typically, the style has been to include all pages of the reference rather than a subset of pages. If you want to make reference to a particular page or chapter of a dissertation or thesis, however, you may do so in your text along with the citation. For example,
```
In chapter 1 of Micciancio's PhD thesis [1]....blah.
```
Where [1] appears beside the reference to Micciancio's PhD thesis in the Bibliography. At least, that's how I've seen others do it.
Ex-citing stuff, isn't it...? ;-)
P.S. Here are a couple of examples of how referenced articles, books and theses appear in the Bibliography using the IEEE style.
```
[1] Bart Preneel, “The state of cryptographic hash functions”,
in Lectures on Data Security, I. Damgård, Ed.,
Berlin Heidelberg, January 1999, vol. 1561/1999, pp.
158–182, Springer-Verlag.
[2] Wenbo Mao, Modern Cryptography Theory and Practice,
Prentice Hall, 2004.
[3] Eli Biham and Adi Shamir, Differential cryptanalysis of
the data encryption standard, Springer-Verlag, London,
UK, 1993.
[4] Xiaoyun Wang and Hongbo Yu, “How to break MD5 and
other hash functions”, EUROCRYPT 2005, pp. 19–35,
2005.
[5] Bart Van Rompay, Analysis and Design of Cryptographic
Hash Functions, MAC Algorithms and Block
Ciphers, PhD thesis, KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT
LEUVEN, Kasteelpark Arenberg 10, 3001 Leuven-
Heverlee, June 2004.
```
Note that the first citation is from an @inprocedings type reference, while the fourth is from a @journal. The second and third citation are @book type references, while the fifth is a thesis. Note that the above references were generated using BiBTeX. Although it is possible to add inclusive pagination to the @book and @thesis type references, BiBTeX will ignore them. I have tried and tested this for the @thesis style at least. |
3,469 | <p>I have a presentation that will go from August 4th to the 5th. On my title slide I'd like to list the dates in the most concise and simple way possible. What's the best style?</p>
<p>I currently have:</p>
<pre><code>August 4 and 5, 2011
</code></pre>
<p>I could also do:</p>
<pre><code>August 4 & 5, 2011
</code></pre>
<p>Is there a "correct" way to write this?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Either of those is fine (\"&\" is just another way to write \"and\") and will be understood. Another for... | 2011/07/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3469",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2373/"
] | I have a presentation that will go from August 4th to the 5th. On my title slide I'd like to list the dates in the most concise and simple way possible. What's the best style?
I currently have:
```
August 4 and 5, 2011
```
I could also do:
```
August 4 & 5, 2011
```
Is there a "correct" way to write this? | I never use ampersands in copy unless they're part of a proper company name (e.g., Johnson & Johnson). It just looks lazy to me. I would write it as "August 4–5," because the presentation is taking place on two consecutive days. (Nobody assumes it's a 48-hour presentation.)
I would use "and" if the dates are not contiguous: "The concerts will be held on August 4 and 6."
If you were asking this on Graphic Design SE, you could argue that you could use an ampersand as a design element, or to save room if space is at a premium. But for a slide title? No. |
3,843 | <p>I'm documenting a block of computer code and would like to make it clear and concise. I'm describing a function that populates a field on a user input screen. Here's my best shot but it still seems confusing because the 'in the', 'on the', 'for a' seem like a lot of prepositions for one sentence. </p>
<pre><code>This function returns the WINGNUT_SELLER_CODE that appears in the 'Vendor' field
on the 'THREADED_NUTS' screen for a given NUT_ID.
</code></pre>
<p>Questions:<br/>
[1] How can I rewrite this to make it easier to understand?<br/> [2] What about 'that appears' vs. 'which appears' when should I use 'that' and 'which' ?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Maybe break it into two sentences?</p>\n\n<p>When you send this function a NUT_ID, it returns a WINGNUT_SELLER... | 2011/09/06 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3843",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2543/"
] | I'm documenting a block of computer code and would like to make it clear and concise. I'm describing a function that populates a field on a user input screen. Here's my best shot but it still seems confusing because the 'in the', 'on the', 'for a' seem like a lot of prepositions for one sentence.
```
This function returns the WINGNUT_SELLER_CODE that appears in the 'Vendor' field
on the 'THREADED_NUTS' screen for a given NUT_ID.
```
Questions:
[1] How can I rewrite this to make it easier to understand?
[2] What about 'that appears' vs. 'which appears' when should I use 'that' and 'which' ? | Maybe break it into two sentences?
When you send this function a NUT\_ID, it returns a WINGNUT\_SELLER\_CODE. This code is from the'THREADED\_NUTS' screen in the 'Vendor' field.
I almost always use "that". (Every copy editor I've ever encountered seems determined to eradicate all uses of "which". |
3,885 | <p>How could this technical sentenced be improved for better clarity?</p>
<pre><code>Cannot translate the ‘name1’ concept1 to the ‘name2’ concept2 because the higher
precedence ‘name3’ concept3 also exists, which overrides it.
</code></pre>
<p>This is a technical message to a user of a computer program where I have eliminated the jargon as it is not relevant to this question. The idea is that there are two things (concept1 and concept3) that both would translate to a single thing (concept2) and we can only use one and are picking one (concept3) and warning about the other (concept1) not being used.</p>
<p>For style consistency with other messages, I wish to retain the structure of the pattern:</p>
<pre><code>Cannot <do something> because <of something else>.
</code></pre>
<p>The 'name1' etc. are names to uniquely identify a particular object and the 'concept' is the category of objects which 'name' chooses one. So the original could be recast (nonsensically) as:</p>
<pre><code>Cannot translate the ‘Fred’ apple to the ‘John’ orange because the higher
precedence ‘Julia’ tangerine also exists, which overrides it.
</code></pre>
<p>In this case, we have a machine that takes fruit and converts it into oranges, if you supply both an apple and a tangerine, only one is used, the tangerine, to create the orange, and the apple is ignored because tangerines are given higher priority over apples.</p>
<p>So my question revolves around the use and placement of the phrases: 'higher precedence', 'also exists', and 'which overrides it'. Could these be rearranged for better clarity or substituted with other phrases that might be clearer?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 3886,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Sorry, but you really haven't eliminated all the jargon from here. Based on what your question actually says, I think... | 2011/09/09 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3885",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2590/"
] | How could this technical sentenced be improved for better clarity?
```
Cannot translate the ‘name1’ concept1 to the ‘name2’ concept2 because the higher
precedence ‘name3’ concept3 also exists, which overrides it.
```
This is a technical message to a user of a computer program where I have eliminated the jargon as it is not relevant to this question. The idea is that there are two things (concept1 and concept3) that both would translate to a single thing (concept2) and we can only use one and are picking one (concept3) and warning about the other (concept1) not being used.
For style consistency with other messages, I wish to retain the structure of the pattern:
```
Cannot <do something> because <of something else>.
```
The 'name1' etc. are names to uniquely identify a particular object and the 'concept' is the category of objects which 'name' chooses one. So the original could be recast (nonsensically) as:
```
Cannot translate the ‘Fred’ apple to the ‘John’ orange because the higher
precedence ‘Julia’ tangerine also exists, which overrides it.
```
In this case, we have a machine that takes fruit and converts it into oranges, if you supply both an apple and a tangerine, only one is used, the tangerine, to create the orange, and the apple is ignored because tangerines are given higher priority over apples.
So my question revolves around the use and placement of the phrases: 'higher precedence', 'also exists', and 'which overrides it'. Could these be rearranged for better clarity or substituted with other phrases that might be clearer? | If you want to keep the same format, I would go with:
>
> Cannot translate 'name1' concept1 to 'name2' concept2 because an existing translation from 'name3' concept3 to 'name2' concept2 takes precedence.
>
>
>
Using your fruit example, it would look like this:
>
> Cannot translate the 'Fred' apple to the 'John' orange because an existing translation from the 'Julia' tangerine to the 'John' orange takes precedence.
>
>
>
I have a strong feeling that this error message will cause a lot of confusion to someone who is not already familiar with your precedence rules. It might help to add more information (especially information that will help resolve the issue). For example:
>
> Cannot translate the 'Fred' apple to the 'John' orange because an existing translation from the 'Julia' tangerine to the 'John' orange takes precedence. This error occurs when you create translations with different sources that have the same result. You should remove the lower prededence translation or re-evaluate your order of precedence.
>
>
> |
4,376 | <p>My email client includes a signature beneath the text of my writing. Currently it is of the form:</p>
<pre><code>------------
John Doe
Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street
Metropolis, USA
phone:222-555-1212
email:jdoe@gmail.com
</code></pre>
<p>When I write an email, how should I sign this? For a formal letter, it feels too informal and a little bit redundant to sign with just my first name, and very redundant (because of the signature field) to sign with my first and last name:</p>
<pre><code>Dear Prof. Foo
Please help me solve 1 + 1.
Sincerely,
John Doe
------------
John Doe
Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street
Metropolis, USA
</code></pre>
<p>I have also seen emails where the name is left off, and the signature is all that remains:</p>
<pre><code>Sincerely,
John Doe
Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street
Metropolis, USA
</code></pre>
<p>Are there any formal conventions for signing such a letter? What other approaches exist?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 4377,
"author": "John Smithers",
"author_id": 99,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/99",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's not that uncommon to repeat the name in business (which is also formal) emails. Especially if the signature ... | 2011/11/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4376",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/228/"
] | My email client includes a signature beneath the text of my writing. Currently it is of the form:
```
------------
John Doe
Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street
Metropolis, USA
phone:222-555-1212
email:jdoe@gmail.com
```
When I write an email, how should I sign this? For a formal letter, it feels too informal and a little bit redundant to sign with just my first name, and very redundant (because of the signature field) to sign with my first and last name:
```
Dear Prof. Foo
Please help me solve 1 + 1.
Sincerely,
John Doe
------------
John Doe
Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street
Metropolis, USA
```
I have also seen emails where the name is left off, and the signature is all that remains:
```
Sincerely,
John Doe
Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street
Metropolis, USA
```
Are there any formal conventions for signing such a letter? What other approaches exist? | Professors and the like have been reading emails for long enough that I bet they know these two conventions that you seem to indicate you're unsure of:
1. Emails, being not letters, contain who they are from in their
headers. Email readers display this to the recipient in the way in
which the recipient is likely most accustomed to by now.
2. Emails may, or may not, have a [signature block](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_block) at the end.
This block is separated from the content by a line of text
consisting of only "-- " (dash dash space). A good email reader
will format, color, or highlight this block differently. A
heavy email user will ignore it.
So right off the bat, you're doing it wrong with how you delimit your signature. Secondly this block should be ignored by the person reading it, unless they're looking for some information they haven't seen in the email or the headers (your address, where, yes, it's okay to repeat your name). Often this is ignored because people once generated them per email with quotes of the day, famous sayings, bible bits etc. thus they're totally about expressing personal tastes. When you assume they're ignored, there's no duplicate information in them to worry about; they're entirely redundant.
When writing formally with an opening and closing as though it were a formal letter, yes, you will say "Dear Your Name" [redundant because the name is in the to header] and "Sincerely My Name" [redundant because your name is in the from header], and in countries like Ireland, Switzerland, Germany etc. where certain signed information is mandatory, there will be a standardized sig block.
My recommendation for your case is to change your signature block a little (if that's permissible) to fix the apparently duplicated lines containing just your name. I'm thinking like:
```
Dear Prof. Bar,
Please explain how Lagrange multipliers help to find minima of functions.
Sincerely,
-John Doe
--
Address: John Doe at Acme Widget Company
123 Elm Street, Metropolis, ST 00000, USA
```
At least you're not using one of those totally unenforceable disclaimers that foist some supposed compliant behaviors on the recipient. |
4,486 | <p>My girlfriend was advised to use <code>Ibid</code> in her assignment's citations to <code>help reduce the word count</code> (I pointed out that references are usually not part of the count, but regardless); but she couldn't grasp the concept or why <code>Ibid</code> would be used.</p>
<pre>I explained that it would typically be used when writing footnotes<sup>1</sup> and that
the material you were referencing<sup>2</sup> is the same, and used in more than one place<sup>3</sup>.
^1: Anon, Lorem Ipsum (SE Publishing, 1999), p23
^2: Ibid.
^3: Ibid., p30
</pre>
<p>My argument was that you would save redundancy, by not having to write out the author name/title again, as well as provide a logical way of keeping footnotes numbered (1,2,3..) rather than (1,1,1,2) if the same work was cited more than once.</p>
<p>Is my understanding correct? Could anyone clarify and explain it in a better way?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 4487,
"author": "John Smithers",
"author_id": 99,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/99",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>You are right. \"ibid\" is short for \"<a href=\"http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ibidem\" rel=\"nofollow noreferr... | 2011/11/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4486",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2891/"
] | My girlfriend was advised to use `Ibid` in her assignment's citations to `help reduce the word count` (I pointed out that references are usually not part of the count, but regardless); but she couldn't grasp the concept or why `Ibid` would be used.
```
I explained that it would typically be used when writing footnotes1 and that
the material you were referencing2 is the same, and used in more than one place3.
^1: Anon, Lorem Ipsum (SE Publishing, 1999), p23
^2: Ibid.
^3: Ibid., p30
```
My argument was that you would save redundancy, by not having to write out the author name/title again, as well as provide a logical way of keeping footnotes numbered (1,2,3..) rather than (1,1,1,2) if the same work was cited more than once.
Is my understanding correct? Could anyone clarify and explain it in a better way? | You are right. "ibid" is short for "[ibidem](http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ibidem)", meaning "in the same place". It is used to not repeat the same title again and again.
Also have a look at this question:
[Vancouver system, citing multiple sentences from the same book](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/3352/vancouver-system-citing-multiple-sentences-from-the-same-book) |
4,563 | <p>I am poet and a blogger, and was writing a poem today for my blog. It went something like:</p>
<pre><code>So, are you missing me?
Missing me so much that you crave,
crave to meet me right now...
</code></pre>
<p>Does anybody know what this form of poetry is called, where a part of the present line is repeated in the next line each time? I've never read any poem of this type previously, so I am unaware of what this poem is called.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 4566,
"author": "Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum",
"author_id": 553,
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"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's sort of an anti-<a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enjambment\" rel=\"nofollow\">enjambmen... | 2011/12/07 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4563",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2971/"
] | I am poet and a blogger, and was writing a poem today for my blog. It went something like:
```
So, are you missing me?
Missing me so much that you crave,
crave to meet me right now...
```
Does anybody know what this form of poetry is called, where a part of the present line is repeated in the next line each time? I've never read any poem of this type previously, so I am unaware of what this poem is called. | Wouldn't this be considered a type of anadiplosis?--though anadiplosis is typically the repetition of a single word. It doesn't seem to be an actual poetic form, but more of a stylistic device.
There's a Wikipedia article on it [here](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anadiplosis). |
4,636 | <p>There is a coherency problem in the following text (its typesetting). The last paragraph must not be considered as a part of subsect02. For instance it is a kind of conclusion of two approaches covered under two previous subsections. How can I make the reader distinguish it from paragraph(s) related to the last subsection?</p>
<pre><code>\section{section}
Some text here about what we are going to discuss.
\subsection{subsect01}
Text about this subsection.
\subsection{subsect02}
Text about this subsection.
Some text here, which is not related to subsection02, but to the whole section.
</code></pre>
| [
{
"answer_id": 4638,
"author": "Alan Gilbertson",
"author_id": 2775,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2775",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The simple approach is to give all of your subsection text a left indent, and possibly a right indent, to se... | 2011/12/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4636",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/3003/"
] | There is a coherency problem in the following text (its typesetting). The last paragraph must not be considered as a part of subsect02. For instance it is a kind of conclusion of two approaches covered under two previous subsections. How can I make the reader distinguish it from paragraph(s) related to the last subsection?
```
\section{section}
Some text here about what we are going to discuss.
\subsection{subsect01}
Text about this subsection.
\subsection{subsect02}
Text about this subsection.
Some text here, which is not related to subsection02, but to the whole section.
``` | The simple approach is to give all of your subsection text a left indent, and possibly a right indent, to set it off slightly from the main section text. Any text starting at the normal left margin would then be identifiable as belonging to the main section. |
4,738 | <p>I read this quote recently, attributed to Norman Mailer, that has had my brain itching:</p>
<pre><code>Alimony is the curse of the writing class.
</code></pre>
<p>What did he mean by it?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 4739,
"author": "Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum",
"author_id": 553,
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"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Roughly speaking, it means if you have to pay alimony, you have to earn money. Writing is not a way ... | 2012/01/02 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/4738",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/252/"
] | I read this quote recently, attributed to Norman Mailer, that has had my brain itching:
```
Alimony is the curse of the writing class.
```
What did he mean by it? | Roughly speaking, it means if you have to pay alimony, you have to earn money. Writing is not a way to earn money (for most of us). He's suggesting that it's insufficient income for an alimony payment, so a writer would have to take on some other work to earn enough money to make the payment, thus cutting into writing time.
Of course, you do have to suffer to write, so maybe it's a blessing in disguise. ;) |
5,565 | <p>I have seen various combinations of interjections (or "grunt words", as they are sometimes called) used in fictional dialogue, such as:</p>
<pre><code>uh huh (which I take for a yes)
uh uh (for no)
nuh uh (also saw that once for no, but I'm not even sure nuh is even a word)
</code></pre>
<p>whereas a standalone "huh?" usually means the person doesn't understand something.</p>
<p>Are these commonly associated with the meanings I have assumed (either in American English, or elsewhere)? Are there others I have missed? </p>
<p>Are they really appropriate to use in dialogue? What effect does having them (or not) have? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 5566,
"author": "Goodbye Stack Exchange",
"author_id": 26,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/26",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>People generally speak with \"um\" and \"huh\" peppered throughout their speech. Their meaning can be def... | 2012/05/01 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/5565",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/300/"
] | I have seen various combinations of interjections (or "grunt words", as they are sometimes called) used in fictional dialogue, such as:
```
uh huh (which I take for a yes)
uh uh (for no)
nuh uh (also saw that once for no, but I'm not even sure nuh is even a word)
```
whereas a standalone "huh?" usually means the person doesn't understand something.
Are these commonly associated with the meanings I have assumed (either in American English, or elsewhere)? Are there others I have missed?
Are they really appropriate to use in dialogue? What effect does having them (or not) have? | People generally speak with "um" and "huh" peppered throughout their speech. Their meaning can be defined in a general sense, but that meaning may not always be consistent, and some of their meaning will be encoded in body language. (Nods, facial expressions, gesticulations, and so on.)
For example, see [this definition of "huh"](http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/huh):
>
> —used to express surprise, disbelief, or confusion, or as an inquiry inviting affirmative reply
>
>
>
In my experience, it can also indicate agreement (if accompanied by a nod). So that's five possible meanings.
Similarly, "uh huh" means agreement - in a vague sort of way - but it can mean sarcastic agreement or emphatic agreement, and the writer would have to indicate this very well. For example, what does this mean?
>
> "Uh huh", she said, shaking her head.
>
>
>
Of course, context within the text will help. But many writers omit these in dialog, employing them only occasionally for effect. Including them all the time or too often looks odd or makes people look stupid. Making people look stupid will also reflect badly on the writer, since it can come across as a cheap shot.
I won't say to never use them - that'd be silly, users are used to them to a point - but I'd reserve these words for when you want to indicate, um, confusion or indecision in a character who's already been established to the reader.
Indicating body language helps. It makes the reader work harder, but it *can* be used to good effect. Just don't overuse the technique, like any special effect. |
5,752 | <p>How can one use social proof as an argument without sounding like "just because everybody is doing it so should you"?. <strong>My problem is trying to demonstrate with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof" rel="nofollow">social proof</a> that trendy tools/techniques are not necessarily <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult" rel="nofollow">cargo cult</a></strong></p>
<p>I'm writing a whitepaper regarding best-practices and new tools in the industry of software engineering. There are certain controversial topics like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_revision_control" rel="nofollow">DVCS</a> (Distributed Version Control) and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development" rel="nofollow">TDD</a> (Test-Driven Development) that do work, but require changing mindsets and extra effort at the beginning to reap the rewards. Something along the lines of this:</p>
<pre><code>More and more developers are being converted into DVCSs because of its success in
overcoming classical frustrations in CVCSs, such as avoiding merging hell and commit
races. Adoption involves evolving the centralized mindset as DVCSs change the
paradigm of version control, after developers accept the new paradigm and embrace
it —which generally involves trying to go back to the centralized mindset— they will
start reaping the benefits and become increasingly aware of how scalable this
paradigm is in terms of collaboration.
</code></pre>
<p>Even if the previous paragraph sounds credible, I don't think people resistant to change will see another thing from "oh, it's cargo-cult". I think <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof" rel="nofollow">social proof</a> is relevant to this case (as adoption is important to the enterprise due to support professional support markets & well-tested environments), but cannot help to think that this could get on the bad side of rhetoric (too much pathos?).</p>
<p>Since those kinds of things are being increasingly adopted and preached, how could one turn this situation as a good convincing argument?. I was reading Joel's <a href="http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/11/16.html" rel="nofollow">entry on demonstrating software and social proof</a> but it seems like a double-edged sword.</p>
<p><strong>Additional context</strong>: VCS or Version Control Systems are (in a nutshell) programs that let you store incremental differences (or changes/deltas) to text files so that then you can rebuild them at a particular point later; these systems are mostly use for writing software. </p>
<p>There are currently two models: a) the centralized one (<strong>CVCS</strong>) where each user to be hooked up to a server to use these systems, making them slower and bottlenecking collaboration, as everyone needs to stand in line to store the changes to this sole "code bucket", and b) the distributed model (<strong>DVCS</strong>) where each programmer has their own "bucket", so there is no need for a server, everyone puts their work on their own "bucket".</p>
<p>The important thing in DVCSs and collaboration happens after, until they have finished and refined work to share and be proud about instead of stepping on each other's toes with incomplete work (and still being able to rely on version control to aid their own work). In a DVCS each peer can check each other's buckets and they can add their bucket's contents to others' too.</p>
<p>P.S.: Sorry for the wall of text</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 5754,
"author": "Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum",
"author_id": 553,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/553",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>If I'm understanding you correctly, I think what you want are <em>case studies</em> to demonstrate y... | 2012/05/24 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/5752",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/3610/"
] | How can one use social proof as an argument without sounding like "just because everybody is doing it so should you"?. **My problem is trying to demonstrate with [social proof](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof) that trendy tools/techniques are not necessarily [cargo cult](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult)**
I'm writing a whitepaper regarding best-practices and new tools in the industry of software engineering. There are certain controversial topics like [DVCS](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distributed_revision_control) (Distributed Version Control) and [TDD](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Test-driven_development) (Test-Driven Development) that do work, but require changing mindsets and extra effort at the beginning to reap the rewards. Something along the lines of this:
```
More and more developers are being converted into DVCSs because of its success in
overcoming classical frustrations in CVCSs, such as avoiding merging hell and commit
races. Adoption involves evolving the centralized mindset as DVCSs change the
paradigm of version control, after developers accept the new paradigm and embrace
it —which generally involves trying to go back to the centralized mindset— they will
start reaping the benefits and become increasingly aware of how scalable this
paradigm is in terms of collaboration.
```
Even if the previous paragraph sounds credible, I don't think people resistant to change will see another thing from "oh, it's cargo-cult". I think [social proof](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof) is relevant to this case (as adoption is important to the enterprise due to support professional support markets & well-tested environments), but cannot help to think that this could get on the bad side of rhetoric (too much pathos?).
Since those kinds of things are being increasingly adopted and preached, how could one turn this situation as a good convincing argument?. I was reading Joel's [entry on demonstrating software and social proof](http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/11/16.html) but it seems like a double-edged sword.
**Additional context**: VCS or Version Control Systems are (in a nutshell) programs that let you store incremental differences (or changes/deltas) to text files so that then you can rebuild them at a particular point later; these systems are mostly use for writing software.
There are currently two models: a) the centralized one (**CVCS**) where each user to be hooked up to a server to use these systems, making them slower and bottlenecking collaboration, as everyone needs to stand in line to store the changes to this sole "code bucket", and b) the distributed model (**DVCS**) where each programmer has their own "bucket", so there is no need for a server, everyone puts their work on their own "bucket".
The important thing in DVCSs and collaboration happens after, until they have finished and refined work to share and be proud about instead of stepping on each other's toes with incomplete work (and still being able to rely on version control to aid their own work). In a DVCS each peer can check each other's buckets and they can add their bucket's contents to others' too.
P.S.: Sorry for the wall of text | If I'm understanding you correctly, I think what you want are *case studies* to demonstrate your points.
So you put forth one of your arguments — "switching to the individual bucket version reduces problems A, B, and C" — and then you put in a section with an actual real-life example:
---
**Case Study: Acme Widget Coders Amalgamated**
AWCA had been using centralized bucketing for many years, but it was causing production bottlenecks whenever the buckets were all dumped into the same coding trough at the end of a widgeting session. Switching over to individual buckets was a huge boost to efficiency. Programmers had more flexibility, errors were caught much earlier in the process, and there were fewer holes in the buckets, dear Liza, dear Liza.
---
If you do this for each facet of your argument (or each problem which your trendy technique purports to solve), then your reader will see that you're not just lusting after the latest sparkly vampire of coding solutions, but rather presenting something which is useful and has been field-tested to produce significant results. |
6,078 | <p>What is good/preferred way of presenting directory trees in programming books?</p>
<p>My main criteria are following:</p>
<ol>
<li>It should be readable and intuitive </li>
<li>It shouldn't take too much page space</li>
<li>It shouldn't require too much effort from author to create and
update</li>
</ol>
<p>Examples of situations when presenting directory tree to the reader is required include describing:</p>
<ul>
<li>sample programming projects (e.g. "Hello World" project using some technology), </li>
<li>project layout conventions (like Java EE convention, Maven convention etc.), </li>
<li>important directories and files of some installed application (e.g. layout of Tomcat directories), </li>
</ul>
<p>For now, following forms come to my mind:</p>
<p><ol>
<li>Listing of Unix/linux <code>ls -R</code> invocation on file tree of interest, e.g.
<pre><code>$ ls -R /etc/sysconfig/networking
/etc/sysconfig/networking:
devices profiles
/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices:
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles:
default
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default:
</pre></code></li>
<li>Manually constructing directory tree "images" from ASCII characters like "|" or "-"
<pre><code>|-myproj
|-WEB-INF
|-classes
|-libs
</pre></code></li>
<li>Creating a screenshot of project tree view of some IDE (e.g. Eclipse)</li>
<li>Describing file structure textually, e.g:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Root project directory should contain WEB-INF subdirectory which in
turn should contain classes and libs subdirectories</li>
<li>Using some advanced modelling tool like Microsoft Visio to generate diagram showing directory structure?</li>
</ol>
Below are my impressions for the options I already written out:</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>Option 1</strong>: is very terse and is readable and familiar for advanced programmers, but I dare to say not all programmers (especially younger ones) are really familiar with Unix or
command-line programming in general.</p>
<p><strong>Option 2</strong>: is should be readable for most of readers but doesn't really look professional</p>
<p><strong>Option 3</strong>: it will probably look professional but:</p>
<ul>
<li>Not everyone must be familiar with given IDE (alhought it shouldn't really matter)</li>
<li>IDE GUI quickly becomes outdated</li>
<li>It isn't really easy to update</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Option 4</strong>: it is OK for the simplest cases. But for more complex it can easily become confusing and verbose. They say that "A picture is worth a thousand words"...</p>
<p><strong>Option 5</strong>: such diagrams are likely to take a lot of space and in practice may be less readable than option 1 or 2</p>
<p>So my questions to you are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Do you know any more solutions that the ones I stated above? Maybe I'm missing some good one(s)?</li>
<li>Do you know if any solution is widely adopted in professional programming books? Which one do you meet most often?</li>
<li>What solution do <em>you</em> personally find best?</li>
<li>Do you have experience with writing programming books? How did you solved this problem?</li>
</ul>
<p>PS. I'm not 100% sure if I'm writing on right forum but it seems the best suitable for this question from all of forums I found in stack exchange.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 6082,
"author": "John Smithers",
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"text": "<p>Focus on your main goal: </p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>It should be readable and intuitive</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>... | 2012/07/19 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6078",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/3871/"
] | What is good/preferred way of presenting directory trees in programming books?
My main criteria are following:
1. It should be readable and intuitive
2. It shouldn't take too much page space
3. It shouldn't require too much effort from author to create and
update
Examples of situations when presenting directory tree to the reader is required include describing:
* sample programming projects (e.g. "Hello World" project using some technology),
* project layout conventions (like Java EE convention, Maven convention etc.),
* important directories and files of some installed application (e.g. layout of Tomcat directories),
For now, following forms come to my mind:
1. Listing of Unix/linux `ls -R` invocation on file tree of interest, e.g.
```
$ ls -R /etc/sysconfig/networking
/etc/sysconfig/networking:
devices profiles
/etc/sysconfig/networking/devices:
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles:
default
/etc/sysconfig/networking/profiles/default:
```
2. Manually constructing directory tree "images" from ASCII characters like "|" or "-"
```
|-myproj
|-WEB-INF
|-classes
|-libs
```
3. Creating a screenshot of project tree view of some IDE (e.g. Eclipse)
4. Describing file structure textually, e.g:
>
> Root project directory should contain WEB-INF subdirectory which in
> turn should contain classes and libs subdirectories
> - Using some advanced modelling tool like Microsoft Visio to generate diagram showing directory structure?
>
>
> Below are my impressions for the options I already written out:
>
>
>
**Option 1**: is very terse and is readable and familiar for advanced programmers, but I dare to say not all programmers (especially younger ones) are really familiar with Unix or
command-line programming in general.
**Option 2**: is should be readable for most of readers but doesn't really look professional
**Option 3**: it will probably look professional but:
* Not everyone must be familiar with given IDE (alhought it shouldn't really matter)
* IDE GUI quickly becomes outdated
* It isn't really easy to update
**Option 4**: it is OK for the simplest cases. But for more complex it can easily become confusing and verbose. They say that "A picture is worth a thousand words"...
**Option 5**: such diagrams are likely to take a lot of space and in practice may be less readable than option 1 or 2
So my questions to you are:
* Do you know any more solutions that the ones I stated above? Maybe I'm missing some good one(s)?
* Do you know if any solution is widely adopted in professional programming books? Which one do you meet most often?
* What solution do *you* personally find best?
* Do you have experience with writing programming books? How did you solved this problem?
PS. I'm not 100% sure if I'm writing on right forum but it seems the best suitable for this question from all of forums I found in stack exchange. | I do something similar to your ASCII implementation, but instead of an ASCII block I use compact bulleted lists (with sub-lists). File/directory names are still styled as they would be in running text. In addition to conveying the structure, this also gives me a handy place to add explanations where needed, which is particularly important when (from the user's point of view) the information is new. For example, my approach would let you explain what WEB-INF is for. (In that bullet: "`WEB-INF`: explanation." Typography distinguishes name from explanation.)
Screenshots are usually a bad idea in my experience; they have to be edited/updated separately so they might rot (as @Piotr said), and if the document isn't WYSIWIG but, say, HTML, the author of the document might not see the screenshot "inline" while editing. Not seeing the screen shots in your (say) text editor can lead to text-screenshot mismatches. Further, screenshots aren't as visually accessible as text; they don't work with screen readers (unless you also type everything is alt text) and readers can't style the page for font sizes, colors, or contrast. This doesn't mean never use screenshots or other graphics; they're an important part of many documents. It *does* mean to not use them when they're not necessary. In this case, you have a text alternative that provides the same information, so you should prefer that. |
6,164 | <p>Some scripts I read specify the exact camera angle of every shot-- where the camera starts, what we see, how it will move during the scene.</p>
<p>And some scripts are a little less specific.</p>
<p>Is this only because the former is the <em>shooting script</em>, a modification of an earlier script so as to include such specifics? Or is it just a difference in style?</p>
<p>While writing a script, or what will at the very least be the first version of a script, should you specify camera shots? Or should that be left for other people to add in and decide upon later?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 6169,
"author": "Greg R.",
"author_id": 2744,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2744",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Screenwriters don't specify shots or camera angles -- that's the job of the director and cinematographer. Since you ... | 2012/08/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6164",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/3421/"
] | Some scripts I read specify the exact camera angle of every shot-- where the camera starts, what we see, how it will move during the scene.
And some scripts are a little less specific.
Is this only because the former is the *shooting script*, a modification of an earlier script so as to include such specifics? Or is it just a difference in style?
While writing a script, or what will at the very least be the first version of a script, should you specify camera shots? Or should that be left for other people to add in and decide upon later? | Screenwriters don't specify shots or camera angles -- that's the job of the director and cinematographer. Since you know nothing about the actual production when you're writing the script, such information would be entirely hypothetical and largely useless.
As the screenwriter, you *should* specify the setting and time in the scene's slug line, using INT. or EXT. for interior or exterior, a brief description of the setting, and DAY or NIGHT for the time of day.
```
INT. JOE'S GARAGE - NIGHT
```
Sometimes it might be necessary to include some additional information, i.e. if it's important that the scene be taking place at dawn, include that.
```
EXT. ARIZONA DESERT - DAY (DAWN)
```
Or, if it's a flashback you might need to include some information to indicate the change in set (if it's not obvious from the dialogue or action).
```
EXT. NEW YORK CITY STREET (1933) - DAY
```
Beyond those broad strokes, almost everything is a production decision, not a script decision. |
6,296 | <p><strong>How do you welcome a business audience to your presentation?</strong></p>
<p>I've thought of:</p>
<pre><code>Hello, my name is [prename] [surname] and I am going to talk about [...]
</code></pre>
<p>but it sounds rather like a school presentation and not like a business presentation. Or isn't there a difference in the English language?</p>
<p>Does it make a difference if there are only men or if it is a mixed audience?</p>
<p><sup>(I don't have any experience with business presentations and English is a foreign language for me. If you have any more hints for business presentations or links to websites that adress this topic: Please let me know in the comment. But please note that this is not the question.)</sup></p>
<p>(Note: I've <a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/q/80531/9880">already asked this question here</a>)</p>
| [
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"selected": true,
"text": "<p>That's not a bad opening. I might change it to \"Today we're going to talk about...\" to make it mor... | 2012/09/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6296",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4055/"
] | **How do you welcome a business audience to your presentation?**
I've thought of:
```
Hello, my name is [prename] [surname] and I am going to talk about [...]
```
but it sounds rather like a school presentation and not like a business presentation. Or isn't there a difference in the English language?
Does it make a difference if there are only men or if it is a mixed audience?
(I don't have any experience with business presentations and English is a foreign language for me. If you have any more hints for business presentations or links to websites that adress this topic: Please let me know in the comment. But please note that this is not the question.)
(Note: I've [already asked this question here](https://english.stackexchange.com/q/80531/9880)) | That's not a bad opening. I might change it to "Today we're going to talk about..." to make it more inclusive, but there's nothing wrong with being straightforward. Another version might be "Today I'd like to talk to you about..." |
6,428 | <p>In 2005, Alexander Genaud created a <a href="https://github.com/alexgenaud/Poetic-License" rel="nofollow">Poetic License</a> based on the <a href="http://mit-license.org/" rel="nofollow">MIT license</a>. It consisted of 2 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_%28poetry%29" rel="nofollow">Limericks</a> which attempted to distill the already meager license jargon into a fun, simple, and tiny text. </p>
<pre><code>(c) 2005 Alexander E Genaud
This work ‘as-is’ we provide.
No warranty express or implied.
We’ve done our best,
to debug and test.
Liability for damages denied.
Permission is granted hereby,
to copy, share, and modify.
Use as is fit,
free or for profit.
These rights, on this notice, rely.
</code></pre>
<p>Later on I found this cute alteration, and decided that the wording did not afford as much protection as it possibly could have. I submitted an <a href="https://github.com/alexgenaud/Poetic-License/pull/1" rel="nofollow">update request</a> but was denied because I broke the rules of Limerick prose.</p>
<p>Fast forward a year and I decided <a href="https://github.com/Xeoncross/Poetic-License/blob/master/Liability.md" rel="nofollow">to try again</a>. I would like to know if this time I have successfully created a proper Limerick. Suggestions and improvements are also welcome.</p>
<pre><code>(c) 2011 Company Name
Permission is granted hereby,
to copy, share, and modify.
To use as is fit,
free or for profit.
These rights, on this notice, rely.
This work ‘as-is’ we provide.
No warranty express or implied.
Denied is our liability,
for damage, tort, or responsibility.
Therefore all claims are defied.
</code></pre>
<p><em>I also need someone to add the correct tags to this post since I can't.</em></p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 6429,
"author": "steve",
"author_id": 4202,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4202",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The first half is a correct limerick.\nThe second, not so much.\nRemember the style/syllable construction of limerick... | 2012/10/05 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6428",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4201/"
] | In 2005, Alexander Genaud created a [Poetic License](https://github.com/alexgenaud/Poetic-License) based on the [MIT license](http://mit-license.org/). It consisted of 2 [Limericks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limerick_%28poetry%29) which attempted to distill the already meager license jargon into a fun, simple, and tiny text.
```
(c) 2005 Alexander E Genaud
This work ‘as-is’ we provide.
No warranty express or implied.
We’ve done our best,
to debug and test.
Liability for damages denied.
Permission is granted hereby,
to copy, share, and modify.
Use as is fit,
free or for profit.
These rights, on this notice, rely.
```
Later on I found this cute alteration, and decided that the wording did not afford as much protection as it possibly could have. I submitted an [update request](https://github.com/alexgenaud/Poetic-License/pull/1) but was denied because I broke the rules of Limerick prose.
Fast forward a year and I decided [to try again](https://github.com/Xeoncross/Poetic-License/blob/master/Liability.md). I would like to know if this time I have successfully created a proper Limerick. Suggestions and improvements are also welcome.
```
(c) 2011 Company Name
Permission is granted hereby,
to copy, share, and modify.
To use as is fit,
free or for profit.
These rights, on this notice, rely.
This work ‘as-is’ we provide.
No warranty express or implied.
Denied is our liability,
for damage, tort, or responsibility.
Therefore all claims are defied.
```
*I also need someone to add the correct tags to this post since I can't.* | I'm tickled you've taking this poem further. All praise be to sharing! My intention, in classic recursion, is that the license is protected by its own terms but state that "[Use of the license itself does not require its own notice](https://github.com/alexgenaud/Poetic-License "Poetic License on GitHub")."
As I understand, you are uncomfortable with "We've done our best" presumably concerned that the creators may not have "done their best". Let us then be honest!
```
This work 'as-is' I provide.
No warranty express nor implied.
Just a geeky lug,
did test and debug.
Your computer's already fried.
```
The leading extra syllable in "*To* use as is fit, free or for profit." renders the intended declarative verse grammatically incorrect. I myself was tempted to conform to the *Elements of Style* which advocates "*For* free and *for* profit" but this similarly chokes on verbosity and the divinity that inspired this stanza protested.
```
Permission is granted hereby,
to copy, share, and modify.
Use as is fit,
free or for profit.
On this notice, these rights rely.
This work ‘as-is’ we provide.
No warranty express or implied.
Responsibility
and liability
for damages and tort, denied.
```
Cheers!
Alex |
6,864 | <p>Many word processors are capable to tracking and displaying changes made to a document. Those changes are typically displayed in special markup supported by the editor. E.g.</p>
<p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/97Dy9.png" alt="enter image description here"></p>
<p>But when using a <strong>plain text</strong> editor (like Microsoft's Notepad), is there a useful markup technique that editors can use to suggest changes, without losing any of the original text?</p>
| [
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I kind of doubt that there is a <em>standard</em> for it, at least. You might get away with using some marker that isn... | 2012/12/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6864",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/61/"
] | Many word processors are capable to tracking and displaying changes made to a document. Those changes are typically displayed in special markup supported by the editor. E.g.
But when using a **plain text** editor (like Microsoft's Notepad), is there a useful markup technique that editors can use to suggest changes, without losing any of the original text? | I kind of doubt that there is a *standard* for it, at least. You might get away with using some marker that isn't used anywhere else, like `###`, to indicate a changed passage, but I'm not sure if that really qualifies as markup. In any case, it would have to be an agreement between the people involved which marker(s) to use and what they mean. Something like this:
```
Tracked changes look like ###this[WAS: these]###.
```
That said, depending on the technical inclination of the author(s) and editor(s), you might get away with something like setting up a GitHub account and uploading the text file there. Source control systems tend to be somewhat more geared toward programmers, but they solve your problem quite nicely: they allow multiple persons to work on a single text file (even simultaneously), tracking changes over time, displaying the differences between arbitrary versions, going back and forward between versions, and selectively rolling back any changes made.
It may take a little getting used to for someone who isn't technically inclined, but if you are serious about doing this with only plain text files, it's a reasonably easy way forward once you get over the initial learning curve. And for writing, there's likely no need to deal with the more complex issues such as branching/merging and such; a linear history will likely work well enough. |
6,907 | <p>I’m looking to summarize an idea into as few words as possible — to make it as concise as possible. The idea is to ask others for help (putting ego aside), value others’ input, listen to others, learn from others.</p>
<p>What I have so far is “Ask for help and learn from others”, but I’m not that satisfied with it. I’m trying to make a list of rules, such as “be virtuous” or “seek adventure” or “be kind”, and this particular phrase doesn’t really fit in well. Any other suggestions?</p>
<p>And please ask me to clarify if necessary. I’ve been running this through my head for a while, so it might not be clear as I think it is.</p>
| [
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>\"Seek guidance from others\"? </p>\n\n<p>Or \"Seek wisdom from others\"?</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 6916,
... | 2012/12/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/6907",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4527/"
] | I’m looking to summarize an idea into as few words as possible — to make it as concise as possible. The idea is to ask others for help (putting ego aside), value others’ input, listen to others, learn from others.
What I have so far is “Ask for help and learn from others”, but I’m not that satisfied with it. I’m trying to make a list of rules, such as “be virtuous” or “seek adventure” or “be kind”, and this particular phrase doesn’t really fit in well. Any other suggestions?
And please ask me to clarify if necessary. I’ve been running this through my head for a while, so it might not be clear as I think it is. | I think Kathryn's examples are good. I can't think of a better, more succinct phrase than "from others" to convey that part of the meaning. If an approach combining the help and informational aspects is possible, it seems you have some choices for the ideas of the request and what is requested:
```
[ Ask for | request | seek | solicit ]
[ advice | guidance | insight | knowledge | wisdom ]
from others.
```
With respect to knowledge, the big difference from information, of course, is that knowledge is learned information, or information made useful. I would personally shy away from such terms as "teaching" and "instruction" unless that is the specific sort of help that is intended to be sought.
I think an optimal choice depends on the reason for the structure of the proposed rule, "Ask for help & learn from others." Is it really that the reader should ask for help from others, as well as learning from others, and that these are just bundled together as actions taken with regard to others in service to conciseness? For example, if one is building a roof, should one ask others to help one hammer in the shingles even if one already knows how, but still do one's best to learn from them in that and any other contexts that might arise? Or is the help and the learning supposed to occur together, i.e. one should ask for help in the form of knowledge or guidance when one doesn't know what to do?
If the latter, I think that something like "Seek knowledge from others" or "Seek guidance from others", depending on the specific context, might be most appropriate. But if you're just bundling together two things one should do with others, your original attempt isn't actually too bad, but I might try different variations on for size, e.g. "Ask others for help and guidance", "Learn and seek help from others", etc.
The slight clunkiness of the wording at present is caused, I suspect, by the desire for brevity. It would seem more correct to convert "learn" to a gerund, but it sounds silly to "ask for learning from others". It would also seem a little more clear structurally to go with something like "Ask for help from, and learn from, others" despite the repetition, but of course that's just ugly; nor do I much like "Ask for help, and learn, from others", though it does resolve the issue of "Ask for help and learn" being scanned initially and perceived as asking for two things, one of which is a verb. Once you've decided exactly what you're trying to convey and chosen your terms, I'm sure it will be easy to juggle things up a bit and find an arrangement that's both short and sweet-- perhaps even more so than this entry. |
7,208 | <p>I have a paragraph of dialog which technically continues into the next paragraph, but I want to interject a "she continued" almost immediately into the second paragraph. So should I close the quote on the first paragraph, or leave it open?</p>
<p>E.g., </p>
<pre><code>"Well," Antimony began, taking a deep, thoughtful breath, and
stepping a little closer. "If you fill the 5 pound sack, and
then empty it into a 3 pound sack, you'll have 2 pounds
left over. Then you can empty the 3 pound sack back into
your barrel, and transfer the two pounds of lentils into the
three pound sack."
"Then," she continued, "you can fill the 5 pound sack again..."
</code></pre>
<p>It continues from there, but the question is about the closing quote at the end of the first paragraph. I know that normally when dialog continues across paragraphs, it is left open at the end of each paragraph (except of course the last one), because the closing quote implies that the following quote will be another person. But in this case, it is immediately indicated that it is the same person speaking, and it seems strange to continue the quote for such a short piece across the paragraph.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 7209,
"author": "Adra Elkins",
"author_id": 4549,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4549",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>That's a good place to break, yes. \nConsidering it's such a long quote, you don't want to let the reader lose ... | 2013/02/02 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7208",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4562/"
] | I have a paragraph of dialog which technically continues into the next paragraph, but I want to interject a "she continued" almost immediately into the second paragraph. So should I close the quote on the first paragraph, or leave it open?
E.g.,
```
"Well," Antimony began, taking a deep, thoughtful breath, and
stepping a little closer. "If you fill the 5 pound sack, and
then empty it into a 3 pound sack, you'll have 2 pounds
left over. Then you can empty the 3 pound sack back into
your barrel, and transfer the two pounds of lentils into the
three pound sack."
"Then," she continued, "you can fill the 5 pound sack again..."
```
It continues from there, but the question is about the closing quote at the end of the first paragraph. I know that normally when dialog continues across paragraphs, it is left open at the end of each paragraph (except of course the last one), because the closing quote implies that the following quote will be another person. But in this case, it is immediately indicated that it is the same person speaking, and it seems strange to continue the quote for such a short piece across the paragraph. | You have broken and punctuated it correctly. But if you're worried about the *she continued,* then change it up a little:
>
> "Well," Antimony began, taking a deep, thoughtful breath, and
> stepping a little closer. "If you fill the 5 pound sack, and
> then empty it into a 3 pound sack, you'll have 2 pounds
> left over. Then you can empty the 3 pound sack back into
> your barrel, and transfer the two pounds of lentils into the
> three pound sack."
>
>
> He watched her thoughtfully, but didn't interrupt. She continued. "You can fill the 5 pound sack again..."
>
>
>
So you move *she continued* to the beginning of the sentence and add another few words of stage business, and that's enough of a separator that it doesn't look so odd. It also resolves the "close-quote" question, because if you're adding narration, even though she's the same speaker, you have to close and open quotes. |
7,299 | <p>I'm a writer, not a programmer. I'm just now for the first time learning about version control and how it works, and I am wondering how version control could streamline my workflow.</p>
<p>In a <a href="https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7249/whats-the-best-version-control-system-for-a-book-writer">previous question</a>, I asked what version control system to use, and settled on Git. </p>
<p>For years, I've used my own cobbled-together version of version control. My folders are littered with files like resume-2012-06-01.doc, resume-2012-06-15.doc, letter.txt, letter-old.txt, letter-v2.txt, story-notes.txt, story-notes-with-character-sketches.txt story_draft1.txt, story_draft2.txt, story_draft2-shorter.txt, etc.</p>
<p>Now that I'm using version control, I guess I don't need to manually create all these renamed versions of a file. What should I do instead? Now that I'm using version control, how should I name my drafts and rewrites? How should I keep track of drafts and revisions? </p>
<p>What philosophy and practices should a writer use for commenting when doing a Git commit of rewrites and revisions to keep track of everything and find things easily later? </p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 7301,
"author": "Dale Hartley Emery",
"author_id": 272,
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"text": "<p>There are two concepts in git that can help: <em>branches</em> and <em>tags</em>.</p>\n\n<p><strong>Tags.</... | 2013/02/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7299",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4718/"
] | I'm a writer, not a programmer. I'm just now for the first time learning about version control and how it works, and I am wondering how version control could streamline my workflow.
In a [previous question](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7249/whats-the-best-version-control-system-for-a-book-writer), I asked what version control system to use, and settled on Git.
For years, I've used my own cobbled-together version of version control. My folders are littered with files like resume-2012-06-01.doc, resume-2012-06-15.doc, letter.txt, letter-old.txt, letter-v2.txt, story-notes.txt, story-notes-with-character-sketches.txt story\_draft1.txt, story\_draft2.txt, story\_draft2-shorter.txt, etc.
Now that I'm using version control, I guess I don't need to manually create all these renamed versions of a file. What should I do instead? Now that I'm using version control, how should I name my drafts and rewrites? How should I keep track of drafts and revisions?
What philosophy and practices should a writer use for commenting when doing a Git commit of rewrites and revisions to keep track of everything and find things easily later? | There are two concepts in git that can help: *branches* and *tags*.
**Tags.**
Think of a *tag* as a name for a specific revision. Any time you want to remember a version, create a tag for it. For example, when you finish a draft, you can tag it like this:
```
git tag first_draft
```
**When to use tags.**
Tags are good for marking any version that you might want to remember later.
I use them to mark the end of each draft.
**Branches.** Think of a *branch* as a series of changes. The default branch is called `master`. That's a good branch to use for your initial research and first draft. Unless you create a new branch, every change you make updates the `master` branch.
**When to use branches.**
Whenever you want to start on a new series of edits, you have a choice. You can either continue on the the current branch, or create a new branch.
Some possible uses for branches:
* *Drafts.* You might start each draft by creating a branch for it. (I tend not to do this, but it may suit your needs.)
* *Experiments.* Suppose you want to experiment with rewriting a few scenes to change from first person to third, or to change the POV character. You can create a branch and do your experiments there. Later, if you like the new POV, you can continue writing on your experimental branch. If you don't like the POV changes after all, you can switch back to whatever branch you were on before.
* *Submissions.* Before I make a submission, I'll often create a new branch, add my cover letter, make any minor manuscript changes specific to that recipient (e.g. quirks of mss formats), and add a text file with notes about the submission. When I receive a reply, I can check out the branch and update my notes.
I tend to use branches more for experiments and submissions than for drafts. When I finish a draft, I'll tag it, then continue with the second draft on the `master` branch.
**Creating branches.**
To create a new branch, use the `git branch` command like this:
```
git branch charles_pov
```
When you create a new branch, the new branch starts with the same content as the branch you were on. If you're on the `master` branch and you create a `charles_pov` branch, the `charles_pov` branch starts with the current content of the `master` branch.
Note that creating a new branch doesn't switch to the new branch. To switch to a branch, see below.
**Switching branches.**
You can change branches at any time by "checking out" a branch. To switch to your new `charles_pov` branch:
```
git checkout charles_pov
```
When you commit changes, git updates whatever branch you are on, and leaves the other branches unchanged. So if you switch to the `charles_pov` branch, your changes will update the `charles_pov` branch, and the `master` branch will remain unchanged.
**Creating a branch and switching to it in one command.**
You can create a new branch and switch to it in a single command, like this:
```
git checkout -b charles_pov
```
**Viewing tags and branches.**
You can see a list of all tags and branches with these commands:
```
git tag
git branch
```
**Checking out a tag (AND A WARNING).**
Remember that a tag is a name for a specific version.
If you've tagged each draft, you can check out an old draft like this:
```
git checkout twelfth_draft
```
Yep, you check out a tag the same way you check out a branch.
**BUT NOTE** that when you check out a tag, you are no longer on any branch.
Any changes you make end up in a floaty nebulous place that I don't know how to explain succinctly.
Git does warn you about this.
**The current branch.**
To see what branch you are currently on, use this command:
```
git branch
```
Git displays all of the branches, and marks the current branch (the one that will be updated when you make changes) with an asterisk. |
7,912 | <p>This might seem to be a strange question, but I can't seem to get my head around it.</p>
<ul>
<li>I am trying to cite from Anselm's "On Truth", which is part of a compilation.</li>
<li>I have read it in Oxford World Classics' <em>Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works</em>.</li>
<li>"On Truth" was translated from Latin into English by Ralph McInery, but other parts of the volume were translated by others.</li>
<li>On top of that, this version of <em>Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works</em> is a reissued edition. The original was published in 1998.</li>
<li>The original "On Truth" (<em>De veritate</em> in Latin) was published around 1080.</li>
</ul>
<p>What I thought that could be a solution is the following (in a reference list):</p>
<pre><code>Anselm. (2008). On Truth (R. McInery, Trans.). In B. Davies & G. Evans
(Eds.), *Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works* (pp. 151-174). USA:
Oxford University Press. (Reissue edition. Original edition 1998.
Original work published around 1080).
</code></pre>
<blockquote>
<pre><code>*this means that the text contained within is in italics*
</code></pre>
</blockquote>
<p>I do not know</p>
<ol>
<li>whether this is correct;</li>
<li>how I would cite this source in a text.</li>
</ol>
<p>But because there are so many factors to keep in mind, it is hard to know whether this is completely correct.</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I think you are on the right track. but I would omit the words Reissue edition, change Origional edition to First ... | 2013/05/17 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7912",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/5197/"
] | This might seem to be a strange question, but I can't seem to get my head around it.
* I am trying to cite from Anselm's "On Truth", which is part of a compilation.
* I have read it in Oxford World Classics' *Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works*.
* "On Truth" was translated from Latin into English by Ralph McInery, but other parts of the volume were translated by others.
* On top of that, this version of *Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works* is a reissued edition. The original was published in 1998.
* The original "On Truth" (*De veritate* in Latin) was published around 1080.
What I thought that could be a solution is the following (in a reference list):
```
Anselm. (2008). On Truth (R. McInery, Trans.). In B. Davies & G. Evans
(Eds.), *Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works* (pp. 151-174). USA:
Oxford University Press. (Reissue edition. Original edition 1998.
Original work published around 1080).
```
>
>
> ```
> *this means that the text contained within is in italics*
>
> ```
>
>
I do not know
1. whether this is correct;
2. how I would cite this source in a text.
But because there are so many factors to keep in mind, it is hard to know whether this is completely correct. | 1. ~~USA~~ New York: Oxford University Press
2. ~~Reissue edition. Original edition 1998.~~
Why delete that? No one cares if that book is an unchanged reissue. You only tell the reader if the book you quote from is a different *editon* (e.g. 2nd ed.), because that means that there have been changes to the text, and therefore it is important to identify the correct edition. In your case you have an unchanged reissue, and if someone wanting to look at your source text picked up the first edtion from 1998 he would find the same text on the same pages. [Google Books shows you that the text is on the same page in the 1998 printing](http://books.google.de/books?id=hXXBBuJ2MocC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Anselm%20of%20Canterbury%3a%20The%20Major%20Works%22&hl=de&sa=X&ei=kfkAU-alOonTsgaj7oBA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAQ#v=snippet&q=%22on%20truth%22%20%22preface%22&f=false).
What you get is:
>
> Anselm. (2008). On Truth (R. McInery, Trans.). In B. Davies & G. Evans (Eds.), *Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works* (pp. 151-174). New York: Oxford University Press. (Original work published around 1080).
>
>
>
If you really and truly need this quotation to be perfect, ask on the APA style blog: <http://blog.apastyle.org/> – they helped me with some complicated quote from a 19th century French text.
Note that in text you should use the following citation:
>
> (Anselm, 1080/2008)
>
>
>
*For an official example see no. 21 on page 203f. of the 2009 6th editon of the APA Publication Manual.*
---
Apart from a certain formatting style, the basic APA rule is to **include everything necessary to clearly identify a source**. You don't have to go beyond that. |
7,936 | <p>I want to use a text editor (Emacs) to write a novel because I don't want to consider page layout and other similar issues. I want to use the Markdown format so that I can convert it to the docx format using Pandoc if and when I prepare a manuscript for submission to publishers.</p>
<p>How should I format the Markdown text so as to minimise rework on the manuscript post-conversion to docx?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>This is my sort of question, since I have basically the same setup as you do (except I use Vim, not Emacs.)</p>\n\n<p>My... | 2013/05/24 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/7936",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/5233/"
] | I want to use a text editor (Emacs) to write a novel because I don't want to consider page layout and other similar issues. I want to use the Markdown format so that I can convert it to the docx format using Pandoc if and when I prepare a manuscript for submission to publishers.
How should I format the Markdown text so as to minimise rework on the manuscript post-conversion to docx? | This is my sort of question, since I have basically the same setup as you do (except I use Vim, not Emacs.)
My novel text looks like this:
```
% Novel Title
# Title 1
Text goes here.
# Title 2
More text goes here.
```
This works fine for me, since Pandoc wants to convert the top-level section markers `#` into chapter breaks, exactly as intended. The only snag is that there isn't any easy way to indicate *scene* breaks, so I wound up using a literal `\#` to mark scene breaks (since the `#` is the scene break marker in standard manuscript format). I pass the author information and other metadata as variables on the command line when I invoke Pandoc.
Depending on how fancy you want your output to look, it may be worthwhile to get your text through an intermediate format such as RTF. The RTF format is human-readable (in theory), and Pandoc lets you create the RTF doc from a template so that you can specify your fonts, headers, etc. Note, however, that getting a good RTF template set up could take you several hours of experimentation. |
8,042 | <p>in the following sentence:</p>
<pre><code>We forge such concepts like agent's IP, agent's port, agent's sequence number
and so on for ease of explanation.
We forge such concepts like agent's IP, agent's port, agent's sequence number
blabla for ease of explanation.
</code></pre>
<p>it seems to me the <code>and so on</code> or <code>blabla</code> is not proper, isn't it?
if so, how to modify the sentence?</p>
<p>thanks!</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>You can always make them relics of the ancient civilisation (Morrowind), or some stuff left by travelers... | 2013/06/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/8042",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/5264/"
] | in the following sentence:
```
We forge such concepts like agent's IP, agent's port, agent's sequence number
and so on for ease of explanation.
We forge such concepts like agent's IP, agent's port, agent's sequence number
blabla for ease of explanation.
```
it seems to me the `and so on` or `blabla` is not proper, isn't it?
if so, how to modify the sentence?
thanks! | I think you are giving into the *temptation of explaining*. Sometimes you don't need to know how - or at least not for sure how - just to make it believable in your world.
Take your real life laptop as an example. It has thousands of microchips compacted into a single CPU but, what is a microchip? What is a diode? What is an integrated circuit? People generally don't know... A few may, but the vast majority don't care as long it works.
Many have heard that a laptop has a CPU and decided that the vague notions they have are enough to not care at all. If real life people are not interested in details, why over-detail a fictional world?
Same thing goes for books or movies. In Back to the future you have a "*flux capacitor*" but you have no idea what it is, you just know it allows time traveling. It's magical but also scientific because nobody ever tried to explain what it is.
It wouldn't be hard to create Back to the Future IV and say that some mystical being taught some weird magical ways to Doc, allowing him to create a magical device that could be inserted into a DeLorean. After all, nobody actually explained what the flux capacitor is and how it works.
The same goes in your book. The flying carpet or hovercraft works based on magic or science (why not both together?) At the start, will anyone actually care? Will it make any difference to specify? If people already know it is science, they will assume some weird scientific means make it work; if people know it is magic, they will assume it's magical without asking for more explanations.
Like I said in my previous answers, if you are not an expert in a field, just stay on the surface. It works here also. Don't try to explain what can't be explained, because that will close doors that could stay opened.
For example, if you leave the way a hovercraft works open, you can in the future (maybe your next book) decide that in fact it works based on science, even being in a magical world. That may lead to new histories like one where the guy finds out that science exists and wants to uncover more about it and become the most powerful engineer of the world.
If you already defined that the hovercraft is scientific, you won't be able to change that in the future.
The exception is the history itself. If it's vital for your plot to have the way the hovercraft works, than you should define it. But if it's not vital, just leave it unexplained until some idea comes up. |
8,480 | <p>The reference documentation for an application programming interface (API) is, in modern systems, usually generated from the code itself automatically. For example, for Java interfaces a typical tool is <a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-jsp-135444.html" rel="nofollow">Javadoc</a>.</p>
<p>One property of such generated documentation is that the code interfaces -- for example, method signatures -- are extracted from the code for you. The developer is left to write a text description and, if applicable, tagged descriptions of parameters, return values, and exceptions. The signature itself conveys the syntactic requirements (e.g. that an argument is a double, or a list of strings, or a map of integers to strings, etc). Of course, the signature doesn't convey the <em>semantics</em> (e.g. that that numeric value must be in the range 0-100); that's what the documentation is for.</p>
<p>That all makes sense; I've been doing this for years in strongly-typed languages like Java and C++. I will now be venturing into the world of a <strong>weakly-typed language</strong> (Javascript), where the <em>syntax</em> may only tell you that an argument is an object but, really, that object is required to have properties A (string), B (number), C (string), and D (boolean). (See example below.) Nothing in the syntax conveys that; it has to be handled in the documentation.</p>
<p>So my question (at long last) is: <strong>what are the current best practices for formatting and describing that kind of documentation?</strong> Do you just drop an itemized list of properties into the main documentation block? Do you try to do that in the space of a parameter description (and how does that tend to work out)? For widely-used object patterns (e.g. several methods, perhaps in several interfaces, will use that same set of properties), do you somehow abstract out a "fake" type and link to it everywhere? (In Java these would be classes that would be separately linked and described, but this isn't always the case with Javascript objects.)</p>
<p><strong>Example:</strong></p>
<p>Consider a Java API for a map that displays movable items. I might have an <code>Item</code> class that has a <code>setPosition()</code> method that takes a <code>Position</code> object. In the Javadoc you can click on that "Position" parameter to get to the class documentation, which tells you that it encodes latitude, longitude, altitude, and (perhaps surprisingly) timestamp. The generated documentation tells you what you need to do to change an Item's position.</p>
<p>In Javascript, on the other hand, your <code>Item.setPosition()</code> method just takes an <code>Object</code>, according to the syntax. The way you call it is something like this:</p>
<pre><code>// setting this separately for clarify of the example
var pos =
{ latitude: 40.7,
longitude -79.3,
altitude: 10000
};
// assume myItem already exists
myItem.setPosition(pos);
</code></pre>
<p>When all you're going to get "for free" from the tool is <code>Item.setPosition(Object)</code>, what is the best way to convey the names and types of the properties that object must set?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>This surely depends on the specific tool that you are using. The only tool that I am familiar with that meets your desc... | 2013/07/24 | [
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One property of such generated documentation is that the code interfaces -- for example, method signatures -- are extracted from the code for you. The developer is left to write a text description and, if applicable, tagged descriptions of parameters, return values, and exceptions. The signature itself conveys the syntactic requirements (e.g. that an argument is a double, or a list of strings, or a map of integers to strings, etc). Of course, the signature doesn't convey the *semantics* (e.g. that that numeric value must be in the range 0-100); that's what the documentation is for.
That all makes sense; I've been doing this for years in strongly-typed languages like Java and C++. I will now be venturing into the world of a **weakly-typed language** (Javascript), where the *syntax* may only tell you that an argument is an object but, really, that object is required to have properties A (string), B (number), C (string), and D (boolean). (See example below.) Nothing in the syntax conveys that; it has to be handled in the documentation.
So my question (at long last) is: **what are the current best practices for formatting and describing that kind of documentation?** Do you just drop an itemized list of properties into the main documentation block? Do you try to do that in the space of a parameter description (and how does that tend to work out)? For widely-used object patterns (e.g. several methods, perhaps in several interfaces, will use that same set of properties), do you somehow abstract out a "fake" type and link to it everywhere? (In Java these would be classes that would be separately linked and described, but this isn't always the case with Javascript objects.)
**Example:**
Consider a Java API for a map that displays movable items. I might have an `Item` class that has a `setPosition()` method that takes a `Position` object. In the Javadoc you can click on that "Position" parameter to get to the class documentation, which tells you that it encodes latitude, longitude, altitude, and (perhaps surprisingly) timestamp. The generated documentation tells you what you need to do to change an Item's position.
In Javascript, on the other hand, your `Item.setPosition()` method just takes an `Object`, according to the syntax. The way you call it is something like this:
```
// setting this separately for clarify of the example
var pos =
{ latitude: 40.7,
longitude -79.3,
altitude: 10000
};
// assume myItem already exists
myItem.setPosition(pos);
```
When all you're going to get "for free" from the tool is `Item.setPosition(Object)`, what is the best way to convey the names and types of the properties that object must set? | This surely depends on the specific tool that you are using. The only tool that I am familiar with that meets your description is Javadoc, so I want to be cautious not to make assumption about how other tools might work.
But with Javadoc, there is a built-in way to describe parameters. The whole point of Javadoc is to have a consistent way to document an API, so I think that given the feature is there, you should use it.
Personally, nine times out of ten I put absolutely nothing in the parameter descriptions. The code itself gives the data type, and I give the parameters meaningful names, and then in the general description block I describe how they interact.
When there is something interesting to be said about a particular parameter, I put it into those parameter descriptions where it belongs. Usually this means that the name is not adequate to describe what it really is. Like I might specify that "String customerName" can be either the name of a person or of a company, or that "int delta" is the signed change in the voltage over the specified time period.
In general, when the tool gives you "slots" to put specific data and then an area for a general description. I put as much in the specific slots as I can, to take advantage of the features that are there.
I would definitely NOT create fake classes or functions solely for the purpose of eliminating redundancy in the docs. That violates my sense of esthetics to clutter up code just to fool the documentation generator into producing what I want. In real life, what I usually do in such cases is nothing. I fully document the parameters or whatever the first time I use them, and then just don't on further occurrences. Okay, that's sloppy. But Javadoc does give you the feature that you can link to the documentation for another class or function. (Umm, is it "@link"? I forget, it's been a while since I used it.) To take a simple case, if you have an overloaded function or similar case where parameters with the same meaning are used in multiple functions, I think the right thing to do is to fully document them in the function with the longest parameter list and then link from the other functions to that one, with some explanatory text like "See foobar() for description of the parameters". I say the function with the longest parameter list meaning that if there is one function that has all or most of these parameters, document them all there, in one place, and then link there, rather than documenting one here and one there. |
9,056 | <p>I'm writing a master thesis (Sociology) and I'm really penalized by distractions. I would happily shift to a markdown full-screen environment but I wrote an half of the thesis in .odt via LibreOffice, so I would like to know if it's possible to convert from .odt to Markdown, maintaining the footnotes (which are the most important thing in my work) and also the formatting of the bibliographical notes.</p>
<p>Maybe It could be useful to revert the process and, at the end of the work, go back to .odt file to reformat pages, line height and other things.</p>
<p>Is there a way to do so?</p>
<p>Alternatively, there is a way to write full-screen directly in a .odt file maintaining footnotes (because FocusWriter and TextRoom doesn't have this feature)?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I've been playing around with odt2txt. It strips out all formatting, leaving just plain text, perfect for diffs, an... | 2013/10/01 | [
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Maybe It could be useful to revert the process and, at the end of the work, go back to .odt file to reformat pages, line height and other things.
Is there a way to do so?
Alternatively, there is a way to write full-screen directly in a .odt file maintaining footnotes (because FocusWriter and TextRoom doesn't have this feature)? | Your first option is, really, [Pandoc](http://johnmacfarlane.net/pandoc/README.html), which was already mentioned. Its usage is quite straightforward. I've done some converting along these lines myself, and it's brilliant. It's included in Debian repositories, so I'd think acquiring an installation wouldn't be a problem.
You indeed want to convert to HTML first:
```
pandoc OdtFile.odt -o HtmlFile.html
```
and then proceed to create markdown file the same way:
```
pandoc HtmlFile.html -o MarkDown.text
```
and yes, you could go back from markdown to odt the same way. You also could enforce your own style set by mentioning style template odt file, the README will tell you, how.
You may also find it useful to [preserve paragraphs](https://stackoverflow.com/a/62990248/2455413) with the flag `--wrap=none` - i.e. prevent pandoc breaking pars with newlines every 72 chars.
To prevent odd HTML formatting (such as you get where the original doc has embedded links: pandoc endows those in the output markdown text with underline html tags), [specify the markdown version as markdown\_github-raw\_html](https://stackoverflow.com/a/62963659/2455413) with `-t markdown_github-raw_html`. (Might be preferable to change the source doc's default link formatting in the Office app that created it, if you can).
Another option is to forego markdown for some kind of TeX solution (to which format you also could convert your already written text with Pandoc), the advantages being the abilities to insert images, tables and math equations in text, though, I'm afraid, that will close the way back to odt. |
9,077 | <p>In a technical or scientific text, such as a PhD thesis, should headings for (sub)sections be complete and sometimes repeat information from the headings of the levels above, or is it sufficient to have a short heading, assuming that it is implied that section <code>X.Y.Z</code> is still inside <code>X.Y.</code>? </p>
<p>For example, in my PhD thesis, I have a sectioning structure like this:</p>
<pre><code>2. Remote sensing
2.3. Specific technologies
2.3.1. Solar
2.3.2. Terrestrial
2.3.3. Active
</code></pre>
<p>My supervisor said that <em>Solar</em>, <em>Terrestrial</em>, <em>Active</em>, or even <em>Specific technologies</em> are not proper section titles, but that I should rather write something along the lines of </p>
<pre><code>2.3. Specific observation technologies
2.3.1. Solar remote sensing
2.3.2. Terrestrial remote sensing
2.3.3. Active remote sensing
</code></pre>
<p>even though this repeats the heading for chapter 2. Browsing through some books on my desk, it appears that section and subsection titles often indeed <em>do</em> repeat information from higher level headings, but it makes the mathematician buried (somewhat deep) inside me cringe a little.</p>
<p>Are there any style guides or rules addressing this point explicitly?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9094,
"author": "Samuel Flint",
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'd say that your current sounds fine, though you may want to prepare it as both, just to placate your adviser... | 2013/10/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/9077",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/5496/"
] | In a technical or scientific text, such as a PhD thesis, should headings for (sub)sections be complete and sometimes repeat information from the headings of the levels above, or is it sufficient to have a short heading, assuming that it is implied that section `X.Y.Z` is still inside `X.Y.`?
For example, in my PhD thesis, I have a sectioning structure like this:
```
2. Remote sensing
2.3. Specific technologies
2.3.1. Solar
2.3.2. Terrestrial
2.3.3. Active
```
My supervisor said that *Solar*, *Terrestrial*, *Active*, or even *Specific technologies* are not proper section titles, but that I should rather write something along the lines of
```
2.3. Specific observation technologies
2.3.1. Solar remote sensing
2.3.2. Terrestrial remote sensing
2.3.3. Active remote sensing
```
even though this repeats the heading for chapter 2. Browsing through some books on my desk, it appears that section and subsection titles often indeed *do* repeat information from higher level headings, but it makes the mathematician buried (somewhat deep) inside me cringe a little.
Are there any style guides or rules addressing this point explicitly? | As @Lauren Ipsum said, go for clarity. Remember that there are times when you don't see the context, for instance when using a cross-reference. "See section 2.3.2, Terrestrial" is not immediately obvious to the reader.
Approach this as a writer, not a mathematician. Writing section headings that make sense even when viewed in isolation, will help readers understand what you're writing and where they can find what they're looking for. Your audience will probably include people for whom English isn't their native language; giving them a complete expression to parse will make it easier for them to read your thesis.
About "specific technologies"; I'd use the word 'specific' only if you have a heading 2.1 or 2.2 that talks about "general technologies" so you have a juxtaposition. Otherwise the word is redundant. |
9,090 | <p>I'm writing a TV spec script for fun, and was just wondering how I would denote laughter in unison from a bunch of sailors on a boat. Would it just be something like:</p>
<p>SAILORS IN BOAT
(in unison)
Hahahahahahahahahahah</p>
<p>? Or would I just describe it in the description but not in the dialogue?
Thanks.</p>
| [
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would suggest the following:</p>\n\n<pre><code>- SAILORS IN BOAT Hahahahahahaha\n</code></pre>\n\n<p>The reaso... | 2013/10/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/9090",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/5996/"
] | I'm writing a TV spec script for fun, and was just wondering how I would denote laughter in unison from a bunch of sailors on a boat. Would it just be something like:
SAILORS IN BOAT
(in unison)
Hahahahahahahahahahah
? Or would I just describe it in the description but not in the dialogue?
Thanks. | Do it in the description. Compare these two options:
```
SAILORS IN BOAT
Hahahahahahahaha.
```
This option tells the actors exactly what they have to say, and it looks clunky.
```
All the sailors in the boat start laughing in unison.
```
This option, on the other hand, gives a good short description of what the actors should do. You can also modify it a bit by having them all laugh exactly the same and/or stopping as soon as someone signals for them to stop. |
9,166 | <p>In technical documentation, sometimes the tool's automatic hyphenation makes a bad break in the middle of a term, like the name of an environment variable or function. In these cases I would rather have a short line than hyphenation, though I want hyphenation in the document in general. I can try to "write around" egregious cases to try to avoid the problem term being near the end of a line, but that's fragile. I'm looking for a solution that fixes all of them, without me having to individually handle each case.</p>
<p>I am using DocBook, which we transform to Formatting Objects (FO) and thence to PDF. Ideally I would like to be able to write a style directive that says "don't hyphenate inside these XML elements" and apply it to <classname>, <methodname>, and several others. <a href="http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/PrintCustomEx.html#Hyphenation" rel="nofollow">This FO documentation</a> describes a way to do this at the page-block level, e.g. to turn off hyphenation in a table of contents or a preface, but that's too coarse. <a href="http://docbook.10921.n7.nabble.com/Disabling-hyphenation-on-selected-string-td7037.html" rel="nofollow">This forum post</a> suggests a way to hard-wire them within the text, meaning I would have to put a special directive around <em>each</em> class name, method name, and so on. (Also, it sounds like it didn't work for him.)</p>
<p>How can I most easily prevent bad hyphenation breaks in my code elements, working within the tool chain I have? (I'm not free to change that.)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 9168,
"author": "Hobbes",
"author_id": 6022,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/6022",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The post you referenced has the basics: in FO, you can't change the hyphenation property for just part of a block. Y... | 2013/10/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/9166",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1993/"
] | In technical documentation, sometimes the tool's automatic hyphenation makes a bad break in the middle of a term, like the name of an environment variable or function. In these cases I would rather have a short line than hyphenation, though I want hyphenation in the document in general. I can try to "write around" egregious cases to try to avoid the problem term being near the end of a line, but that's fragile. I'm looking for a solution that fixes all of them, without me having to individually handle each case.
I am using DocBook, which we transform to Formatting Objects (FO) and thence to PDF. Ideally I would like to be able to write a style directive that says "don't hyphenate inside these XML elements" and apply it to <classname>, <methodname>, and several others. [This FO documentation](http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/PrintCustomEx.html#Hyphenation) describes a way to do this at the page-block level, e.g. to turn off hyphenation in a table of contents or a preface, but that's too coarse. [This forum post](http://docbook.10921.n7.nabble.com/Disabling-hyphenation-on-selected-string-td7037.html) suggests a way to hard-wire them within the text, meaning I would have to put a special directive around *each* class name, method name, and so on. (Also, it sounds like it didn't work for him.)
How can I most easily prevent bad hyphenation breaks in my code elements, working within the tool chain I have? (I'm not free to change that.) | With help from a coworker I was able to fix this by adding the following to the FO stylesheet:
```
<xsl:template match="classname">
<fo:inline hyphenate="false">
<xsl:call-template name="inline.monoseq"/>
</fo:inline>
</xsl:template>
```
And likewise for other elements that should get this treatment, like `methodname` and `literal`.
This creates a wrapper around the native style, changing hyphenation only.
[Source](http://www.sagehill.net/docbookxsl/PrintCustomEx.html#Hyphenation) |
9,997 | <p>My cousin is giving birth to twins, and I am preparing the invitation cards.</p>
<p>I wrote</p>
<pre><code>Twice as much love
Two blessings from above
Anthony a lovely boy
And Joya brings the joy
The glorified delivery
Is on the 17th of January
May their lives be filled with Love and laughter
And may God bless them with happiness forever
</code></pre>
<p>Obviously, I have to use certain keywords, like delivery and January, can the term glorified delivery be used to describe giving birth, is there a better term?</p>
<p>And is it "Okay" that the last 2 sentences are longer than the others?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>It's a poem; you can say anything you want, and you can make the lines however long you'd like. Whether or not the end ... | 2014/01/11 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/9997",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4990/"
] | My cousin is giving birth to twins, and I am preparing the invitation cards.
I wrote
```
Twice as much love
Two blessings from above
Anthony a lovely boy
And Joya brings the joy
The glorified delivery
Is on the 17th of January
May their lives be filled with Love and laughter
And may God bless them with happiness forever
```
Obviously, I have to use certain keywords, like delivery and January, can the term glorified delivery be used to describe giving birth, is there a better term?
And is it "Okay" that the last 2 sentences are longer than the others? | It's a poem; you can say anything you want, and you can make the lines however long you'd like. Whether or not the end result will be perceived as inspirational or corny is another matter.
While it's true the invitation will need to contain certain information, I disagree with your assertion that you must "use certain keywords, like *delivery*." There are many ways to get the point across, without using the word *delivery*. For example:
>
> *The newborn twins will first be seen
>
> On January seventeen*
>
>
>
As for the varying lengths of the lines, I prefer consistency in that regard, particularly when there is rhyme involved. However, that's just my personal preference, and I don't think you'd be the first poet to end a poem with lines that stretch a little longer than the others. However, if you're trying to keep the poem consistent, and those lines are longer simply because you're forcing a rhyme, then I'd suggest working at it until your poem flowed a little more evenly. Just like in any other form of writing, the difference between a mediocre work and a very good work is often found in the amount of effort spent polishing and revising.
>
> *May God bless them ever after
>
> Filled with hope and love and laughter*
>
>
> |
10,016 | <p>This is now my third attempt of writing the opening of my book. I took What's advice and tried to send a message to the readers. the message was:</p>
<p><strong>What makes us strong is our courage.</strong></p>
<p>In the story, the protagonist was weak and finds himself being beaten by strong people. Later in the story he grows stronger, but is still faced with stronger people who abused their power. He still continues to fight them, even though he isn't as strong. He has determination and courage; this is what drives him forward. </p>
<p>I finally think that I've found my beginning, but I might not be wording it correctly. Please tell me if it does relate to the message. Please be critical. </p>
<p><strong>The dog was weak and fragile. There was nothing it could do to protect itself from them. That didn’t stop them from kicking it around. They were laughing at its pain and continued to beat it to death. The pup had bruises all over itself. The poor thing could barely open its eyes. Yet, they didn’t stop.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>I couldn’t stand there. It made me sick to my stomach to see this. It was infuriating to just stand and watch. Before I knew it, I was throwing punches and taking hits to the gut. They outnumbered and overpowered me. I had taken the dog’s place. It hurt immensely, but it was nothing compared to the pain of not doing anything.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>The strong picked on the weak. It was a simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less. But, what makes someone strong? Muscles? How hard you could hit? No. It wasn’t either of those. There had to be something that made someone stronger than others. So, the question remains.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>What makes someone strong?</strong> </p>
<pre><code> *****
</code></pre>
<p><strong>The cuts on my face burned as my sister cleaned them. She used an old, red rag dipped in cool water to wipe my face. Her expression was calm and understanding. It always was; this was our regular routine almost every day. I would always come home with cuts and bruises, but she wouldn’t say a word until she was almost done tending to my injuries.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“What happened this time?” She asked, soaking the rag in water.</strong></p>
<p><strong>“Nothing. I just fell down some steps.” I lied.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“You say that every time you come home bruised up like this.” She asked once more. “Now, what really happened?”</strong> </p>
<p><strong>I sighed. “There were these jerks and they were beating this dog and I-“</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“-and you couldn’t let it slide.” She finished for me.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“Yeah.” I admitted. “Are you mad?”</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“No.” She answered.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>Of course she wasn’t. She never got mad. Her only emotions were kindness and caring. All she would do was just fix me up and tell me to be more careful.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“Just be more careful.” She said after finishing up.</strong> </p>
<p><strong>I lied again. “I will.”</strong> </p>
<p><strong>“Good.” She stood up. “Come on. It’s time to go.”</strong></p>
| [
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"answer_id": 10017,
"author": "Dale Hartley Emery",
"author_id": 272,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/272",
"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>It's well done. But to me it reads like the aftermath of the opening.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 10... | 2014/01/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/10016",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/6618/"
] | This is now my third attempt of writing the opening of my book. I took What's advice and tried to send a message to the readers. the message was:
**What makes us strong is our courage.**
In the story, the protagonist was weak and finds himself being beaten by strong people. Later in the story he grows stronger, but is still faced with stronger people who abused their power. He still continues to fight them, even though he isn't as strong. He has determination and courage; this is what drives him forward.
I finally think that I've found my beginning, but I might not be wording it correctly. Please tell me if it does relate to the message. Please be critical.
**The dog was weak and fragile. There was nothing it could do to protect itself from them. That didn’t stop them from kicking it around. They were laughing at its pain and continued to beat it to death. The pup had bruises all over itself. The poor thing could barely open its eyes. Yet, they didn’t stop.**
**I couldn’t stand there. It made me sick to my stomach to see this. It was infuriating to just stand and watch. Before I knew it, I was throwing punches and taking hits to the gut. They outnumbered and overpowered me. I had taken the dog’s place. It hurt immensely, but it was nothing compared to the pain of not doing anything.**
**The strong picked on the weak. It was a simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less. But, what makes someone strong? Muscles? How hard you could hit? No. It wasn’t either of those. There had to be something that made someone stronger than others. So, the question remains.**
**What makes someone strong?**
```
*****
```
**The cuts on my face burned as my sister cleaned them. She used an old, red rag dipped in cool water to wipe my face. Her expression was calm and understanding. It always was; this was our regular routine almost every day. I would always come home with cuts and bruises, but she wouldn’t say a word until she was almost done tending to my injuries.**
**“What happened this time?” She asked, soaking the rag in water.**
**“Nothing. I just fell down some steps.” I lied.**
**“You say that every time you come home bruised up like this.” She asked once more. “Now, what really happened?”**
**I sighed. “There were these jerks and they were beating this dog and I-“**
**“-and you couldn’t let it slide.” She finished for me.**
**“Yeah.” I admitted. “Are you mad?”**
**“No.” She answered.**
**Of course she wasn’t. She never got mad. Her only emotions were kindness and caring. All she would do was just fix me up and tell me to be more careful.**
**“Just be more careful.” She said after finishing up.**
**I lied again. “I will.”**
**“Good.” She stood up. “Come on. It’s time to go.”** | As a suggestion, why not open with the altercation itself?
You can use the fight to illustrate your protagonist. Is he short and slight? Tall and gangly? (Also think about how this might change as the story progresses.)
Show his reaction to the dog's mistreatment as a way to provide insight into his internal motivations. Why is he fighting? Most especially, why is he fighting when he probably knows he won't win?
Give a brief glance of who he is fighting. Is this a 'same-bullies-different-day' fight, or an unknown group?
Painting a compelling snapshot of your protagonist (not just appearance, but his frame of mind, motivations etc.) right from the beginning emotionally invests the reader in who he is as a person and drives interest in who he might become by the end of the story. Beginning with the fight would, imho, be a strong entrance that is true to your theme. |
10,229 | <p>I am writing a textbook which contains some lists of recommended Web sites. Unlike the question <a href="https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/1045/how-should-be-the-format-for-literature-references-that-are-websites-urls">How should be the format for literature references that are websites (URLs)?</a>, these will not be references. For example:</p>
<pre><code>Here are some magazines about geography:
- Canadian Geographic (http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/)
- Geographical (www.geographical.co.uk)
- Australian Geographical (http://australiangeographic.com.au/)
</code></pre>
<p>How should the URL be written? Is it more formal and professional to include or exclude "http://" and the "/" at the end?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 10232,
"author": "SF.",
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Leading <code>http://</code>, no trailing <code>/</code>, monospace font.</p>\n\n<p>With modern domain names, without ... | 2014/02/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/10229",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/3375/"
] | I am writing a textbook which contains some lists of recommended Web sites. Unlike the question [How should be the format for literature references that are websites (URLs)?](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/1045/how-should-be-the-format-for-literature-references-that-are-websites-urls), these will not be references. For example:
```
Here are some magazines about geography:
- Canadian Geographic (http://www.canadiangeographic.ca/)
- Geographical (www.geographical.co.uk)
- Australian Geographical (http://australiangeographic.com.au/)
```
How should the URL be written? Is it more formal and professional to include or exclude "http://" and the "/" at the end? | [STD 66](http://tools.ietf.org/html/std66) (which is [RFC 3986](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986) currently) is the standard for URIs.
It contains a [section "Delimiting a URI in Context"](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986#appendix-C), in which it says (emphasis mine):
>
> URIs are often transmitted through formats that do not provide a
> clear context for their interpretation. For example, there are many
> occasions when a URI is included in plain text; examples include text
> sent in email, USENET news, and **on printed paper**. In such cases, it
> is important to be able to delimit the URI from the rest of the text,
> and in particular from punctuation marks that might be mistaken for
> part of the URI.
>
>
>
It lists the following methods:
* within **double-quotes**:
>
> "<http://example.com/>"
>
>
>
* within **angle brackets**:
>
> <<http://example.com/>>
>
>
>
* by using **whitespace**:
>
> <http://example.com/>
>
>
>
---
>
> Is it more formal and professional to include or exclude "http://" and the "/" at the end?
>
>
>
You should definitely include the URI scheme. While currently most people and also tools like browsers assume `http`, this can change in the future. And even today, some Web pages might not work with `http` (e.g., `https` only), some documents might be available via `ftp`, etc.
If the URIs don’t contain a path (e.g., `http://example.com/`), the trailing slash *can* be omitted. It doesn’t make a difference. However, a trailing slash in an URI path (e.g., the last slash in `http://example.com/foo/`) should definitely be included. If you omit it, the URI might point to a different (or non-existent) document (if not now, then maybe in the future). |
10,501 | <p>Programmers can write comments in code that can be automatically turned into API documentation (like Javadoc). All I have to do is add some comments explaining what a class or method does and what arguments it takes, and software turns those comments and the signatures from the code into reference documentation. For example, I can write something like this in my code:</p>
<pre><code>/* Finds the value for the given ID.
* @param id the item to look up
* @return the value
*/
public String findValue(int id) {...}
</code></pre>
<p>Sounds great, but my readers tell me that my documentation isn't very helpful. I can't write a book in code comments but I want my documentation to be useful, so what should I be doing to make better API reference docs?</p>
<p>(I'm asking this on behalf of somebody else. Having already answered that person, I wanted to also answer it here.)</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 10502,
"author": "Monica Cellio",
"author_id": 1993,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1993",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Start with the <a href=\"http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-137868.html#style... | 2014/03/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/10501",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1993/"
] | Programmers can write comments in code that can be automatically turned into API documentation (like Javadoc). All I have to do is add some comments explaining what a class or method does and what arguments it takes, and software turns those comments and the signatures from the code into reference documentation. For example, I can write something like this in my code:
```
/* Finds the value for the given ID.
* @param id the item to look up
* @return the value
*/
public String findValue(int id) {...}
```
Sounds great, but my readers tell me that my documentation isn't very helpful. I can't write a book in code comments but I want my documentation to be useful, so what should I be doing to make better API reference docs?
(I'm asking this on behalf of somebody else. Having already answered that person, I wanted to also answer it here.) | Start with the [style guidelines from Oracle for Javadoc](http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/documentation/index-137868.html#styleguide). While those guidelines are written for the Javadoc tool (and the Java language) in particular, the principles there apply to the corresponding tools for other languages. (I've seen this kind of documentation for C++, C#, and JavaScript APIs.) This answer augments that style guide.
I'm going to critique your example as a way of illustrating some principles. Let's start with the description you wrote:
>
> Finds the value for the given ID.
>
>
>
For a method named `findValue`, this doesn't tell us very much. Especially when we can see from the signature that it takes an argument named `id` (which your documentation says is "the item to look up"). We could have figured all that out from the signature itself; this documentation doesn't add anything. *Don't expend effort writing documentation that's already obvious.*
So what should you write for the description? Start by clarifying what "find" means. Is this a lightweight operation that returns a value from an in-memory map? Is it making a database call? Is it calling a service on a slow connection? Don't reveal implementation if it's not part of the contract, but *do* give readers some hints about what to expect. For example:
>
> Fetches the value for the object of the given ID, either from a local cache (if previously fetched) or from a remote data store.
>
>
>
Here you've added information not obvious from the signature. You've told the reader that a first fetch may be slow but subsequent ones may be faster -- but you've made no specific promises, and you've implied that it still might be slower than a simple in-memory lookup. (Maybe that's why you named this `findValue` instead of `getValue`.) You've told the caller "hey, maybe you don't want to make this call inside a tight loop that has to be really fast".
But you're not done. You should be asking yourself some questions about this interface. What happens if the ID isn't recognized? What happens if there's no object mapped to that ID? What happens if you can't complete the operation for some reason (like the network is down)? Your *code* probably accounts for these cases, so *tell the reader what to expect*.
Compare your documentation to the following:
```
/* Fetches the value for the object of the given ID, either from a local
* cache (if previously fetched) or from a remote data store.
*
* @param id the item to look up (a positive integer returned from
* createEntry)
* @return the value of id if set, or null if there is no value, or
* INVALID_ID if id is not recognized
* @throws AccessException if the data could not be accessed; this is an
* internal error that may require administrator attention
*/
public String findValue(int id) throws AccessException {...}
```
First, you may have noticed that I modified your code to add the exception. That's because there wasn't a good answer for the question about what to do if you can't contact the database -- we hadn't thought of that problem and hadn't accounted for it. Ideally you're writing your documentation *while you write the code*, so you can catch issues like this and make the necessary changes before you release your code. If that wasn't the case here, then you'd instead need to write some more documentation to explain what happens in that case. (And obviously another writer shouldn't come along later and modify your code like this; I'm assuming in this answer that you have control over this.) *The process of documenting an interface can reveal problems in that interface, so start early.*
I added two things to your parameter description for `id`. First, that it's a positive integer; it turns out that in your code (which I hypothetically read while writing this answer), IDs can't be negative. The signature doesn't convey this (it just says it's an integer), so document it. Second, I said where IDs come from. (In the actual documentation this would be a link to the `createEntry` method documentation.) This isn't necessary but might be helpful, particularly if invalid IDs are a problem for your users.
I added the information about invalid IDs and null values to the documentation for the return value. You could instead add it to the description of what the method does; there are reasonable arguments to be made for both ways. But explain it somewhere.
Note that the documentation of the (new) exception says both what it means (without revealing implementation details) and what might need to be done about it. In this case the caller can't do anything to fix the error, but he might want to notify his user or log the problem. We leave that decision up to him.
You were concerned about having to write a book to improve your API documentation, but all you really needed were another couple well-thought-out phrases. You don't *want* a book; good API documentation tells the reader all and only what he needs to know. This can be done concisely, and your readers will thank you for not making them read through a bunch of extra text.
Summary
-------
Here are some key points to writing good API reference documentation:
* Document the contract, not the implementation.1
* Explain fuzzy verbs. What does "find" mean, versus "get"? Set users' expectations.
* Document restrictions on arguments or return values that aren't fully conveyed by the signature (like that an integer has to be positive, or in the range 1-100, etc).
* Cover failure and not just success. Can arguments be invalid? Can your code behave in abnormal ways even if the inputs are valid? How do you signal errors or other problems?
* Be thorough but not verbose. Don't repeat information that's clear from the signature.
1 To do this you need to determine what the contract actually *is* -- what promises are you making to your users? This is a large software-design topic beyond the scope of this question. |
10,519 | <p>I've often had situations where I'm unsure of the correct word to be used, either when writing or proofreading. How can this sense be indicated in writing? Someone mentioned adding a question mark just before it to indicate that the writer is unsure of that particular word. For example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>These were not simply sewage treatment workers, but an elite ?cadre of sewage treatment workers</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Here the word in question is cadre, and we're trying to indicate that the writer is aware that's not the perfect word to use in the situation.</p>
<p>Is this a generally accepted way of indicating such a thing? I haven't seen it often enough to make me think so, but it feels better than placing the question mark after the word, which might make it read like a question instead.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 10520,
"author": "DougM",
"author_id": 6649,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/6649",
"pm_score": 2,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There isn't a standard syntax for this. I've had the same experience in my own writing, and have even seen a need f... | 2014/03/15 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/10519",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/8220/"
] | I've often had situations where I'm unsure of the correct word to be used, either when writing or proofreading. How can this sense be indicated in writing? Someone mentioned adding a question mark just before it to indicate that the writer is unsure of that particular word. For example:
>
> These were not simply sewage treatment workers, but an elite ?cadre of sewage treatment workers
>
>
>
Here the word in question is cadre, and we're trying to indicate that the writer is aware that's not the perfect word to use in the situation.
Is this a generally accepted way of indicating such a thing? I haven't seen it often enough to make me think so, but it feels better than placing the question mark after the word, which might make it read like a question instead. | For my editing markup I prefer a style that does not overlap and interfere with what might be part of the text I am editing.
Since square brackets indicate comments or amendments in quotes in some editing styles, e.g.
>
> Rogers found in his study that "some [apples] are tasty".
>
>
>
or destroyed text when transcribing manuscripts, I do not use them for anything else.
A question mark in front of the word seems clear in its meaning to me in your context, but as a linguist I have been using the phonetic alphabet, and in this the question mark represents a glottal stop.
For this and other reasons *I avoid using characters as inline editing markup*.
When I want to mark a word or passage in a software, **I change the background color**.
I do not change font color, because much of what is published on websites or in print magazines actually has colored text, so this could be misunderstood or overlooked by a second editor (or even myself), but I haven't yet had anything published with a single word or phrase with a colored background.
A colored background seems the most unambiguous markup to me.
Some software, like Word, allows the use of comments:
What I like about this is that you can comment on the reason of your markup, make suggestions etc., but I rarely use these.
If I ever need to mark a word or passage in plain text, I use the number sign:
>
> an elite ###cadre### of sewage treatment workers
>
>
>
I always use three, because a single one might be part of the text, but I have yet to come upon a text with three before and after a word. Also I haven't yet written or edited a text that contained the number sign (but question marks are quite frequent), so they are easy to search (and replace) with grep, e.g.
```
###.+?###
```
finds everything between three number signs |
11,013 | <p>One thing that I find helpful when trying to create a character is some sort of grid stereotypes. For example, Dungeons & Dragons (before they broke it in 4e, but that's another story) <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_%28Dungeons_&_Dragons%29" rel="noreferrer">has a 3x3 grid of Good vs. Evil and Lawful vs. Chaotic</a>:</p>
<pre><code>+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| Lawful Good | Neutral Good | Chaotic Good |
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| Lawful Neutral | Neutral | Chaotic Neutral |
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| Lawful Evil | Neutral Evil | Chaotic Evil |
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
</code></pre>
<p>A system like that helps me to know the general vibe of the character and other characters to liken them to (e.g., "Chaotic Good" includes characters like Robin Hood but also 1984's Winston), although of course it's quite limited.</p>
<p>I wonder - are there other easy grids like that which allow me to differentiate between different stereotypes and opposite character traits?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 11014,
"author": "Community",
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Look at different <strong>psychological theories of <a href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_type\" rel=\"... | 2014/05/26 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/11013",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/68/"
] | One thing that I find helpful when trying to create a character is some sort of grid stereotypes. For example, Dungeons & Dragons (before they broke it in 4e, but that's another story) [has a 3x3 grid of Good vs. Evil and Lawful vs. Chaotic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alignment_%28Dungeons_&_Dragons%29):
```
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| Lawful Good | Neutral Good | Chaotic Good |
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| Lawful Neutral | Neutral | Chaotic Neutral |
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
| Lawful Evil | Neutral Evil | Chaotic Evil |
+----------------+--------------+-----------------+
```
A system like that helps me to know the general vibe of the character and other characters to liken them to (e.g., "Chaotic Good" includes characters like Robin Hood but also 1984's Winston), although of course it's quite limited.
I wonder - are there other easy grids like that which allow me to differentiate between different stereotypes and opposite character traits? | Look at different **psychological theories of [personality types](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_type)**.
From the beginnings of time, scholars have attempted to categorize human character (as well as body type, race, and so on). Most such theories have been shown to bear no relation to reality, but for character building they are as good or better as the morality based D&D system.
The currently most widely used and accepted **general system of measuring personality dimensions** is the [Five Factor Model of personality traits](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits), also called the "Big 5". There are many, many different systems, most developed for a specific purpose (such as selecting suitable applicants for a certain job), so it would depend on your story which would be most appropriate for you.
* In a **fantasy world building** game, that focusses on crafts (woodworker, hunter, scholar, warrior etc.), [Holland's occupational themes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holland_Codes) (often abbreviated to RIASEC and used in many career choice tests) might be useful.
* If your story deals with **political intrigue and warfare**, the [dark triad of leadership personality types](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_triad) might make sense.
* In a **romantic story** dealing with relationships and interpersonal interaction, the a variant of the [Interpersonal Circumplex](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpersonal_circumplex) will help you understand the relevant aspects of your persons character.
And so on. There are just too many systems to list, much less explain them all, here, but if you are interested in psychology and want to take the time, you can certainly find one or merge several and create your own. Just follow the in-text links and articles listed under "See also" in the Wikipedia article on [personality types](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_type), to start.
There is one character building software for writers, [Character Writer](http://www.characterwriter.com/), that has incorporated the [Enneagram](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enneagram_of_Personality). Another software, [Persona](https://marinersoftware.com/products/persona/), uses its own system. See my own question: [Software for developing and organizing characters](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/8938/software-for-developing-and-organizing-characters). I find those software systems limiting and unflexible, though, and would rather use a different theory of my own choice for each kind of story. |
12,181 | <p>I find that nearly all college textbooks are self-contained. All of the readings, exercises, and multimedia (e.g. videos on a provided CD) are provided in a single package. I think textbooks suffer from offering students a limited perspective. I found that my college freshmen and sophomores are not developing good reading and writing skills because they only read college textbooks.</p>
<p>I would like to create a college textbook/workbook that heavily relies heavily on outside materials. For example, each chapter will suggest that students analyze a specific documentaries or films, journal articles, or chapter from a novel or non-fiction book. The front of the book will provide a list of books that students will need to purchase or locate at their library. Here is a simplified example of how an outside source might be integrated into the textbook:</p>
<pre><code>Chapter 1
(a brief introduction to film X)
(some explained background knowledge needed to understand the film's context better)
Before watching the film X (1999), consider the following questions:
1. Have you ever ... ?
2. What did ... ?
After watching the film, answer the following questions:
1. When ... ?
2. Why did ... ?
</code></pre>
<p>I have never encountered a textbook that heavily relies on outside works in this manner, so I wonder if there is something preventing textbook authors from doing this.</p>
<ul>
<li>Is there some legal or other reason why textbook authors avoid relying heavily on other work?</li>
<li>Would this be considered some kind of plagiarism?</li>
</ul>
| [
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"answer_id": 12203,
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>There are textbooks for homeschooling that do exactly what you are saying. So, I'm pretty sure it isn't illegal or pl... | 2014/06/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/12181",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/3375/"
] | I find that nearly all college textbooks are self-contained. All of the readings, exercises, and multimedia (e.g. videos on a provided CD) are provided in a single package. I think textbooks suffer from offering students a limited perspective. I found that my college freshmen and sophomores are not developing good reading and writing skills because they only read college textbooks.
I would like to create a college textbook/workbook that heavily relies heavily on outside materials. For example, each chapter will suggest that students analyze a specific documentaries or films, journal articles, or chapter from a novel or non-fiction book. The front of the book will provide a list of books that students will need to purchase or locate at their library. Here is a simplified example of how an outside source might be integrated into the textbook:
```
Chapter 1
(a brief introduction to film X)
(some explained background knowledge needed to understand the film's context better)
Before watching the film X (1999), consider the following questions:
1. Have you ever ... ?
2. What did ... ?
After watching the film, answer the following questions:
1. When ... ?
2. Why did ... ?
```
I have never encountered a textbook that heavily relies on outside works in this manner, so I wonder if there is something preventing textbook authors from doing this.
* Is there some legal or other reason why textbook authors avoid relying heavily on other work?
* Would this be considered some kind of plagiarism? | As a workbook I can see this methodology working.
Since you do not plagiarize the original works, you cite them, and refer the reader to them, I am not aware of any laws which would be in conflict (note: I am a US citizen and laws in other countries are something I know absolutely nothing about).
If this were a textbook, as a student I would question whether it was appropriate. A textbook in my view is one which teaches/instructs. It does not present a potentially-biased summary, ask for a pre-judgement on the unknown, request the intake of that item, and then ask for my own judgement... how does such a process teach or instruct? It is impossible to know what every student will think beforehand and afterwards and then educate them based on their analysis, so how does one continue the segment afterwards? While exceptional cases may facilitate such a method, to do an entire textbook via such a method is likely to not achieve the goal a textbook is designed to achieve and could easily be replaced by a list of items to be read/viewed.
Take, for example, John Gardner's "The Art Of Fiction". It cites many writings by numerous authors and very often includes excerpts. I am not sure if this is a textbook by raw definition (I bought it for non-formal education purposes). In each of the citings, though, an analysis is included as to how that particular passage establishes a point being made. Sometimes a contrast is made between two different passages in order to demonstrate the point. Such a demonstration serves a fundamental purpose in that it allows the author of the work to choose the examples and then specifically address areas of excellence or areas where improvement can be made.
If we leave, as I gather from your question, the analysis up to the reader, we are asking only for self-reflection and providing little guidance.
Now, perhaps you have found the key dmm has referred to in the answer's closing section, but it seems to me that the reason you do not see a plethora of such works at this time has nothing to do with legalty and is because highly-effective, proven methods of instruction are what authors lean toward (not that anyone is necessarily biased towards other methods such as you have suggested). |
12,614 | <p>To my understanding you can only edit the header and footer through the compile settings. Here we can customise using tokens:-</p>
<pre><code><$compilegroup>
<$projecttitle>
<$abbr_projecttitle>
<$sectiontitle>
<$p>
</code></pre>
<p>So on... What I would really like is to have facing pages which I have set up correctly and have headers such as:-</p>
<p><strong>Page number | Chapter 1 : Sub title</strong></p>
<p>Here is where it gets slightly complicated. I don't want this on my chapter headings. The options Scrivener gives are:-</p>
<ol>
<li>No header on first page and pages following page breaks.</li>
<li>No header or footer on single pages.</li>
</ol>
<p><strong>Problems</strong></p>
<p>Lets say I have a chapter description and it goes over one page, this invalidates number 2. </p>
<p>Page breaks, by using this the layout gets quite messy and the headings will appear as:-</p>
<p><strong>Page number | Chapter 1 : Chapter 1 Binder title</strong></p>
<p>If anyone can advise a possible solution, perfect.</p>
| [
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"author": "Mark",
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Response from Scrivener Staff:</p>\n\n<p>I'm afraid that there are limits to how much headers and footers can be cus... | 2014/08/13 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/12614",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10351/"
] | To my understanding you can only edit the header and footer through the compile settings. Here we can customise using tokens:-
```
<$compilegroup>
<$projecttitle>
<$abbr_projecttitle>
<$sectiontitle>
<$p>
```
So on... What I would really like is to have facing pages which I have set up correctly and have headers such as:-
**Page number | Chapter 1 : Sub title**
Here is where it gets slightly complicated. I don't want this on my chapter headings. The options Scrivener gives are:-
1. No header on first page and pages following page breaks.
2. No header or footer on single pages.
**Problems**
Lets say I have a chapter description and it goes over one page, this invalidates number 2.
Page breaks, by using this the layout gets quite messy and the headings will appear as:-
**Page number | Chapter 1 : Chapter 1 Binder title**
If anyone can advise a possible solution, perfect. | Response from Scrivener Staff:
I'm afraid that there are limits to how much headers and footers can be customised from within Scrivener itself and you've hit up against that. While Scrivener is capable of creating verso headers and footers (right and left), and it can create a different header/footer style for the "first pages" of the manuscript, it cannot create a separate header/footer for the first page of each chapter.
I'm afraid this level of customisation would have to be done by compiling to Word and making the changes there.
***Credits go to:***
**Jeff**
from
Literature and Latte Support |
12,942 | <p>I'm working on a fantasy story that has a <a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LanguageofMagic" rel="nofollow">Language of Power</a> (TVTROPES) in it and I was trying to look around online to find an automatic translator for the language I came up with but can't find any.</p>
<p>So is there an automatic translator out there for custom made languages that I'm not seeing?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 18153,
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"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Well if you don't have *nix, and you're not familiar with programming, then there is one way to do it, thou... | 2014/09/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/12942",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10703/"
] | I'm working on a fantasy story that has a [Language of Power](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LanguageofMagic) (TVTROPES) in it and I was trying to look around online to find an automatic translator for the language I came up with but can't find any.
So is there an automatic translator out there for custom made languages that I'm not seeing? | I suspect that the best answer for what I imagine is your use-case would be for someone to write a Word or LibreOffice macro, but I wouldn't even know where to begin with that.
However, you could use Vim for this -- specifically gVim, which has a Windows version. This takes a little bit of setting up, but I think the results are worth it.
**Note:** While it's nowhere near as mind-bending as its critics would have you think, learning Vim *is* non-trivial, and beyond the scope of this answer. If you want, once you've installed gVim, you can use the Start menu to search for 'Vim Tutor' (without the quotes) to get an interactive tutorial of the basics. It's well worth learning, if you can get your head around it.
Setting up
----------
First of all, download & install gVim from [here](http://www.vim.org/download.php/#pc).
You'll also need the [abolish.vim plugin](https://github.com/tpope/vim-abolish) for its `:Subvert` command. Quick installation instructions for this (once you've already got gVim installed):
1. Create the directory `C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\vimfiles`, and then the directories `C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\vimfiles\autoload` and `C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\vimfiles\bundle`
2. Download [Pathogen](https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen), which is a plugin manager for Vim -- it's easiest to just grab the [zip file](https://github.com/tpope/vim-pathogen/archive/master.zip) and unpack it in `C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME\vimfiles\autoload`
3. Download the [abolish zip](https://github.com/tpope/vim-abolish/archive/master.zip) and extract it to the bundle directory
4. Create a text file called `_vimrc` in `C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME`, and put the following lines within it:
.
```
execute pathogen#infect()
set encoding=utf-8
```
Now you need to create your cypher file. This will actually be a plain text file with commands for Vim. It should look something like this:
```
"paste from the clipboard into vim:
0put *
"The substitute commands
"Make sure you use %S rather than %s
"The 'silent!' prevents error messages
silent! %S/quick/varryn/g
silent! %S/fox/drugar/g
silent! %S/dog/foob/g
"delete the blank line which vim will have added:
$delete
"cut the text into the clipboard:
%delete *
```
The Magic
---------
Let's say you have the following paragraphs:
>
> The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The quick, brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
>
>
> 'Quick!' shouted the dog, uncharacteristically, to the fox: 'Jump over me!'
>
>
>
...and you want to run your cypher over it, so that every instance of 'quick' will be replaced with 'varryn' and so on. First, copy the text from your word document (or whatever). Then, open gVim and type the following (pressing enter at the end):
```
:source C:\path\to\cypher.txt
```
After this, you can just paste the paragraph back into your word document, *et voilà*:
>
> The varryn, brown drugar jumps over the lazy foob. The varryn, brown drugar jumps over the lazy foob.
>
>
> 'Varryn!' shouted the foob, uncharacteristically, to the drugar: 'Jump over me!'
>
>
>
You might not want to have to type out the full path to your cypher file; you could put the following line at the bottom of your `_vimrc`:
```
command Cypher :source C:\path\to\cypher.txt
```
With this, you can simply type `:Cypher` (and press enter) without having to remember where the file is each time.
Additionally, if you type `@:` within Vim, the previous command-line mode command (those starting with a `:`) will be repeated; so if you were translating multiple paragraphs, you would only need to type `:Cypher` the first time, and for all additional occasions (for as long as you leave Vim open) you could just use `@:`.
Note on the Cypher File
-----------------------
You stated in one of the comments that you already have a cypher set up. You can use gVim to transform this into the syntax needed here, rather than typing it all up again.
I'm assuming your cypher is set up in a way similar to this -- if it's not, you can drop a comment & I'll modify this accordingly:
```
quick varryn
fox drugar
dog foob
```
Copy the lines from whatever file they're currently stored in, and open gVim. Type the following: `"*p` -- this will paste from your system's clipboard (rather than one of Vim's many internal clipboards -- called 'registers' by Vim).
(If you're using non-English letters, some of them might not show up properly, because the default typeface is not very good. On Windows, you should have access to the excellent Consolas; type `:set guifont=Consolas:h10` (you can put this command in your `_vimrc`, or alternatively in a `_gvimrc` file, if you like).)
Then type the following command (and press enter at the end):
```
:%s/\([^ ]*\) \(.*\)/silent! %S\/\1\/\2\/g
```
It's quite a long one, so if you're afraid of mistyping it, you can copy it from this answer, and then type into Vim `q:` (which should bring up a little frame at the bottom of you gVim window), followed by `"*p` to paste the command in, and then press enter.
You should now have lines like this:
```
silent! %S/quick/varryn/g
silent! %S/fox/drugar/g
silent! %S/dog/foob/g
```
Next you need to insert the other commands needed to run the cypher. Type the following commands (pressing enter at the end of each one):
```
:0s/^/0put *\r/
:$s/$\r$delete\r%delete */
```
After these, you should have a file that looks something like this:
```
0put *
silent! %S/quick/varryn/g
silent! %S/fox/drugar/g
silent! %S/dog/foob/g
$delete
%delete *
```
Now you just need to save it:
```
:w C:\path\to\cypher.txt
```
And exit gVim with `:q`.
Limitations
-----------
* Vim is a plain text editor -- it has no idea what 'italics' or 'bold' mean, so running rich text through it will strip away that stuff. There might be a way around this, if it *really* matters to you, but it will involve installing additional programs. (Or you could write your novel in markdown, like all the cool kids :V )
* There's no problem with single-quotes (`'`), but if you want to include the double-quote anywhere in your cypher text you'll have to precede it with a backslash (because `"` is used for comments in Vim command files) |
14,175 | <p>I'm writing a story in present tense. One sentence is a little tricky for me, and I don't know if I should use past or present tense: </p>
<p><strong>Present tense</strong></p>
<pre><code>The tree was so massive, that it even withholds the strongest storms.
</code></pre>
<p><strong>Past tense</strong></p>
<pre><code>The tree was so massive, that it even withheld the strongest storms.
</code></pre>
<p>I am not quite sure because it is a fact that could still last today, but the whole story is written in past tense.</p>
| [
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"author": "Alexandro Chen",
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Your sentences aren't in the present tense. This would be present tense:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>The tree... | 2014/10/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/14175",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10938/"
] | I'm writing a story in present tense. One sentence is a little tricky for me, and I don't know if I should use past or present tense:
**Present tense**
```
The tree was so massive, that it even withholds the strongest storms.
```
**Past tense**
```
The tree was so massive, that it even withheld the strongest storms.
```
I am not quite sure because it is a fact that could still last today, but the whole story is written in past tense. | First of all, "withheld" means "held something back from," as in "she withheld the cookies from her child" or "he withheld the information from Congress." So it doesn't mean "hold up to" a big storm. The word you want is "survive."
Second, Alex *almost* has it right in his second example. You have a few options in the past tense:
>
> **The tree was so massive it could have survived the strongest storm.** ("The strongest storm" has happened, but we don't know whether the tree was exposed to it. If it was, then clearly it survived.)
>
>
> **The tree was so massive it could survive the strongest storm.** (Hypothetical: "The strongest storm" *hasn't* happened. We project that the tree could survive it.)
>
>
>
In present tense:
>
> **The tree is so massive it could survive the strongest storm.** (Hypothetical again. Even if we are in the present, the strongest storm is in the future.)
>
>
> |
14,232 | <p>This is a bit hard to explain, so here's an example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>His room was an exact replica of mine. The only difference were the
things he had brought along: <strong>his zoology books, his backpack, and of
course his climbing equipment.</strong> Little objects that told me something
about him, but that at the same time, pushed him further away, into a mist
of <strong>knowledge and practicality.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>As you can see, the second list follows the 'sequence' of the first one:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Knowledge = zoology books</p>
<p>Practicality = his backpack, climbing equipment</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Do writers follow this rule? Or it doesn't matter?</p>
<p>The reason I ask is because I want to write <em>a mist of practicality and knowledge</em> instead (it sounds better to me for some weird reason).</p>
| [
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"author": "Community",
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Your question makes me come up with the following example:</p>\n\n<blockquote>\n <p>For twenty years I lived in the ... | 2014/10/25 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/14232",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1544/"
] | This is a bit hard to explain, so here's an example:
>
> His room was an exact replica of mine. The only difference were the
> things he had brought along: **his zoology books, his backpack, and of
> course his climbing equipment.** Little objects that told me something
> about him, but that at the same time, pushed him further away, into a mist
> of **knowledge and practicality.**
>
>
>
As you can see, the second list follows the 'sequence' of the first one:
>
> Knowledge = zoology books
>
>
> Practicality = his backpack, climbing equipment
>
>
>
Do writers follow this rule? Or it doesn't matter?
The reason I ask is because I want to write *a mist of practicality and knowledge* instead (it sounds better to me for some weird reason). | Your question makes me come up with the following example:
>
> For twenty years I lived in the land of milk and honey - along with the bees and cows.
>
>
>
To me, this sounds better than:
>
> ~~For twenty years I lived in the land of milk and honey - along with the cows and bees.~~
>
>
>
I can't explain (though I find Lauren Ipsum's explanation in the comment below quite plausible), and others might disagree, but my gut feeling says that in this case **it is better to reverse the order**.
---
Following up on the comments, "practicality and knowledge" sounds better to me than "knowledge and practicality", because `/ˈnɑlədʒ/` has only one stressed syllable, while `/ˌpræktəˈkælədi/` has at least two (and more syllables overall), which creates two rhythmic patterns:
```
knowledge and practicality
/ x x / x / x x
practicality and knowledge
/ x / x x x / x
/ = stressed, x = unstressed; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scansion
```
The second rhythmic pattern ("p. and k.") has a distinctive finishing subpattern at the end (`/ x`), while the first pattern ("k. and p.") sort of "peters out".
Which pattern works better in your context would depend on **what kind of effect** you prefer: a strong, finalising statement ("p. and k.") or a more uncertain, open almost-question ("k. and p."). |
16,077 | <p>I've seen that each language has its own rules when using the colon. In Spanish, it's not needed to capitalize:</p>
<pre><code>Los elementos incluyen: secado, lavado, etc.
</code></pre>
<p>In French is the same, and even they put the colon with an extra space:</p>
<pre><code>Ces éléments comprennent : séchage, lavage, etc.
</code></pre>
<p>But in English I'm still not sure if one needs to capitalize or not as I've seen both ways and it's not clear to me when we use one and when the other.</p>
| [
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"author": "Amanda",
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>No, is not needed capitalize a word after a colon.\nSame as spanish.</p>\n\n<pre><code>I want the following: butt... | 2015/01/31 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/16077",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/5039/"
] | I've seen that each language has its own rules when using the colon. In Spanish, it's not needed to capitalize:
```
Los elementos incluyen: secado, lavado, etc.
```
In French is the same, and even they put the colon with an extra space:
```
Ces éléments comprennent : séchage, lavage, etc.
```
But in English I'm still not sure if one needs to capitalize or not as I've seen both ways and it's not clear to me when we use one and when the other. | Yes, it is necessary, if what follows the colon is a complete sentence. Punctuation that ends a previous sentence does not change the sentence capitalization rule.
*Here is an example of a sentence that needs to start with a capital letter: This is a complete sentence that contains a subject and a verb.* |
16,093 | <p>Can you quote music lyrics in a book? </p>
<p>Like this:</p>
<p><em>Stuck in traffic, main character is blasting Rage Against the Machine, Testify</em></p>
<pre><code>[insert song lyrics excerpt here]
</code></pre>
<p>Or is that a legal issue?</p>
<p>What if we say:</p>
<p><em>Stuck in traffic, main character is blasting <strong>Rage Against the Machine, Testify</strong>. He strikes his palm against the dashboard in beat with the tune.</em></p>
<p>So now the reader (assumed to be familiar with the song) is playing it in his head and enjoying the scene with the thought we've provoked.</p>
<p>Or must we be reduced to saying <em>"Stuck in traffic, main character is blasting a popular metal-rap song from the late 90's..."</em></p>
<p><strong>How is this best achieved within legal limits? Get Zack de la Rocha's phone number?</strong></p>
| [
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This sounds like an issue of fair use. For example naming the song should be fine especially a... | 2015/02/02 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/16093",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/12797/"
] | Can you quote music lyrics in a book?
Like this:
*Stuck in traffic, main character is blasting Rage Against the Machine, Testify*
```
[insert song lyrics excerpt here]
```
Or is that a legal issue?
What if we say:
*Stuck in traffic, main character is blasting **Rage Against the Machine, Testify**. He strikes his palm against the dashboard in beat with the tune.*
So now the reader (assumed to be familiar with the song) is playing it in his head and enjoying the scene with the thought we've provoked.
Or must we be reduced to saying *"Stuck in traffic, main character is blasting a popular metal-rap song from the late 90's..."*
**How is this best achieved within legal limits? Get Zack de la Rocha's phone number?** | Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer. There is a concept in copyright law called "fair use". This means that you can use short quotes from someone else's copyrighted work without permission. See here from the US Copyright office [Link](https://web.archive.org/web/20210605143659/https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html).
Special deference is given to use for educational or literary purposes. Like one scholar can quote another to offer his own views on the others ideas. Or a critic can quote from someone else's work when giving a review. Neither of those apply to you, so you have to go to the next tier.
Next thing is how much of the work you quote. If you quote the entire song you are on much more dangerous ground that if you quote one line.
For non-educational use, the key criterion is: do you affect the market for the original work. If, for example, someone else wrote a poem, and you copy his entire poem into your book, then anyone who buys your book has no reason to buy a copy of his poem from him. You've hurt his potential sales. He would almost certainly win a copyright suit. A song is a little different, as someone could read the lyrics and say, Hey, I'd really like to hear the music that goes with this, and it might actually help his sales. But I wouldn't count on that.
Short answer: Don't quote the entire lyrics of a song without permission. You can probably get away with a line or two as fair use. Leave it at that.
The title of the song and the name of the group are not and cannot be copyrighted, but they can be trademarked, which is a whole different thing. Basically there the key is that you cannot attempt to confuse potential customers. If you decided to form your own band and called it Rage Again With Machines or Rage Against the Marines, you'd be setting yourself up for a trademark lawsuit. If it's an obvious parody, you can get away with it, but not if you are just trying to trick people into thinking you are the famous group. It's safe to use someone else's trademark in your book as long as you use it correctly and you use it to refer to them. Lots of books mention a character "drinking a Coke" or "driving his Chevy". You do have to be careful to use a trademark correctly. Like Coca Cola's lawyers used to regularly send letters to writers who wrote "coke" with a small-c, and they threatened restaurants with lawsuits if someone ordered a Coke and they gave him some other brand. (So that now, if you order a Coke in a restaurant in the U.S. and they don't serve Coca Cola products, they are likely to say, "Is Pepsi okay?" or something similar.)
Just BTW: I don't know the audience for your book. Are you sure that every reader will be familiar with this particular group and this particular song? Personally, I've only vaguely heard of the group and I've never heard of that particular song. Maybe I'm not the audience for your book. I've often seen writers fall into the trap of thinking that everyone thinks and acts just like them. Like "Everybody reads this magazine" or "Everybody is in favor of X", when the reality is more like "I and my close friends do this". Of course if it doesn't really matter, if you're just trying to set a mood that the character is singing along to a popular song, and exactly what the song is doesn't make much difference, readers who don't know will just say "whatever" and read on, then no problem. But if you're expecting readers to know the lyrics and this is important to the story, then readers who DON'T know the lyrics will be missing out. |
16,141 | <p>Many writing journals say they will not publish previously published poems. But if I revise a previously published poem, can I safely say the <em>edited poem</em> has not been published? If so, would a one-word change be enough? A two-word change? Three? Four? Twenty?</p>
<p>For example, let's say I've had this poem published in Michigan Review:</p>
<pre><code>THE FORK LESS USED
Two forks stood in my mashed potatoes,
And sorry I could not use both
And be one eater, long I salivated
And looked down upon one as far as I could
To where its tines disappeared in white fluffyness
</code></pre>
<p>And I've edited / revised this to:</p>
<pre><code>TWO FORKS
Two forks stand in my mashed potatoes,
And sorry I could not use both
And be one consumer, long I salivated
And looked down upon one as far as I could
To where its tines sunk into light smoothness
</code></pre>
<p>And I submitted this edited / revised poem to Indiana Review which doesn't allow previously published poems. Is Indiana Review going to sue me? Are these two poems the <em>same</em> poem?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Happily since this is a practical question, one does not need to solve <a href=\"https://en.wikipedia.org/w... | 2015/02/06 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/16141",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/12677/"
] | Many writing journals say they will not publish previously published poems. But if I revise a previously published poem, can I safely say the *edited poem* has not been published? If so, would a one-word change be enough? A two-word change? Three? Four? Twenty?
For example, let's say I've had this poem published in Michigan Review:
```
THE FORK LESS USED
Two forks stood in my mashed potatoes,
And sorry I could not use both
And be one eater, long I salivated
And looked down upon one as far as I could
To where its tines disappeared in white fluffyness
```
And I've edited / revised this to:
```
TWO FORKS
Two forks stand in my mashed potatoes,
And sorry I could not use both
And be one consumer, long I salivated
And looked down upon one as far as I could
To where its tines sunk into light smoothness
```
And I submitted this edited / revised poem to Indiana Review which doesn't allow previously published poems. Is Indiana Review going to sue me? Are these two poems the *same* poem? | Happily since this is a practical question, one does not need to solve [Theseus' Paradox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_of_Theseus) to provide an answer. The intent behind the rule is to provide distinctive work, i.e., no reader will think "I have read this before." To determine whether a new work is too similar to a previous work, one should consider whether a reader would think the work had been read before from fallible memory of perhaps a year earlier.
Trying to play lawyer with the definitions of "same work" and "previously published" will not endear one to editors. In fact, being upfront about the relationship — while also demonstrating that one is familiar with the submission guidelines and *does not expect special treatment* — may slightly increase the chance of publication.
On the practical matter, if I were an editor, I would consider such minor changes to be revisions and quickly reject the submission (if I knew the previous work had been published). The two works are sufficiently similar that a reader who had read one a year after the other could easily think them the same. Both use substantially the same form, both have the same tone, both use the same imagery, and both cover the same subject (in this case made more obvious by the reference to "The Road Not Taken", which would make those aspects more memorable).
Note that the rule about previously published is subject to the editor's discretion. For example, a mediocre work published in a poetry magazine with very low standards (e.g., some college poetry magazines) that was substantially refined such that it would be eagerly accepted for publication if it had not be previously published would typically be considered as if it had not been previously published. A typical reader would not think them the same work from memory (even if all the above mentioned traits were the same); in fact, a reader presented with both would likely think the earlier work a weak imitation of the latter. Furthermore, the obscurity of the earlier publication would make the editor feel that readers would be even more likely to appreciate the work as new.
If one has some juvenilia that was "published" in a high school poetry magazine, one might be able to refine such works into what would be accepted as new by a poetry magazine with high standards. Similarly, if one took a well-written and previously published Shakespearean sonnet and revised it into a Petrarchan sonnet of the same or better quality, the modest difference in form and presumed changes in images and tone (a Shakespearean sonnet traditionally has a two line "conclusion", while a Petrarchan sonnet has a turn after the first eight lines) might be sufficient to be considered new. In that case, an editor might *appreciate* being exposed to both version (and *might* even desire to republish the earlier version to highlight the contrast).
In general, it is not a good idea to submit a revision of work that has been previously published when the publisher requires that submissions not be previously published. |
16,481 | <p>I write a mathematical research monograph.</p>
<p>It has a section named "Partially ordered categories". The first subsection (with the most basic properties of partially ordered categories) of this section has the same name ("Partially ordered categories").</p>
<p>Is it OK for a section and its subsection to share the same name?</p>
<p>If not, what should I rename the subsection to?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 16483,
"author": "dmm",
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"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>The short answer to your general question is \"no.\" If the subsection is titled the same as the section, then either ... | 2015/03/16 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/16481",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/2025/"
] | I write a mathematical research monograph.
It has a section named "Partially ordered categories". The first subsection (with the most basic properties of partially ordered categories) of this section has the same name ("Partially ordered categories").
Is it OK for a section and its subsection to share the same name?
If not, what should I rename the subsection to? | The short answer to your general question is "no." If the subsection is titled the same as the section, then either one of them is named incorrectly or else your outline is incorrect. An outline is supposed to be like this:
Title: Great Cities of the World
I. American Cities
A. Large Cities
```
1. New York, NY
2. Chicago, IL
```
B. Historical Cities
```
1. Philadelphia, PA
2. San Diego, CA
```
II. European Cities
etc. etc. etc.
In mathematical terms: Every subsection must be a *limited* subset of the section in which it occurs.
Corollary One: A section must not be divided into subsections unless there are at least two subsections.
Corollary Two: A section name is implicitly part of all subsection names beneath it.
Corollary Three: If explicitly adding the section name to a subsection name would cause the subsection name to not make sense, then the subsection is in the wrong section.
To answer your specific question: The subsection should be named "Basic Properties." |
16,512 | <p>In the context of a technical manual, I need to write instructions guiding users through several standard manipulations. When providing examples of these manipulations, I have written a short sentence containing "before" and "after" examples which appear in (potentially multi-line) vertical blocks of their own. As a result, I am unsure as to whether the middle of the sentence should be capitalized. Additionally, a suggestion was made on ELU SE that removal of colons leading the code blocks may be preferable. I have presented an example of this below as well.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>With capitalization</strong></p>
<p>Hence, the following code:</p>
<pre><code>camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
</code></pre>
<p>Should be replaced with:</p>
<pre><code>camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
</code></pre>
<hr>
<p><strong>Without capitalization</strong></p>
<p>Hence, the following code:</p>
<pre><code>camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
</code></pre>
<p>should be replaced with:</p>
<pre><code>camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
</code></pre>
<hr>
<p><strong>Without capitalization or colons</strong></p>
<p>Hence, the following code</p>
<pre><code>camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
</code></pre>
<p>should be replaced with</p>
<pre><code>camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
</code></pre>
<hr>
<p>My instinct suggests the second or third examples are preferable, but I'd be interested to learn of any style rules addressing this. For that matter, if there is a better way of structuring such examples which avoids these issues altogether, I would be most interested!</p>
<p><a href="https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/199088/should-i-capitalise-or-between-examples">Should I capitalise "or" between examples?</a> was the most relevant question I could find to this one (and indeed was the corner of SE where I first posed this query, before being made aware of Writers), and I tend to agree with its reasoning that the lowercase version is preferable. Unfortunately the best suggestion in its answer (to use a bullet list of examples) doesn't really lend itself to potentially large blocks of code.</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 16514,
"author": "Watercleave",
"author_id": 8758,
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"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>In my opinion, any answer looks messy. One \"sentence\" with capitals halfway through bugs me; so does a line s... | 2015/03/17 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/16512",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/13201/"
] | In the context of a technical manual, I need to write instructions guiding users through several standard manipulations. When providing examples of these manipulations, I have written a short sentence containing "before" and "after" examples which appear in (potentially multi-line) vertical blocks of their own. As a result, I am unsure as to whether the middle of the sentence should be capitalized. Additionally, a suggestion was made on ELU SE that removal of colons leading the code blocks may be preferable. I have presented an example of this below as well.
---
**With capitalization**
Hence, the following code:
```
camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
```
Should be replaced with:
```
camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
```
---
**Without capitalization**
Hence, the following code:
```
camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
```
should be replaced with:
```
camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
```
---
**Without capitalization or colons**
Hence, the following code
```
camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
```
should be replaced with
```
camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
```
---
My instinct suggests the second or third examples are preferable, but I'd be interested to learn of any style rules addressing this. For that matter, if there is a better way of structuring such examples which avoids these issues altogether, I would be most interested!
[Should I capitalise "or" between examples?](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/199088/should-i-capitalise-or-between-examples) was the most relevant question I could find to this one (and indeed was the corner of SE where I first posed this query, before being made aware of Writers), and I tend to agree with its reasoning that the lowercase version is preferable. Unfortunately the best suggestion in its answer (to use a bullet list of examples) doesn't really lend itself to potentially large blocks of code. | In my opinion, any answer looks messy. One "sentence" with capitals halfway through bugs me; so does a line starting without a capital.
Personally, I would restructure the entire thing to avoid the issue entirely:
### Example 1
>
> Currently, line 57 of *camera.py* looks like this:
>
>
>
> ```
> camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
>
> ```
>
> In this line, the parameter `quantization` needs to be replaced with
> `quality`, giving us this:
>
>
>
> ```
> camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
>
> ```
>
>
### Example 2
>
> Look at Figure 1 below. Our code currently contains line (1); we need
> to replace it with line (2).
>
>
>
> ```
> (1) camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quantization=25)
>
> (2) camera.start_recording('foo.h264', quality=25)
>
> ```
>
> ***Figure 1*** - Two versions of line 57 of the code in camera.py
>
>
>
(Obviously I don't know your code file name, line numbers, or programming language. Substitute where necessary. "camera.py" can be replaced with Example 1 if you're taking that route.) |
17,376 | <p>One author considers this mathematical statement by LeRoy Gorman entitled “The Birth of Tragedy” as a form of minimalist poetry:</p>
<pre><code> (!+?)^2
</code></pre>
<p>Is this mathematical statement really a poem? </p>
<p>Creative writing highlights the value of human subjectivity. Mathematics, on the other hand, puts emphasis on rigor, logical validity, and precision. Wouldn't poetry be constricted by the rigid rules of mathematics if they were combined?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Poetry doesn't have to be as free-flowing and messy as you're implying. <em>Some</em> poetry throw... | 2015/05/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/17376",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/13880/"
] | One author considers this mathematical statement by LeRoy Gorman entitled “The Birth of Tragedy” as a form of minimalist poetry:
```
(!+?)^2
```
Is this mathematical statement really a poem?
Creative writing highlights the value of human subjectivity. Mathematics, on the other hand, puts emphasis on rigor, logical validity, and precision. Wouldn't poetry be constricted by the rigid rules of mathematics if they were combined? | Poetry doesn't have to be as free-flowing and messy as you're implying. *Some* poetry throws out rules of form and function, but some adheres to them strictly.
Think of the meter and rhyme demands of a sonnet, or the syllable rules of a haiku. If you don't follow those very rigid, precise requirements, you haven't written the poem correctly.
Honestly, I think that's a pretty funny poem that you've quoted. It takes a bit of work on the part of the reader to understand it, but the thoughts expressed reflect the title well. Why couldn't you use mathematics to express subjective thoughts? |
17,499 | <p>What would be the correct way to format the following exchange in narrative prose? Is it:</p>
<pre><code>Alice sits on the bench, silent. Eventually, I speak.
"What are we going to do?"
After a long pause, she responds.
"I don't think we can do anything."
</code></pre>
<p>Or is it:</p>
<pre><code>Alice sits on the bench, silent. Eventually, I speak.
"What are we going to do?"
After a long pause, she responds, "I don't think we can do anything."
</code></pre>
<p>Or is it something else entirely?</p>
| [
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"author": "mwo",
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Try to give each character their own paragraphs.</p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Alice sits on the bench, silent.</p>\n<p>Even... | 2015/05/30 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/17499",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/13993/"
] | What would be the correct way to format the following exchange in narrative prose? Is it:
```
Alice sits on the bench, silent. Eventually, I speak.
"What are we going to do?"
After a long pause, she responds.
"I don't think we can do anything."
```
Or is it:
```
Alice sits on the bench, silent. Eventually, I speak.
"What are we going to do?"
After a long pause, she responds, "I don't think we can do anything."
```
Or is it something else entirely? | Try to give each character their own paragraphs.
>
> Alice sits on the bench, silent.
>
>
> Eventually, I speak. "What are we going to do?"
>
>
> After a long pause, she responds. "I don't think we can do anything."
>
>
>
Note, I chose the period after 'responds'. 'Responds' isn't interchangeble with 'says'. For example, all these are valid...
```
she says, "I don't think we can do anything."
she whispers, "I don't think we can do anything."
she screams, "I don't think we can do anything."
```
these are awkward...
```
she speaks, "I don't think we can do anything."
she responds, "I don't think we can do anything."
she talks, "I don't think we can do anything."
```
It's better to stick to 'says' and 'asks' if you are unsure of the difference. |
17,543 | <p>I'd like to know if using "It" repetitively (for emphasis) in this context is okay grammatically.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>TV has become the modern day baby sitter. It is raising our children. It is dictating the cultural narrative and shaping future society. It is raising the bored inattentive child. It is raising the consumer child. It is raising the aggressive child. It is raising the obese child. It is raising the misinformed and complacent child. It is raising the disenchanted child. And what’s more, it is doing all this with our smiling acquiescence. </p>
</blockquote>
| [
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I don't see any problem with the grammar of this. It is simply a collection of short sentences. However (perso... | 2015/06/02 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/17543",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/13849/"
] | I'd like to know if using "It" repetitively (for emphasis) in this context is okay grammatically.
>
> TV has become the modern day baby sitter. It is raising our children. It is dictating the cultural narrative and shaping future society. It is raising the bored inattentive child. It is raising the consumer child. It is raising the aggressive child. It is raising the obese child. It is raising the misinformed and complacent child. It is raising the disenchanted child. And what’s more, it is doing all this with our smiling acquiescence.
>
>
> | Grammatically, this is correct. Stylistically, I think it would have better effect if you replaced "it" with "TV".
```
TV has become the modern day babysitter. TV is raising our children. TV is dictating the cultural narrative and shaping future society.
```
That would make the "it" more clear and would hammer the point into your readers' heads:
```
What's the modern day babysitter? TV!
What's raising our children? TV!
```
That is what you want readers to remember, not "what is raising our children? It! But...what's 'it' again?" |
18,190 | <p>The protagonist is from a certain country, and in some point of the story he moves to another one that speaks another language. The protagonist learns their language and talks with them in it. </p>
<p>Movies (usually North American ones) set in another country, almost always have one or some characters who speak English, lowering the impact that the foreign language causes. However, the fiction I'm writing is quite long, and I think that only 2 or 3 characters who speak the protagonist's language throughout the whole story is quite inadequate.</p>
<p>Some parts of these movies have dialogs in the local language, but with subtitles. What about a written story? Provide the translation right after? That would be partially good only if these parts are few if compared to the whole story's dialogs, but that's not my case.</p>
<p>Also, fictions set in another country, but that don't have a change in the local language, are much easier than those that do have, because if, for example, the story is an adaptation from a Chinese story, anyone would know that though every character is speaking English, they would actually be speaking in the local language.<br>
But would this be possibly applicable to the situation when there's a country switch? All dialogs in the other country will be in the same language as the ones in the initial country? Wouldn't it be weird or unrealistic?
<hr>
<strong>EDIT:</strong><br>
Sorry, I think I didn't explained much clearly. I explain:<br>
The problem is the language in the dialogs, not the narration. This story involves a lot of dialogs, and the protagonist moves to another country and learns their language. The problem with this moving is the change in the language in the dialogs, that, in reality, would be another one. And my question is how to deal with this situation in the story. </p>
| [
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"answer_id": 18191,
"author": "Michael B",
"author_id": 13990,
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The answer would seem to be to remember the point of view of the narrator. If you are writing from the protago... | 2015/07/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/18190",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/14490/"
] | The protagonist is from a certain country, and in some point of the story he moves to another one that speaks another language. The protagonist learns their language and talks with them in it.
Movies (usually North American ones) set in another country, almost always have one or some characters who speak English, lowering the impact that the foreign language causes. However, the fiction I'm writing is quite long, and I think that only 2 or 3 characters who speak the protagonist's language throughout the whole story is quite inadequate.
Some parts of these movies have dialogs in the local language, but with subtitles. What about a written story? Provide the translation right after? That would be partially good only if these parts are few if compared to the whole story's dialogs, but that's not my case.
Also, fictions set in another country, but that don't have a change in the local language, are much easier than those that do have, because if, for example, the story is an adaptation from a Chinese story, anyone would know that though every character is speaking English, they would actually be speaking in the local language.
But would this be possibly applicable to the situation when there's a country switch? All dialogs in the other country will be in the same language as the ones in the initial country? Wouldn't it be weird or unrealistic?
---
**EDIT:**
Sorry, I think I didn't explained much clearly. I explain:
The problem is the language in the dialogs, not the narration. This story involves a lot of dialogs, and the protagonist moves to another country and learns their language. The problem with this moving is the change in the language in the dialogs, that, in reality, would be another one. And my question is how to deal with this situation in the story. | We have four variants of foreign language dialog in fiction and the corresponding solutions how we can handle this:
```
+----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| | foreign language | foreign language |
| | is limited to | makes up a major |
| | short phrases or | part of all dialog |
| | occurs only rarely | |
+----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| the protagonist | translate the phrase; | translate (2) |
| understands the | use typography (1) | |
| foreign language | to signify foreign | |
| | language | |
+----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
| the protagonist | give the original | describe that people |
| does not understand | | speak ('Tik said |
| the foreign language | | something and pointed |
| | | at the sky.') |
+----------------------+-----------------------+-----------------------+
```
Notes:
(1) Signifying translation typographically is optional. Usually the context makes it clear enough that if an American goes shopping in France, the clerk will speak French. Readers use their knowledge of the world to supplement the texts they read.
If it can reasonably be assumed that the foreign person speaks the protagonist's mother tongue, typography can help make the difference clear. Explain the convention the first time you use it. E.g.:
>
> Bob and his wife flew to France. When they arrived in Paris, the customs officer said to them in French: *"Please show me your passports."*
>
> "What did he say?" Bob's wife asked.
>
> "He wants to see our passports," Bob answered and handed the passports to the officer.
>
> *"Thank you,"* the officer said.
>
>
>
What conventions you use will depend on your book design and your publisher. I have seen the use of italics, as in the previous example, and angle brackets:
>
> 〈Please show me your passport,〉 the officer said.
>
>
>
Do not use markup or typography if foreign language dialogue is extensive (as in your book). In that case, just translate it and let the context make it clear which language is spoken.
(2) Wether or not you translate foreign language dialog will depend on your readership. If you write for a highly educated audience, it is quite common to leave French or Spanish text untranslated in English fiction. But if you write for a more general audience, you should aim for a monolingual text. The exception is fantasy and SF, where Elvish and other fictional languages are often left in the "original" for effect. |
18,388 | <p>Many of us probably encountered it before on a social media like Facebook or Twitter, or in the comments section of a major website. You've decided what you want to say, but you want to stress a specific word or couple of words in your message. However, the medium does not allow you to do what you normally do with the font, like put it in bold, or in italics, or underlined, or in a slightly larger font, or in a different font. The only things you can do is use printable characters you can make with your keyboard. One of the most common solutions people thing of is using letter casing, but that can quickly devolve into "why are you shouting at me?" and isn't always suited.</p>
<p>When in such a situation, what method can bring across the best impression of a stressed syllable/word/word group without offending people? And does this method depend on the type of stressing you want to give the word (pitch vs tone vs volume)?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 18394,
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"pm_score": 4,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Writing a word in ALL CAPS might be frowned upon because it is considered a visual equivalent of shouting, b... | 2015/07/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/18388",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/6845/"
] | Many of us probably encountered it before on a social media like Facebook or Twitter, or in the comments section of a major website. You've decided what you want to say, but you want to stress a specific word or couple of words in your message. However, the medium does not allow you to do what you normally do with the font, like put it in bold, or in italics, or underlined, or in a slightly larger font, or in a different font. The only things you can do is use printable characters you can make with your keyboard. One of the most common solutions people thing of is using letter casing, but that can quickly devolve into "why are you shouting at me?" and isn't always suited.
When in such a situation, what method can bring across the best impression of a stressed syllable/word/word group without offending people? And does this method depend on the type of stressing you want to give the word (pitch vs tone vs volume)? | Writing a word in ALL CAPS might be frowned upon because it is considered a visual equivalent of shouting, but shouting is a spoken form of emphasis, so ALL CAPS might be just what you need.
Internet tradition (dating back to list serves, etc.) has used the underbar as a signal for italics: I will `_never_` eat another steak. The underbar harkens back to typing and handwriting (remember that?), when underlined text indicated what in print would be rendered in *italics*. Some social sites, like Google+, will automatically render `_text bounded by underbars_` in *italics*.
Likewise, the star or asterisk ( \* ) has traditionally been used to bound text that should be considered **boldface**.
So you might tweet:
```
*George R.R. Martin* is executive producer of HBO's _Game of Thrones_ because he wrote the books, but *George Martin* produced _Abbey Road_ and many other Beatle albums.
```
But the best way to emphasize words lies within the words themselves, but that's a topic for another day (or an exercise left for the reader). |
18,852 | <p>Is it okay to write a bit of camera movement in the ACTION? I don't mean the camera movements such as <code>PUSH IN</code> or <code>ANGLE ON</code>.</p>
<p>What I mean is something like the following:</p>
<pre><code>Through an **aerial view**, we see the man following the criminal.
</code></pre>
<p>Would it be okay to write 'aerial view' here, without specifying any technical camera movements? </p>
| [
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"answer_id": 18853,
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"author_id": 15099,
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"pm_score": 0,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I would stray away from saying aerial view. Maybe something more like, from above the man could be see... | 2015/08/31 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/18852",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/14344/"
] | Is it okay to write a bit of camera movement in the ACTION? I don't mean the camera movements such as `PUSH IN` or `ANGLE ON`.
What I mean is something like the following:
```
Through an **aerial view**, we see the man following the criminal.
```
Would it be okay to write 'aerial view' here, without specifying any technical camera movements? | Unless you are also directing the film, **DO NOT** put camera directions in!
The best way to handle this is to write the scene in a way that evokes the image and movements into the readers mind.
Remember, the first rule of screenwriting is "show don't tell!" *Aerial view* is on the line of acceptability for a screenplay; if used in a *showing* way it could be fine, but if one is trying to use it as pseudo-camera direction that is *telling* and not *showing*.
Be careful with sneaky camera directions a professional reader might consider it as bad or worse than an explicit camera direction, and might reject your screenplay as a result. |
19,135 | <p>I've always wanted to write poetry, and I tried my hand at a ballad today. However, I know very little about the technicalities of poetry, and the explanations of iambic meter and structure of the ballad were confusing to me. </p>
<p>Here it is, in full (only five stanzas). I'm not requesting feedback on the quality of the poetry (I already know it to be godawful), I only want to know if it is technically a correct ballad. </p>
<p>Even better would be if someone could explain, in plain language, what a ballad is and how to construct it. </p>
<pre><code>The room had but one resident,
a young boy only known
for never doing what he meant,
he sat there all alone.
One day he stood up to admit,
his memories were old.
No story to submit, he must
go make some of his own.
Then many mountains did he climb,
he traveled every plain.
He ate new food (it was sublime)
he saw the pure humane.
And when he went back to his room,
he thought he should record
the memories he had consumed,
the places he'd explored.
Before he got to writing, he
had fallen on his bed.
Adventure was exciting, but
he rest now in it's stead.
</code></pre>
| [
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Ballads, as far as I am concerned usually do the following.</p>\n\n<ol>\n<li>They tell a story -- yours does... | 2015/09/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/19135",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/15349/"
] | I've always wanted to write poetry, and I tried my hand at a ballad today. However, I know very little about the technicalities of poetry, and the explanations of iambic meter and structure of the ballad were confusing to me.
Here it is, in full (only five stanzas). I'm not requesting feedback on the quality of the poetry (I already know it to be godawful), I only want to know if it is technically a correct ballad.
Even better would be if someone could explain, in plain language, what a ballad is and how to construct it.
```
The room had but one resident,
a young boy only known
for never doing what he meant,
he sat there all alone.
One day he stood up to admit,
his memories were old.
No story to submit, he must
go make some of his own.
Then many mountains did he climb,
he traveled every plain.
He ate new food (it was sublime)
he saw the pure humane.
And when he went back to his room,
he thought he should record
the memories he had consumed,
the places he'd explored.
Before he got to writing, he
had fallen on his bed.
Adventure was exciting, but
he rest now in it's stead.
``` | Ballads, as far as I am concerned usually do the following.
1. They tell a story -- yours does.
2. They have the same number of lines in each stanza (there can be verse and chorus with different lengths) -- yours does.
3. They have lines with the same number of syllables in each pair (first and third can be different in length to second and fourth) -- without counting them all, yours appear to do this.
4. There is usually a rhyme scheme where the second and fourth lines rhyme -- except for 'old' and 'own' yours does.
This pretty much fits my definition. I'd call is a ballad. |
19,604 | <p>Coming from the World of Screenwriting, it proves difficult for me to discern the usage of parentheticals from the usage of stage directions in a play I'm writing. I need to know which is for what and when is it appropriate to use.</p>
<p>For example:</p>
<pre><code> ACT I
Scene 1
We are on the greenery of a park where a brisk, bright, windy afternoon greets each of the following people sitting at the chairs:
Enter Stage Left a female jogger, thirty-two, who has her chihuahua wrapped up in matching exercise clothing, tempts the dog into whimpering with some raw salmon.
Female Jogger
Who's a cutie pie? Who's a cutie pie? Sit, girl.
(The dog sits.)
Jump.
(The dog jumps. The female jogger lifts the dog in her hands.)
Kick your heels!
(She wiggles the dog in a way that allows the dog to clasp her paws.)
Good girl! Good girl! Here's your treat!
(Enter Stage Right a business woman, also in her early 30s, carrying a messenger bag, Starbucks mocha latte and Chanel sunglasses. She seems to be contesting back-and-forth on an important phone call.
Business Woman
(on the phone)
No, no, no… I told you, Marissa, the realtor is supposed to owe us five grand. You make her… you make him--listen to me!… I know that we're late for that but what can I do, I'm at work. I'll call you later, okay? Yeah, whatever… Alright, alright, "love" you too!… Bye, Mom.
(disgruntled, the Business woman sits like a prissy kindergartner and opens her laptop. She starts to sip her coffee but near drops it at how hot it is.)
</code></pre>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>-.. .-</p>
| [
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"author": "Ricky",
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"selected": true,
"text": "<p>Parenthetical remarks are used to describe the attitude, tone, or action for the actor who is speaking. Stage direc... | 2015/11/05 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/19604",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10834/"
] | Coming from the World of Screenwriting, it proves difficult for me to discern the usage of parentheticals from the usage of stage directions in a play I'm writing. I need to know which is for what and when is it appropriate to use.
For example:
```
ACT I
Scene 1
We are on the greenery of a park where a brisk, bright, windy afternoon greets each of the following people sitting at the chairs:
Enter Stage Left a female jogger, thirty-two, who has her chihuahua wrapped up in matching exercise clothing, tempts the dog into whimpering with some raw salmon.
Female Jogger
Who's a cutie pie? Who's a cutie pie? Sit, girl.
(The dog sits.)
Jump.
(The dog jumps. The female jogger lifts the dog in her hands.)
Kick your heels!
(She wiggles the dog in a way that allows the dog to clasp her paws.)
Good girl! Good girl! Here's your treat!
(Enter Stage Right a business woman, also in her early 30s, carrying a messenger bag, Starbucks mocha latte and Chanel sunglasses. She seems to be contesting back-and-forth on an important phone call.
Business Woman
(on the phone)
No, no, no… I told you, Marissa, the realtor is supposed to owe us five grand. You make her… you make him--listen to me!… I know that we're late for that but what can I do, I'm at work. I'll call you later, okay? Yeah, whatever… Alright, alright, "love" you too!… Bye, Mom.
(disgruntled, the Business woman sits like a prissy kindergartner and opens her laptop. She starts to sip her coffee but near drops it at how hot it is.)
```
Thanks.
-.. .- | Parenthetical remarks are used to describe the attitude, tone, or action for the actor who is speaking. Stage direction describe whatever's going on on the stage in general. There's a bunch of different "standard" or "accepted" formats used to accomplish it.
The name of a character who is speaking should be capitalized and centered, just like in a screenplay. A parenthetical remark should follow it immediately (single space).
Stage directions should be indented more these days, 4.25", and double-spaced before and after.
Just like in a screenplay, should the same character continue speaking after a block of stage direction, it's a good idea to type their name again and put "(Continued)" next to it.
Your "on the phone" is the only true parenthetical remark in your text. The rest are stage directions.
Dialogue is the only element that is not indented and runs all the way from the left margin to the right.
Musicals are formatted differently, but the differences are subtle and not immediately apparent. |
19,606 | <p>As per the title I compared my system against two other systems separately but I'm worried about it coming across as that it was a three way comparison.</p>
<p>Neither of the below titles convey what I want to, what is the best way to word a comparison such as this or would it be better being split into two chapters?</p>
<pre><code>Comparison of egocentric camera vs. static camera vs. dense sensor placement.
Comparison of egocentric camera against static camera and dense sensor placement.
</code></pre>
| [
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"answer_id": 19609,
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"text": "<p>\"Here, we see that the egocentric camera is being compared with either the static camera or the dense sensor plac... | 2015/11/05 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/19606",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/15798/"
] | As per the title I compared my system against two other systems separately but I'm worried about it coming across as that it was a three way comparison.
Neither of the below titles convey what I want to, what is the best way to word a comparison such as this or would it be better being split into two chapters?
```
Comparison of egocentric camera vs. static camera vs. dense sensor placement.
Comparison of egocentric camera against static camera and dense sensor placement.
``` | The clarifier you want is "respectively." It's fine in running copy, or even as a caption, but clunks as a header.
>
> Comparison of egocentric camera against static camera and dense sensor placement, respectively
>
>
>
For a headline, you might try emphasizing the idea that there are two comparisons with some redundancy:
>
> Comparisons of Egocentric Camera vs. Static Camera and vs. Dense Sensor Placement
>
>
> |
19,615 | <p>I write a <a href="https://eyesofablacksheep.wordpress.com/" rel="nofollow">fairly informal, opinionated blog</a> about a variety of subjects, politics, relationships, mental well being, general life observations etc. </p>
<p>I'm trying to make my writing more concise - to convey my ideas in a nice bite sized package. </p>
<p>I'm wondering about whether one writing trope I use is necessary - 'I would argue...', 'One could argue...', 'One might suggest...', 'One way of looking at this...'. </p>
<p>For example:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would argue that the best way to genuinely meet people is to join social groups - reading groups, dance groups etc. Online dating should be relegated to a simple pick me in your down time - while relaxing in the evenings, or riding the bus to work. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is clearly an opinion I hold, rather a backed up fact about the world.</p>
<p>If it were backed by academic research, I would explictly state that. </p>
<p>eg.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>One study showed that... </p>
</blockquote>
<p>My question is - how necessary is it for me to qualify the statement with the opening 'I would argue'/'One could argue'? </p>
<p>For example - could I just say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best way to genuinely meet people is to join social groups - reading groups, dance groups etc. Online dating should be relegated to a simple pick me in your down time - while relaxing in the evenings, or riding the bus to work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>?</p>
<p>I guess what it comes down to is the tone of your writing and how you want the writing to be perceived by your audience. For example if you're wanting to come across as confident and knowledgeable, for example in a sales pitch, you might drop the qualifier, whereas more approachable and inviting debate you might use. </p>
<p>I think the question is - are there examples where the use of the qualifier is effective - and not effective? </p>
| [
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"answer_id": 19627,
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"pm_score": 1,
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"text": "<p><strong>I think that in the context of the blog you linked you can drop \"I would argue\" without losing anything.<... | 2015/11/06 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/19615",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/14366/"
] | I write a [fairly informal, opinionated blog](https://eyesofablacksheep.wordpress.com/) about a variety of subjects, politics, relationships, mental well being, general life observations etc.
I'm trying to make my writing more concise - to convey my ideas in a nice bite sized package.
I'm wondering about whether one writing trope I use is necessary - 'I would argue...', 'One could argue...', 'One might suggest...', 'One way of looking at this...'.
For example:
>
> I would argue that the best way to genuinely meet people is to join social groups - reading groups, dance groups etc. Online dating should be relegated to a simple pick me in your down time - while relaxing in the evenings, or riding the bus to work.
>
>
>
This is clearly an opinion I hold, rather a backed up fact about the world.
If it were backed by academic research, I would explictly state that.
eg.
>
> One study showed that...
>
>
>
My question is - how necessary is it for me to qualify the statement with the opening 'I would argue'/'One could argue'?
For example - could I just say:
>
> The best way to genuinely meet people is to join social groups - reading groups, dance groups etc. Online dating should be relegated to a simple pick me in your down time - while relaxing in the evenings, or riding the bus to work.
>
>
>
?
I guess what it comes down to is the tone of your writing and how you want the writing to be perceived by your audience. For example if you're wanting to come across as confident and knowledgeable, for example in a sales pitch, you might drop the qualifier, whereas more approachable and inviting debate you might use.
I think the question is - are there examples where the use of the qualifier is effective - and not effective? | **I think that in the context of the blog you linked you can drop "I would argue" without losing anything.** It's already implied that what you're writing about are your own thoughts and opinions. However, if you spend some time in a post citing scientific findings or other hard facts *and then* give your own opinion, "I would argue" is useful for transitioning between the two.
Also worth noting is that when you control the medium where your words appear (as you do with a blog), formatting can be just as powerful as word choice.
>
> For example, you can offset anything that *isn't* strictly your opinion in a manner such as this,
>
>
>
which will tell your reader that such text comes from a source other than you. Again, given the context of your blog, I think offsetting what *isn't* just your opinion is fine, but if you're worried about it, you may develop a more detailed style in which, for example
>
> external quotes are formatted in one manner
>
>
>
and
```
those opinions which you would normally qualify with "I would argue"
are formatted in another.
```
If you go this route, you might want to add a page to your blog explaining your formatting conditions. |
20,750 | <p>So I guess camera action is up to the director. Would I ever be allowed to pan if it is important? Would I not be able to pick certain angles? </p>
<p>If I can, what would be the best way to specify --for example --that a character is fixing his/hair in the mirror from the mirror's point of view? My instinct is to just simply say: From the mirror's POV (character's name} fixes his/her hair in the reflection. Can anybody think of a better way?</p>
| [
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>The current fashion in screenwriting is to avoid mentions of camera angles and focus on storytelling, bu... | 2016/02/02 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/20750",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/16741/"
] | So I guess camera action is up to the director. Would I ever be allowed to pan if it is important? Would I not be able to pick certain angles?
If I can, what would be the best way to specify --for example --that a character is fixing his/hair in the mirror from the mirror's point of view? My instinct is to just simply say: From the mirror's POV (character's name} fixes his/her hair in the reflection. Can anybody think of a better way? | The current fashion in screenwriting is to avoid mentions of camera angles and focus on storytelling, but you can certainly mention POV. Some people do this with a slugline.
```
INT. BEDROOM—DAY
BILL'S POV
Bill fixes his hair in the mirror.
```
But if you're going to do the trick where a mirror image turns out to be the real one, you don't need to mention POV at first.
```
INT. BEDROOM—DAY
Bill smiles.
BILL
You mean everything to me. Everything.
I love you, and I'd do anything for you.
A WIDER ANGLE shows Bill is talking into the bathroom mirror.
```
As a general rule, write it whatever way it works best for a reader. This is more important than making the details clear for a director (who will ignore it anyway). |
20,867 | <p>I have a manuscript that I'd like to add Drop Caps to at the beginning of each chapter. I currently have it loaded into my Storyist program on my Mac-book Pro. </p>
<p><strong>Does anyone know how I'd go about adding my Drop-caps?</strong> </p>
<p>I can't seem to find any tools for this. I know it's not a common practice, and I know the Storyist program typically leans toward trimmed and well formatted manuscript style, so maybe I'll have to export my manuscript and tackle it in Pages. I'm not sure. Can anyone help?</p>
| [
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"text": "<h2>Not quite, you can add Drop Caps to the CSS of the ePub file that Storyist generates for you</h2>\n<p><a hre... | 2016/02/09 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/20867",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/16514/"
] | I have a manuscript that I'd like to add Drop Caps to at the beginning of each chapter. I currently have it loaded into my Storyist program on my Mac-book Pro.
**Does anyone know how I'd go about adding my Drop-caps?**
I can't seem to find any tools for this. I know it's not a common practice, and I know the Storyist program typically leans toward trimmed and well formatted manuscript style, so maybe I'll have to export my manuscript and tackle it in Pages. I'm not sure. Can anyone help? | Not quite, you can add Drop Caps to the CSS of the ePub file that Storyist generates for you
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[This Storyist forum](http://storyist.invisionzone.com/index.php/topic/2020-editing-epub-files/) gives an example of how to modify the CSS for your .ePub file (which is just a zip that you can unzip to see the individual files) to add Drop Caps:
>
> ### Adding drop caps to the start of a paragraph
>
>
> Another popular modification is to add drop caps to the first letter in a chapter. There are several ways to achieve this. If you're targeting iPad, the simplest way is to use the first-letter pseudo-class CSS selector as follows:
>
>
>
```
h1 > p:first-of-type::first-letter {
font-size: 5em;
float:left;
line-hight: 0.5;
}
```
As the author mentions you should be comfortable with manually overwriting the CSS from the ePub file and you should check the result on the different readers where you intend to publish your work.
This is basically a workaround to change the standard layout in a not-intended way to match your specific preferences.
---
But beware that this seems to be discouraged by the community. See for example [this Storyist forum](http://storyist.invisionzone.com/index.php/topic/2775-creating-files-for-upload-to-kdp/) (emphasis mine):
>
> Unlike a print book with a set interior design, the point of eBooks is to be easy for the readers to manipulate for themselves. So the best eBook "formatting" is, in fact, doing as little hard formatting as possible—don't embed fonts, **don't use drop caps**, all the things that you' do in print. Keep your eBooks clean. Because not only does every reader like things differently, but different eReaders display things differently, too. So my Kindle Paperwhite uses a different font than iBooks, etc. And that's okay.
>
>
>
---
The standard doesn't allow this. There is no documentation for Storyist that would suggest that there is an in-built feature to change this setting and this StackExchange question is the first thing I can find when I google "Storyist Drop Caps", which suggests that there is not a high demand for this sort of workaround. Use with care. |
21,139 | <p>I'm a web programmer at a small web firm. When we have a larger programming project, I write a specification document for the client to review, make necessary changes, and eventually approve.</p>
<p>Our clients are not very tech-savvy, so I <em>always</em> include an overview of the programming, written in simple prose. I think they get that part… it's the point at which I describe the, well, technical aspects I'm afraid is going over their heads.</p>
<p>What I do to try to make it easier, is create a table that explains <strong>what</strong> is being collected and <strong>how</strong>.</p>
<p>For example, a simple contact form would include a table similar to he following:</p>
<pre><code> | Field | Type | Options | Notes |
--------------------------------------------------------------
| Name* | Text | | |
| Email* | Text | | Will ensure valid format |
| State* | Dropdown | US States | |
| Comments | Textarea | | |
</code></pre>
<p>I'll explain what the asterisk indicates in a paragraph above, and I always describe the field types in footnotes, the first time the field is mentioned. But, as my specifications have gotten more complicated, and the data collected has become more lengthy, I've started to wonder if there's a better way.</p>
<p>I've researched this (here, UX.SE, and Google in general), but I've found very little and nothing specific. Usually, the examples are for in-house documents, not for those who think websites are magic.</p>
<h3>TL;DR</h3>
<p>Is there a standard way of explaining form fields/database data/collection methods to a non-techie client?</p>
| [
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"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/21139",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/13278/"
] | I'm a web programmer at a small web firm. When we have a larger programming project, I write a specification document for the client to review, make necessary changes, and eventually approve.
Our clients are not very tech-savvy, so I *always* include an overview of the programming, written in simple prose. I think they get that part… it's the point at which I describe the, well, technical aspects I'm afraid is going over their heads.
What I do to try to make it easier, is create a table that explains **what** is being collected and **how**.
For example, a simple contact form would include a table similar to he following:
```
| Field | Type | Options | Notes |
--------------------------------------------------------------
| Name* | Text | | |
| Email* | Text | | Will ensure valid format |
| State* | Dropdown | US States | |
| Comments | Textarea | | |
```
I'll explain what the asterisk indicates in a paragraph above, and I always describe the field types in footnotes, the first time the field is mentioned. But, as my specifications have gotten more complicated, and the data collected has become more lengthy, I've started to wonder if there's a better way.
I've researched this (here, UX.SE, and Google in general), but I've found very little and nothing specific. Usually, the examples are for in-house documents, not for those who think websites are magic.
### TL;DR
Is there a standard way of explaining form fields/database data/collection methods to a non-techie client? | That table is not client-ready. I understand the technical terms like “dropdown” and “textarea” but those words should never be put in front of a client. Except for the rare exception who has some programming experience, at best the client will get nothing out of it, and at worst, they will have a really uncomfortable experience and resent you for it.
I recommend you don’t use tables to explain these interfaces to your clients — instead, use an illustration. It is very standard to use illustrations in technical writing. When I wrote technical books, they were 1000 pages with 500 illustrations. If not for the illustrations, they would have been 3000 pages.
Even the most non-technical client has very likely used a Web form. So all you have to do is show them something that looks somewhat like a Web form, and they will see a Web form:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/npvFd.png)
I made that illustration with [Autodesk Graphic](http://graphic.com/) in about 5 minutes, tops, including placing it within this article. It is just a few rectangles and a few text objects. The hardest part was looking up a list of alphabetical US states that I could paste in there. Even if you don’t have any experience with drawing tools, it will still likely take you less time to make an illustration like this than it would to make a table or write a description.
You might want to put a caption “for illustration purposes only — not a final layout” on your illustration to prevent the client from thinking that is really what the final form will look like. It is meant to simply be a step up from the table you made, not to be a layout. But an additional advantage beyond better client comprehension is less ambiguity for the person who makes the final layout. The table version could be accidentally misinterpreted, but it is pretty hard for a Web designer or programmer to misinterpret an illustration like this.
So illustrations improve your specification for everybody. |
21,142 | <p>I want to write a sequence in my screenplay where the same news broadcast continues on different screens in different locations. For example, a bunch of people in a bar are watching the broadcast, then it continues in a family's living room on their TV, then people on the street are watching the same broadcast on a TV in a shop window, etc. How should I format this in a screenplay? </p>
| [
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"text": "<p>If it's a spec script and breaking it down into multiple scenes would be unnecessarily burdensome on the reader, you... | 2016/02/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/21142",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
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] | I want to write a sequence in my screenplay where the same news broadcast continues on different screens in different locations. For example, a bunch of people in a bar are watching the broadcast, then it continues in a family's living room on their TV, then people on the street are watching the same broadcast on a TV in a shop window, etc. How should I format this in a screenplay? | If it's a spec script and breaking it down into multiple scenes would be unnecessarily burdensome on the reader, you may simply write:
```
INT/EXT. - MONTAGE
TVs around the world, in bars, homes, and storefronts relay the same news story.
REPORTER
You join me live at Houston Mission
Control where we await contact from
the brave astronauts...
```
Then relate the story as if it were happening on a single screen.
In a later production draft it might get broken into individual scenes for the sake of scheduling, or it may not. This could be filmed outside the main production schedule, in which case it might have its own documentation and not rely on the script for a clear breakdown.
Expanding a bit now I'm on a proper keyboard:
If you want to add a little more colour into each of your locations, or you want to use any of the cast characters it's safest to break up into different scenes.
```
INT. BOSTON BAR -- DAY
In a Boston bar, six alcoholics stare at the TV through glassy eyes.
REPORTER
You join me live at Houston Mission
Control...
EXT. HARRODS LONDON -- NIGHT
An old couple hold each other tight watching the same report on a TV in the window.
REPORTER (cont'd)
...where we await contact from the
brave astronauts...
```
Some scripts will use CONTINUOUS as the tag on the second scene. eg.
```
EXT. HARRODS LONDON -- CONTINUOUS
```
But in this example, doing that hides the fact the second scene is at night, which is likely to be far more useful for a reader to know. The fact the scene is continuous should be obvious already.
Note you may need to add the "cont'd" manually to the dialogue since your screenwriting software will not do this automatically across scenes. |
22,126 | <p>Suppose the outline of my PhD thesis looks like this:</p>
<ul>
<li>Acronyms</li>
<li>Preface</li>
<li>Introduction</li>
<li>Part I: some topic
<ul>
<li>Chapter 1: ...</li>
<li>Chapter 2: ...</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Part II: another topic
<ul>
<li>Chapter 3: ...</li>
<li>Chapter 4: ...</li>
</ul></li>
<li>Conclusion</li>
<li>Recommendations and outlook</li>
<li>Glossary</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
<p>From the table of contents it is immediately clear that the Conclusion chapter is on the same level as the parts, and it is therefore a conclusion about the entire work. </p>
<p>In the actual body of the thesis, parts are indicated by a full page with "Part I: topic" on it, a relevant picture and probably a bombastic quote of some kind.</p>
<p>My question is: how do I visually separate the conclusion from Part II, such that when reading the entire book it is clear to the reader that "ah, this is the end of Part II and now we get something else entirely"?</p>
<p>Is there a standard way to do this? Any ideas?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Each field has their own formatting habits, and each university/school/department their own. Most often, you number ... | 2016/05/25 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/22126",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/19098/"
] | Suppose the outline of my PhD thesis looks like this:
* Acronyms
* Preface
* Introduction
* Part I: some topic
+ Chapter 1: ...
+ Chapter 2: ...
* Part II: another topic
+ Chapter 3: ...
+ Chapter 4: ...
* Conclusion
* Recommendations and outlook
* Glossary
* etc.
From the table of contents it is immediately clear that the Conclusion chapter is on the same level as the parts, and it is therefore a conclusion about the entire work.
In the actual body of the thesis, parts are indicated by a full page with "Part I: topic" on it, a relevant picture and probably a bombastic quote of some kind.
My question is: how do I visually separate the conclusion from Part II, such that when reading the entire book it is clear to the reader that "ah, this is the end of Part II and now we get something else entirely"?
Is there a standard way to do this? Any ideas? | Each field has their own formatting habits, and each university/school/department their own. Most often, you number them separately so that you have:
```
1 Introduction
1.1. Aims of the Research
1.2 Theoretical Background and Primary Works
...
...
3. Aspects of Femininity in *Frankenstein*
3.1 [a title]
```
And so on... The conclusion would be the last, before any appendixes (that's where your acronyms, bibliography, etc should be) |
23,254 | <p>Can you provide list of specific items you use to evaluate whether or not a piece of fiction is good or bad?</p>
<p>For example, if you really had to explain why a piece of fiction were terrible what criteria might you use to analyze it in order to inform the writer without (blatantly) hurting her feelings?</p>
<p>Suppose you had something like the following excerpt and you had to evaluate it. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>She needed him. And he was nowhere to be found.<br>
There was no one
else she could rely on. No one like her brother. No one else at all,
now that the New Republic stood on the verge of implosion, of
destruction, of complete collapse. </p>
<p>They had thought that with the fall
of the Empire it would all be so easy. That people would understand
the need for patience, that time would be required to rebuild that
which the Empire had taken away.Ψ</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em><pre>Ψ Star Wars: The Force Awakens (page 1)</pre></em></p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I'm a volunteer reader for a literary journal, so I read and evaluate a ton of stories. (Very few are \"terri... | 2016/06/06 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/23254",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10723/"
] | Can you provide list of specific items you use to evaluate whether or not a piece of fiction is good or bad?
For example, if you really had to explain why a piece of fiction were terrible what criteria might you use to analyze it in order to inform the writer without (blatantly) hurting her feelings?
Suppose you had something like the following excerpt and you had to evaluate it.
>
> She needed him. And he was nowhere to be found.
>
> There was no one
> else she could rely on. No one like her brother. No one else at all,
> now that the New Republic stood on the verge of implosion, of
> destruction, of complete collapse.
>
>
> They had thought that with the fall
> of the Empire it would all be so easy. That people would understand
> the need for patience, that time would be required to rebuild that
> which the Empire had taken away.Ψ
>
>
>
*```
Ψ Star Wars: The Force Awakens (page 1)
```* | I'm a volunteer reader for a literary journal, so I read and evaluate a ton of stories. (Very few are "terrible," but terrible usually shows up in the first sentences.) Of course, the purpose of the story and the needs of the reader/publication both come into play, but I can come up with a few things that make a story less than great (for me). (I'm guilty of this stuff myself, and have to fix it in editing.)
**An excess of stuff that doesn't go anywhere.** Many early drafts include a lot of "throat clearing." We see the characters meet and exchange pleasantries and talk about Aunt Mary's goiter for a page and a half until they finally say the thing the reader needs to hear. We don't need to read the entire conversation; just give us the important bits. We don't need to see the character wake up and get dressed; just get him out the door. We don't need detail about every knick knack in the room; just set the scene and get the characters doing something. [Elmore Leonard said](https://www.writingclasses.com/toolbox/tips-masters/elmore-leonard-10-rules-for-good-writing), "Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip."
**A lack of action.** I don't mean car chases, but just human action. What is the character doing as she talks? Making coffee? Changing a car's oil? Fidgeting? Little actions break up the dialog and, when done well, show the character's state of mind. "Henry's hands shook so much that he dropped the spoon." That reads better than "Henry was nervous." and *much better* than "'I understand,' Henry said nervously."
**Keeping secrets from the reader.** This irks me so much. All the characters know what's going on, but the author is keeping it from the reader in order to spring it on them at the end. That comes across as manipulative. If your story needs a big reveal, then make the reveal to one of the characters, not to the reader.
My advice to avoid this stuff is to (1) get yourself some good readers, (2) do enough revision, and (3) read a lot. A LOT. Pay attention to how your favorite authors write. |
23,561 | <p>I am writing a paper but I don't know how to move back to the main section after I'm done writing a sub-section, like this:</p>
<pre><code>1.1 Main section
1.1.1 subsection 1
1.1.2 subsection 2
</code></pre>
<p>As I write long subsections I don't how can I make readers understand that we are back in the Main section. Two pages goes by on subsections but then I want to do a proper finish by ending the main section after those 2 subsections but I don't know how to indicate this without pointing it out.</p>
<p>Basically I want to end it like this:</p>
<pre><code>1.1 Main section (starting)
1.1.1 Sub section 1
..writing...
1.1.2 Sub section 2
..writing...
*and then back to Main section 1.1*
1.1 Main section (ending)
</code></pre>
<p><strong>How can I make that proper ending of Main Section after writing subsections?</strong></p>
| [
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"text": "<p>This might depend on your field (or department/school/institution guidelines), but at least I simply insert the epilo... | 2016/06/25 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/23561",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | I am writing a paper but I don't know how to move back to the main section after I'm done writing a sub-section, like this:
```
1.1 Main section
1.1.1 subsection 1
1.1.2 subsection 2
```
As I write long subsections I don't how can I make readers understand that we are back in the Main section. Two pages goes by on subsections but then I want to do a proper finish by ending the main section after those 2 subsections but I don't know how to indicate this without pointing it out.
Basically I want to end it like this:
```
1.1 Main section (starting)
1.1.1 Sub section 1
..writing...
1.1.2 Sub section 2
..writing...
*and then back to Main section 1.1*
1.1 Main section (ending)
```
**How can I make that proper ending of Main Section after writing subsections?** | This might depend on your field (or department/school/institution guidelines), but at least I simply insert the epilogue (because that's what it is) at the end of the last subsection. If your writing is coherent enough, it shows.
For instance:
```
1. Main section
... In chapter 1 I will talk about a, b, c, because of this and that, and it's important because, blah blah
1.1 "a"
...blah blah
1.2. "b"
... blah
1.3 "c"
...blah blah blah
As I have demonstrated in this chapter, the elements of a, b, and c are important because. I will further examine the importance of d in chapter 2.
2.
...blah
``` |
23,810 | <p>I am trying to create a documentary about the history of a sports team, and have identified some compelling story arcs. However, as we know in reality, stories do not begin and end one at a time:</p>
<pre><code>story 1 exposition
story 1 rising action
story 1 climax
story 1 falling action
story 1 resolution
story 2 exposition
story 2 rising action
story 2 climax
story 2 falling action
story 2 resolution
</code></pre>
<p>but rather are interwoven</p>
<pre><code>story 1 exposition
story 1 rising action
story 2 exposition
story 1 climax
story 2 rising action
story 1 falling action
story 2 climax
story 2 falling action
story 1 resolution
story 2 resolution
</code></pre>
<p>I can easily modify my documentary to make scene transitions seamless/connected by having a connecting theme. BUT this doesn't ensure the viewer can identify the 2 different story arcs and feel the satisfaction that all plots were explored and resolved. To them, the interwoven structure above just looks like a bunch of connected scenes with no overall meaning. </p>
<p>What do screenwriters do to ensure viewers don't get lost and remind them that there is a (set of) journeys to be payed off that they should keep watching to get rewarded with? Apart from just narration which explicitly identifies the 2 separate plots, I don't get how this is done (I'm an amateur screenwriter with no training). But since I don't want to rely on English narration (I want people from other countries to watch it too), I'm wondering if there are any non-narrater ways to help orient viewers.</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>Watch any of the reality TV shows in the documentary theme that are currently \"popular\" like </p>\n\n<ul>\n<li... | 2016/07/14 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/23810",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/13987/"
] | I am trying to create a documentary about the history of a sports team, and have identified some compelling story arcs. However, as we know in reality, stories do not begin and end one at a time:
```
story 1 exposition
story 1 rising action
story 1 climax
story 1 falling action
story 1 resolution
story 2 exposition
story 2 rising action
story 2 climax
story 2 falling action
story 2 resolution
```
but rather are interwoven
```
story 1 exposition
story 1 rising action
story 2 exposition
story 1 climax
story 2 rising action
story 1 falling action
story 2 climax
story 2 falling action
story 1 resolution
story 2 resolution
```
I can easily modify my documentary to make scene transitions seamless/connected by having a connecting theme. BUT this doesn't ensure the viewer can identify the 2 different story arcs and feel the satisfaction that all plots were explored and resolved. To them, the interwoven structure above just looks like a bunch of connected scenes with no overall meaning.
What do screenwriters do to ensure viewers don't get lost and remind them that there is a (set of) journeys to be payed off that they should keep watching to get rewarded with? Apart from just narration which explicitly identifies the 2 separate plots, I don't get how this is done (I'm an amateur screenwriter with no training). But since I don't want to rely on English narration (I want people from other countries to watch it too), I'm wondering if there are any non-narrater ways to help orient viewers. | Thanks to Bookeater for this recommendation:
>
> I'd use music to unify an arc. Out there usually human leads are used to tag arcs as people easily identify with them.
>
>
>
This also answers another question I hadn't yet crossed yet - how many different soundtrack songs should I use in my show (anything from one for the whole show, to one for every scene). One per story sounds like a good way to go. |
23,952 | <p>I would like a utility that could analyze a document and give me stats like this: </p>
<pre><code>WORD: FREQUENCY:
a 47,268
the 37,201
gross 215
irregardlessly 1
</code></pre>
<p>Does anyone know if this is available?</p>
<p>BTW, I'd rather not use an online tool. Call me paranoid, but uploading my unpublished novel to the internet, to me, would be akin to walking down main street with nothing but a condom on. :)</p>
| [
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"selected": true,
"text": "<p>My beloved <a href=\"http://literatureandlatte.com/\" rel=\"nofollow\">Scrivener</a> does the job b... | 2016/07/27 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/23952",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/18990/"
] | I would like a utility that could analyze a document and give me stats like this:
```
WORD: FREQUENCY:
a 47,268
the 37,201
gross 215
irregardlessly 1
```
Does anyone know if this is available?
BTW, I'd rather not use an online tool. Call me paranoid, but uploading my unpublished novel to the internet, to me, would be akin to walking down main street with nothing but a condom on. :) | My beloved [Scrivener](http://literatureandlatte.com/) does the job beautifully. Paste your text in and then go under Project —> Text Statistics and it gives you the list you're looking for.
Other people on this board have recommended [Word Counter](http://www.supermagnus.com/mac/Word_Counter/download.html) (Mac) and both [Primitive Word Counter](http://www.primitivezone.com/primitive-word-counter.html) and [yWriter](http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html) (Windows), but I cannot speak to their utility as I've never used them. |
24,254 | <p>If I'm writing the following clerihew resume where I'm constrained to 40 characters per line.</p>
<pre><code>+----------------------------------------+
|Peter Turner |
|code burner |
|PHP, perl, python, object pascal, css, |
|javascript, html, sql, yml, java, c++, |
|c, tex, actionscript, bash and tsch |
|are his niche |
+----------------------------------------+
</code></pre>
<p>what punctuation can I use to convey to the audience (that hip HR person) that the 3rd line is one line and not two? </p>
<p>Clerihews by design are four line couplets with no perceptible meter, so it's important that the 3rd line be perceived as one line. </p>
<hr>
<p>The above is just an example, I really just want to know what the proper punctuation to use to convey to reader that the reason we haven't rhymed yet is because the line is not done yet. </p>
<p>Or, if there is no proper punctuation, then I'll just make one up and move along, not asking for advice, just if there's an esoteric sense of the solidus that can come in handy here.</p>
<p>Like how:
<code>
echo blah\
to be continued....
</code>
tells a shell not to echo "blah", but "blahto be continued..."</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 24255,
"author": "Max Williams",
"author_id": 31126,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/31126",
"pm_score": 4,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>This totally isn't a question about the English language, but you could indent the continued parts like so:... | 2016/08/18 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/24254",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/715/"
] | If I'm writing the following clerihew resume where I'm constrained to 40 characters per line.
```
+----------------------------------------+
|Peter Turner |
|code burner |
|PHP, perl, python, object pascal, css, |
|javascript, html, sql, yml, java, c++, |
|c, tex, actionscript, bash and tsch |
|are his niche |
+----------------------------------------+
```
what punctuation can I use to convey to the audience (that hip HR person) that the 3rd line is one line and not two?
Clerihews by design are four line couplets with no perceptible meter, so it's important that the 3rd line be perceived as one line.
---
The above is just an example, I really just want to know what the proper punctuation to use to convey to reader that the reason we haven't rhymed yet is because the line is not done yet.
Or, if there is no proper punctuation, then I'll just make one up and move along, not asking for advice, just if there's an esoteric sense of the solidus that can come in handy here.
Like how:
`echo blah\
to be continued....`
tells a shell not to echo "blah", but "blahto be continued..." | Two forms for long-line poetry line 'turnovers' (sometimes 'dog-leg turnovers'), or 'runovers', are conventional.
1. One is as indicated by a previous answer: left indentation or double-left indentation of the turnovers. The second of those, double-left indentation, is best used where single indentation is already used as a signifier in surrounding textual material. The double-left indented form for line turnovers is a familiar convention for academics, and so is supported by, for example, *The Chicago Manual of Style* (14th, 10.23), with reference to block (that is, *not* in-line) poetry *quotations* in academic works.
>
> **10.23** In a work containing quotations from poems with lines too long to be centered on the page, such as Walt Whitman's "Song of Myself," all poetic quotations may be set with a uniform, short indentation—two or three picas from the left, for example—with any runover lines being further indented....
>
>
>
For verse typography and design, *Chicago Manual* also weighs in, but only to punt the question to the designer and author:
>
> **18.59** Works such as poems and verse plays differ from prose in that the length of a line is determined by the author, not...by the designer. The designer must try to reproduce the author's intention....
>
>
> **18.60** The size of type and the width of the type page should, wherever possible, accommodate the longest line...if more than a few lines must be run over, the shape of the poem may be lost.
>
>
> **18.61** .... Blank verse and poems characterized by a preponderance of long lines are generally not centered but are given a standard indentation. No hard-and-fast rules can be laid down here; each book must be considered with its own characteristics in mind.
>
>
>
2. The other form is a convention adopted by some authors, such as Auden. In this form, the 'turnover' line is aligned under the right end of the line so extended. A practical discussion of this convention is available at *Little Star Journal*, in an article titled ["All Poets Bulletin: Help Us Make a Poetry Style Guide"](http://littlestarjournal.com/blog/2011/11/all-poets-bulletin-help-us-make-a-poetry-style-guide/). The article quotes Edward Mendelson, "expert in both poetry and typography".
>
> The ‘turnovers’ should be set on the right, indented so that the first word of the turnover is somewhat to the left of the end of the last word of the first part of the line.
>
>
>
> ```
> This is a line that is going to be turned over
> like this.
>
> ```
>
>
Of the two conventional forms, the best choice is yours, as the author and designer receiving the *Chicago Manual* punt. However, the 40-character constraint seems to me to favor double-left indentation, that is, twice the indentation of any paragraph or other significant indentation found in the surrounding text. |
24,644 | <p>I am writing a short fiction piece that has rapid fire texts, emails, phone messages and dialogue. How do I format the piece so with one symbol I can use to cue the reader as to which it is? Is there a standard?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 24645,
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"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p><strong>Telephone</strong> dialog is usually formatted like normal dialog, with some description in text explaining ... | 2016/09/15 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/24644",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/21505/"
] | I am writing a short fiction piece that has rapid fire texts, emails, phone messages and dialogue. How do I format the piece so with one symbol I can use to cue the reader as to which it is? Is there a standard? | **Telephone** dialog is usually formatted like normal dialog, with some description in text explaining which speaker is speaking over the phone:
>
> "Then I went to—" Sarah was interrupted by the phone ringing. "Sorry, that's my mom. Yes?"
>
> "Hey, honey."
>
> "Hey, mom. Look, I can't talk now. Can I call you back later?"
>
> "Sure, honey."
>
> "Just talk to her, Sarah," Heather interrupted, "I have to go anyway."
>
> "Thanks, Heather. I'll see you later, then."
>
> "Bye, Sarah. Give your mom my regards."
>
> "Okay, mom, I'm back. We can talk now."
>
> "Wonderful, honey. Who was that with you?"
>
>
>
You have to realize that a person speaking to another person and a person speaking into a telephone are speaking in the same way and will sound the same to someone listening, so there is no reason to mark up their speech differently. The voice heard over the phone on the other hand has a different quality, or is not heard at all (because it is too quiet to an observer), so sometimes it is not reported at all (think of the above conversation with the mom's parts missing) or marked up in italics, similar to voices from a tv or radio. See my answer [here](https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17142/5645) for more details.
**Chat** is often printed in a different font.
>
> John turned on the computer and went into chat.
>
>
>
> ```
> John: Hey everyone.
> Peter: Hey John.
> Bob: Glad you're back, John.
>
> ```
>
> John sipped his coffee and settled into his chair, looking forward to spending time with his friends.
>
>
>
The difference is not really very visible here, and there is a different color background under preformatted text here, but I hope you get the idea.
**Email** and letters are often set off as a block quote:
>
> John opened the email and began to read.
>
>
>
> >
> > Dear John,
> >
> >
> > I'm glad to hear that you are well.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
Sometimes there is no indent to the left and right and the email is only set off from the surrounding text by an empty space above and below. But you can also use a different font like for chat protocols:
>
> John opened the email and began to read.
>
>
>
> ```
> Dear John,
>
> I'm glad to hear that you are well.
>
> ```
>
>
You could use one font (or color) for chat/IM/SMS and another for email, if you needed to differentiate them more clearly.
**Symbols** such as those often found on websites and in application icons, are another option, perhaps:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/WuCaG.jpg)
These are common symbols for email, text messages, and telephone, respectively. But you can also use the envelope to signify actual letters and use the "@" for email and speech baloons for spoken words:
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/iXjLF.jpg)
An example of these symbols in text could look like this:
>
> Sarah was just about to turn off her computer, when a new email came in.
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/p1DWc.jpg) Sarah, can you come over?
>
> Joan! Now what did she want that couldn't wait till tomorrow?
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/p1DWc.jpg) What's the hurry?
>
> Sarah was just hitting "send" when her phone rang.
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KEUor.jpg) What?
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KEUor.jpg) Sarah! Can you come over to Joan's now?
>
> Huh? What was Barbara doing at Joan's?
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/aNGku.jpg) Hey Sarah, can you please come over to Joan? It's really urgent. xo Mom
>
> Now this was getting really weird. What was her mom doing with Barbara and Joan?
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/KEUor.jpg) Sarah? Are you there?
>
> [](https://i.stack.imgur.com/p1DWc.jpg) Please just come over quickly.
>
> Sarah felt dizzy.
>
>
>
As you can see, this quickly becomes confusing not only to Sarah but to the reader, too. You might have to add some identifiers (such as "[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/p1DWc.jpg) [From: Joan] Hey!"), just as senders and recipients are identified in software.
There is no standard for the usage of these symbols in fiction, and while it makes sense to use them with the meaning they commonly have on the internet and in applications, how exactly you employ them – and how you will keep your readers from becoming befuddled – will be up to your creativity and that of your book designer.
**No markup** is the final option. Let's revisit our last example and tell it in the way novels have told of communication for hundreds of years:
>
> Sarah was just about to turn off her computer, when a new email came in.
>
> Sarah, can you come over? it read.
>
> Joan! Now what did she want that couldn't wait till tomorrow?
>
> What's the hurry?, Sarah typed back. She was just hitting *Send* when her phone rang.
>
> "What?"
>
> "Sarah!" Barbara's voice said. "Can you come over to Joan's now?"
>
> Huh? What was Barbara doing at Joan's?
>
> Then her mobile phone beeped, telling her a new SMS had arrived. She picked it up with the other hand, still listening to Barbara's impatient breathing on the phone in her right. Hey Sarah, the SMS read, can you please come over to Joan? It's really urgent. xo Mom
>
> Now this was getting really weird. What was her mom doing with Barbara and Joan?
>
> "Sarah? Are you there?" Joan impored.
>
> Another email arrived: Please just come over quickly.
>
> Sarah felt dizzy.
>
>
>
I'm sure you can write this much better than I did, but you get the idea. With some ordinary description you can quite easily convey the complexity of communicating on multiple channels, without confusing the reader at all. Italicizing chat messages (and maybe email) will make it even clearer. More isn't needed. |
25,339 | <p>This is an extract from a book I am currently reading, the author escapes me at this minute, but i will update.</p>
<pre><code>OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, and not infrequently in the myths and the popular
tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
</code></pre>
<p>My question is in relation to the authors use of double negatives. For example he says, <code>not infrequently</code>. Is it better practice here to write <code>frequently</code> e.g. <code>
OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, and frequently in the myths and the popular tales,...</code></p>
<p>Or is this a question of style? What are people thoughts on this?</p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p>as per @Thomas Myron comment <br></p>
<h2>BELOW IS FOR MY REFERENCE, ABOVE HERE IS MY QUESTION</h2>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p>There is probably more to this senctence than i am getting. If I break this whole sentence down further to try and understand it better</p>
<p>part1: this part could be written on its own</p>
<pre><code>OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
</code></pre>
<p>part 2: and this
and not infrequently in the myths and the popular
tales</p>
<hr>
<p>So correct me if I am wrong but this is what he is saying in my own words: </p>
<pre><code>Often in actual life and frequently in the myths and the popular tales,
we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
</code></pre>
<hr>
<p>So there is my words of what he says:</p>
<pre><code>Often in actual life and frequently in the myths and the popular tales,
we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
</code></pre>
<p>And then there is his way: </p>
<pre><code>OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, and not infrequently in the myths and the popular
tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
</code></pre>
<p>Would anyone care to comment on the difference and which one is better(or easier to understand). Is it just a different style? Or is it just me and my english is not the best i.e. I have to write it down more simpler? Would appreciae peoples thoughts. I mean is the author consciously doing this or </p>
| [
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"answer_id": 25340,
"author": "Lew",
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"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<blockquote>\n <p>not infrequently</p>\n</blockquote>\n\n<p>is not a double negative, (ok, it might be) but it does co... | 2016/11/23 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/25339",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/22338/"
] | This is an extract from a book I am currently reading, the author escapes me at this minute, but i will update.
```
OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, and not infrequently in the myths and the popular
tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
```
My question is in relation to the authors use of double negatives. For example he says, `not infrequently`. Is it better practice here to write `frequently` e.g. `OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, and frequently in the myths and the popular tales,...`
Or is this a question of style? What are people thoughts on this?
---
>
> as per @Thomas Myron comment
>
>
>
> BELOW IS FOR MY REFERENCE, ABOVE HERE IS MY QUESTION
> ----------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
---
There is probably more to this senctence than i am getting. If I break this whole sentence down further to try and understand it better
part1: this part could be written on its own
```
OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
```
part 2: and this
and not infrequently in the myths and the popular
tales
---
So correct me if I am wrong but this is what he is saying in my own words:
```
Often in actual life and frequently in the myths and the popular tales,
we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
```
---
So there is my words of what he says:
```
Often in actual life and frequently in the myths and the popular tales,
we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
```
And then there is his way:
```
OFTEN IN ACTUAL LIFE, and not infrequently in the myths and the popular
tales, we encounter the dull case of the call unanswered;
for it is always possible to turn the ear to other interests.
```
Would anyone care to comment on the difference and which one is better(or easier to understand). Is it just a different style? Or is it just me and my english is not the best i.e. I have to write it down more simpler? Would appreciae peoples thoughts. I mean is the author consciously doing this or | English is not a programming language and negatives are not minus signs. They do not automatically cancel each other out. Double negatives are idioms and, depending on context, the second negative may cancel, weaken, or strengthen the first.
`not infrequently` is a case where the second negative weakens the first but does not cancel it out. `not infrequently` does not mean `frequently`, it means something between `frequently` and `infrequently`, so `occasionally` might be a good interpretation.
Compare this to a sentence like `I am not unfamiliar with copyright law.` Here the speaker is saying that they know something about copyright law, but they don't want to claim to be an expert. If you said, `I am familiar with copyright law`, that would imply that you are an expert. If you said `I am unfamiliar with copyright law`, that would imply that you knew nothing about it. `I am not unfamiliar with copyright law` means that I know a fair bit about it, but I don't claim to know all the ins and outs and details. It say, "I can give you general information, but don't mistake my word for professional advice.
But it can also be used ironically. If Mark Zuckerberg tells you that he is `not unfamiliar with social media`, he would of course mean that he is perhaps the world's greatest expert on the subject. Here the second negative not merely cancels the first but overshoots, emphasising the positive rather than the negative.
`I don't have nothing` is a common idiom (and in no way grammatically incorrect). It, and similar formulations, are a case of the second negative reinforcing the first. `I don't have nothing` may be semantically identical to `I have nothing`, but it has an additional emotional overtone, giving further emphasis to the speaker's destitution, and expressing their despair over it.
But this can also be to express disinterest or indifference to a subject. "What's your take on the decline of the Democratic Party in the House of Representatives?" "I don't got nothing."
`not infrequently in the myths and the popular tales` is a case of the second negative softening the first. Therefore it very specifically does not mean that the call unanswered occurs frequently in the myths. It is, however, denying that that is is rare. In short, it is equivalent to `occasionally`. It is saying that a sufficient number of cases of it can be found to support the writer's point.
Another use of the the double negative can be to separate two meanings that might otherwise be read as one. For instance, `I am not unappreciative of the party you threw for me` means that the speaker appreciates that you thought of them and wanted to throw them a party, but that they did not enjoy the party itself and would rather you did not throw them one in the future. Compare this to `I appreciated the party`, which would imply I liked the party itself, and `I did not appreciate the party` which would imply that you are not grateful for the thought and the effort that went into it.
Double negatives, are, in short, and instrument of nuance.
They are never ungrammatical because they are a matter of semantics, not grammar. But their semantics is not that of simple or uniform negation. |
25,515 | <p>My team uses MadCap Flare to produce a large body of documentation (thousands of topics). The source is "Flare HTML", HTML with some Flare additions (for variables, admonitions, snippets, and so on). We use CSS to style the HTML to our tastes. We use the build tool that comes with Flare to produce the output, controlled by scripts that do some preprocessing (like making sure TOC entries are updated when topic headings change). </p>
<p>We would prefer to use a semantic markup language, like DocBook XML or DITA XML, instead of pure HTML. Semantic markup would solve a number of writing problems for us. But we've found no way to do this in Flare, and our writers are very attached to the tool, working directly with the Flare GUI almost exclusively. Some of our users have expert-level knowledge of Flare; for this and other reasons,<sup>1</sup> changing tools would be very difficult.</p>
<p>Is there a way to use Flare with a semantic markup language, preserving the benefits of using the Flare GUI so the experience for our writers will be about the same as it is now? HTML is "baked in" to Flare; can we bake in DocBook or DITA instead? (Baking in a small subset of the DocBook spec would be fine; when I've used DocBook I probably only used 20-25 of the 400 elements in the schema. I'm less familiar with DITA.)</p>
<p>I assume that for the build we'd have to add a transformation step, to turn the semantic markup into HTML before feeding it to the Flare build. (That seems easier than making the Flare build understand a different schema, anyway.) That's workable (we script this build anyway), though improvements on that would be welcome.</p>
<p>Our primary output is HTML, but we also produce PDF, where the formatting sometimes ends up being kind of messy. We can't ditch the PDF entirely yet, so a solution to this problem needs to account for PDF too. Our HTML requirement is "looks good" and our PDF requirement is "doesn't break".</p>
<p><sup>1</sup> Other reasons: (a) no budget; (b) this is the preferred corporate tool (so politics); (c) this team has already changed tools once, about 3-4 years ago I think, and every now and then we still bump into suboptimal artifacts of that change.</p>
| [
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"author": "Community",
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"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm pretty sure that the answer at the technical level is no. But this is really a question that needs to be address... | 2016/12/12 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/25515",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1993/"
] | My team uses MadCap Flare to produce a large body of documentation (thousands of topics). The source is "Flare HTML", HTML with some Flare additions (for variables, admonitions, snippets, and so on). We use CSS to style the HTML to our tastes. We use the build tool that comes with Flare to produce the output, controlled by scripts that do some preprocessing (like making sure TOC entries are updated when topic headings change).
We would prefer to use a semantic markup language, like DocBook XML or DITA XML, instead of pure HTML. Semantic markup would solve a number of writing problems for us. But we've found no way to do this in Flare, and our writers are very attached to the tool, working directly with the Flare GUI almost exclusively. Some of our users have expert-level knowledge of Flare; for this and other reasons,1 changing tools would be very difficult.
Is there a way to use Flare with a semantic markup language, preserving the benefits of using the Flare GUI so the experience for our writers will be about the same as it is now? HTML is "baked in" to Flare; can we bake in DocBook or DITA instead? (Baking in a small subset of the DocBook spec would be fine; when I've used DocBook I probably only used 20-25 of the 400 elements in the schema. I'm less familiar with DITA.)
I assume that for the build we'd have to add a transformation step, to turn the semantic markup into HTML before feeding it to the Flare build. (That seems easier than making the Flare build understand a different schema, anyway.) That's workable (we script this build anyway), though improvements on that would be welcome.
Our primary output is HTML, but we also produce PDF, where the formatting sometimes ends up being kind of messy. We can't ditch the PDF entirely yet, so a solution to this problem needs to account for PDF too. Our HTML requirement is "looks good" and our PDF requirement is "doesn't break".
1 Other reasons: (a) no budget; (b) this is the preferred corporate tool (so politics); (c) this team has already changed tools once, about 3-4 years ago I think, and every now and then we still bump into suboptimal artifacts of that change. | DITA is one of the output options for Flare. You can create a new DITA target right alongside any HTML or PDF targets. We don't use it at my company, but I've played with it a bit to see how it works.
I'm not sure how extensively the DITA structure is supported. In my brief experiments, I've seen that madcap's **keywords** are translated to **indexterm** element tags in the DITA output. Variables are wrapped in **ph** element tags with *conref* attributes in the DITA output and a mcvars.dita file is included in the output's Resources folder. That file lists only the variables selected in the Flare Target file for the DITA Output.
To illustrate, this is an small example of the DITA output from Flare:
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
<topic id="Get_Help">
<title>Get Help</title>
<body>
<p>
<indexterm>Get Help</indexterm>
<indexterm>Customer Service</indexterm>Get Help</p>
<p>
<ph conref="Resources/mcvars.dita#mcvars/variableId2" /> is committed to providing a variety of helpful resources to support your needs.</p>
<p>Online Help</p>
<p>From anywhere within <ph conref="Resources/mcvars.dita#mcvars/variableId1" />, click Help to browse our Online Help Center, where you'll find a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for quick answers to common questions.</p>
</body>
</topic>
```
And, for comparison, the same topic as seen in Flare's text editor:
```
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<html xmlns:MadCap="http://www.madcapsoftware.com/Schemas/MadCap.xsd">
<head>
</head>
<body>
<h1 class="NewPage"><MadCap:keyword term="Get Help;Customer Service" />Get Help</h1>
<p><MadCap:variable name="Text.Brand" /> is committed to providing a variety of helpful resources to support your needs.</p>
<h2>Online Help</h2>
<p>From anywhere within <MadCap:variable name="Text.AccountPage" />, click <strong>Help</strong> to browse our Online Help Center, where you'll find a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for quick answers to common questions.</p>
</body>
</html>
```
The output uses .ditamap and .dita filetypes and Madcap's [help site](http://help.madcapsoftware.com/flare12/Content/DITA/About_DITA.htm) for Flare makes note that you can't edit in the DITA structure natively:
>
> As DITA takes on a bigger role in technical communication, more and
> more tools are becoming available to create this type of structured
> content. In this version, you cannot use Flare to edit DITA content
> natively. However, you can use a third-party tool (e.g., XMetal) to
> create your structured DITA files.
>
>
>
However, after doing a bit of research, I found this [youtube tutorial](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13s_NkSg5pA) on how to create custom DITA elements by using the *mc-dita-type* attribute on paragraph classes in Flare. For example:
```
p.Note
{
background-image: url('../Images/Icons/noteicon.png');
mc-auto-number-format: '{b}{color #9EB515}Note: {/color}{/b}';
mc-dita-type: quicktest;
}
```
After building the DITA output, that *mc-dita-type* attribute becomes a **quicktest** element tag in the topic file.
Conditions, however, do not work seem to in DITA output. Any text in the topic is included, regardless of condition tags used. |
25,819 | <p>I want to write a novel about [something or other] and now I wonder if it is possible to do [this or that].</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 25820,
"author": "Community",
"author_id": -1,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/-1",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>You can write anything you please.</p>\n"
},
{
"answer_id": 25821,
"author": "Lauren-Clear-Monica-Ipsum"... | 2017/01/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/25819",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/-1/"
] | I want to write a novel about [something or other] and now I wonder if it is possible to do [this or that]. | ```
GLENDOWER
I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR
Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?
```
-- Henry IV, part 1 | Act 3, Scene 1
In other words, "Can I do ..." is always the wrong question. "Will anyone want to read ..." is the right question.
And if you can't think of a dozen widely read books where the author does [something or other] then the answer is no.
Storytelling is the most ancient of arts. It neither needs nor rewards innovation. It is all about excellence of execution. If you are spending your time and energy on anything else, you are wasting your time. |
26,200 | <p>When compiling, i'm given 4 options for text separators, in the "separators" tab. What I <em>want</em> to do, is have 2 carriage returns, a line with 4 asterisks, then 2 carriage returns, between each text document within a folder. This is how every book I buy seems to be formatted. However, none of the options in the "separators" section allow multiple carriage returns. Does anyone know how to accomplish this in scrivener?</p>
<p>The 4 options for a text separator in the "separators" section are: single return, empty line, page break, or custom (which allows only a single line of text). Is there maybe a placeholder tag for a carriage return? The "custom" option allows placeholder tags, but I can't find one for a carriage return.</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 26225,
"author": "Lew",
"author_id": 19606,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/19606",
"pm_score": 1,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I achieve a similar effect by using \"custom\" text separator option (insert your four asterisks there) and adding t... | 2017/01/21 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/26200",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/23120/"
] | When compiling, i'm given 4 options for text separators, in the "separators" tab. What I *want* to do, is have 2 carriage returns, a line with 4 asterisks, then 2 carriage returns, between each text document within a folder. This is how every book I buy seems to be formatted. However, none of the options in the "separators" section allow multiple carriage returns. Does anyone know how to accomplish this in scrivener?
The 4 options for a text separator in the "separators" section are: single return, empty line, page break, or custom (which allows only a single line of text). Is there maybe a placeholder tag for a carriage return? The "custom" option allows placeholder tags, but I can't find one for a carriage return. | You could set a "Replacement" in the Compile section that will replace `<$blank>` with a single space (e.g., " " - sans the double-quote marks). Then, where you want to see your text separator, you'd type in the following:
```
<$blank>
<$blank>
****
<$blank>
<$blank>
```
When you compile, you'll end up with 2 carriage returns, a line with 4 asterisks, then 2 carriage returns.
[](https://i.stack.imgur.com/VXWVd.png) |
26,366 | <p><strong>Is it (*sniff) or (/sniff)?</strong></p>
<p>I’m reminiscing nostalgically on a personal blog and I want to insert an onomatopoeic sniff.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>My days spent raiding dungeons in Hibernia are long over (/sniff) but …</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I want the reader to know that I actually audibly sniffed a nostalgic sniff as I wrote that. I know there are no rules. I want to know what common conventions are out there and where they come from. I also feel that I am out of touch with what the younger cool kids are doing these days.</p>
<ol>
<li><strong>(/sniff)</strong> This looks like an “emote” command common in (older?) online RPGs. I used to use this one a lot but refrain these days as the style choice is one only appreciated by a certain subculture of online gamers.</li>
<li><strong>(*sniff)</strong> I have seen this style before. I don’t know where it came from but it looks a bit like a comment in computer code.</li>
<li><strong>(sniff)</strong> Just putting the onomatopoeia in brackets seems a little unimaginative.</li>
</ol>
<p>Are there other popularly recognised styles for inserting onomatopoeia out there?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>What I have seen is not <code>*sniff</code>, but <code>*sniff*</code>, which, I believe, comes from <a href=\"https:... | 2017/01/29 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/26366",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/21083/"
] | **Is it (\*sniff) or (/sniff)?**
I’m reminiscing nostalgically on a personal blog and I want to insert an onomatopoeic sniff.
>
> My days spent raiding dungeons in Hibernia are long over (/sniff) but …
>
>
>
I want the reader to know that I actually audibly sniffed a nostalgic sniff as I wrote that. I know there are no rules. I want to know what common conventions are out there and where they come from. I also feel that I am out of touch with what the younger cool kids are doing these days.
1. **(/sniff)** This looks like an “emote” command common in (older?) online RPGs. I used to use this one a lot but refrain these days as the style choice is one only appreciated by a certain subculture of online gamers.
2. **(\*sniff)** I have seen this style before. I don’t know where it came from but it looks a bit like a comment in computer code.
3. **(sniff)** Just putting the onomatopoeia in brackets seems a little unimaginative.
Are there other popularly recognised styles for inserting onomatopoeia out there? | What I have seen is not `*sniff`, but `*sniff*`, which, I believe, comes from [Markdown](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markdown) (which is [used on this site](https://stackoverflow.com/editing-help) as well), where text framed by asterisks is rendered as *italic*.
The other common markup for onomatopoeia is, in fact, italics.
As I see it, the conventions are:
>
> How sad. *Sniff.*
>
>
>
```
How sad. *sniff*
```
I have never seen `*sniff*` in print and would use it online only. |
26,497 | <p>I have a similar question as the one asked in <a href="https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/21742/how-to-write-montages-in-prose-fantasy-novel">'How to write montages in prose? (fantasy novel)'</a> however, there has been no answer in this and it is far too general. </p>
<p>The question I wish to ask is; <strong>Are there any specific techniques that you can use to write a montage, or a short sequence of events that take place over a period of time, in a novel?</strong></p>
<p>For example, how would you write a piece of fiction that skims over a period of time but has scattered pieces of important information that is necessary for the future of the plot, may it be in the form of a work montage, training montage, or just an acceleration in time that would be too tedious to explain in detail due to repetition, but still have <em>significant events that occur</em> that are out of place?</p>
<p><strong>Edit:</strong>
To elaborate more on my specific issue; one of my characters is residing in a village to raise funds - and during this period, he sees injustices performed on villagers such as unfair extortion of taxes, bullying by more powerful beings, etc. How would I be able to string these in, as I don't want to include tedious events such as him going around helping out with farming, learning how to hunt, etc.? I've been considering including short chapters only a few paragraphs long in a sort of diary format, however I don't feel as if this would fit the third person style of writing I'm going for.</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I really think people are much too obsessed with not telling. Many of the novels I enjoy most, tell. Lots.</p>\n\n<p>... | 2017/02/04 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/26497",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/23013/"
] | I have a similar question as the one asked in ['How to write montages in prose? (fantasy novel)'](https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/21742/how-to-write-montages-in-prose-fantasy-novel) however, there has been no answer in this and it is far too general.
The question I wish to ask is; **Are there any specific techniques that you can use to write a montage, or a short sequence of events that take place over a period of time, in a novel?**
For example, how would you write a piece of fiction that skims over a period of time but has scattered pieces of important information that is necessary for the future of the plot, may it be in the form of a work montage, training montage, or just an acceleration in time that would be too tedious to explain in detail due to repetition, but still have *significant events that occur* that are out of place?
**Edit:**
To elaborate more on my specific issue; one of my characters is residing in a village to raise funds - and during this period, he sees injustices performed on villagers such as unfair extortion of taxes, bullying by more powerful beings, etc. How would I be able to string these in, as I don't want to include tedious events such as him going around helping out with farming, learning how to hunt, etc.? I've been considering including short chapters only a few paragraphs long in a sort of diary format, however I don't feel as if this would fit the third person style of writing I'm going for. | I really think people are much too obsessed with not telling. Many of the novels I enjoy most, tell. Lots.
If you have, for example, a group of characters recovering from a fight, just friggin' say so:
>
> For the next three weeks we stayed in camp and recovered from our wounds.
>
>
>
Really, please don't show me three weeks of recovering! I don't want to know what they ate and whether they brushed their teeth. Make it one sentence and be done with it. Thank you.
---
Re: Your edit
If something happens during the three weeks, you summarize ("tell") the week until that something happens, then narrate what happens as expansively as you do the rest of your novel ("show") and then summarize the remainder again.
Think of it this way: You constantly summarize uninteresting periods of time, but you probably don't notice it yourself. For example, when your characters are sleeping you don't "show" that but simply leave it out: `The next morning...`. But if a character wakes up during the night you continue your narrative in the middle of the night in stead of the next morning: `I woke up around midnight...`.
Your problem, as I see it, is that you think of that long period in your novel as a whole that you want to summarize, but have some things happening during this "summary" that you want to show in more detail, but don't know how. The solution is to stop thinking of the whole period.
Your think:
```
--------------long period of time------------------
event A event B
```
You should think:
```
---period A---event A---period B---event B---period C---
```
What you have is not one long period that you summarize and have to break out of, but a normal narrative with three unimportant periods (like nights) that you summarize.
Like this:
>
> For the next three weeks we stayed in camp and recovered from our wounds. In the second week, one morning John was torn from his lazy revery by... The next week all was quiet again, until finally everyone was healed and itching to fight.
>
>
>
If your characters *do not act* (that is, do not break their inactivity) but only *observe* certain things, then you don't need to break your summary ("telling") and can simply tell what they saw:
>
> For the next three weeks we stayed in camp and recovered from our wounds. During that time we saw the villagers raise unfair taxes and many other injustices, and they all served to steel our resolve to overcome Lord Dark. So when we were finally healed and ready to fight again, we...
>
>
>
Of course this is just a quick example, and you can go into much more detail in such a summary. There is nothing wrong with a few paragraphs of it. That's no different than taking some time to describe the setting or to provide a character's backstory. |
26,504 | <p>I've started to notice that I do a lot more writing at night, with my lights off. When I write with a light on, I get a slight migraine, and I'm not sure why.</p>
<p>So do different lighting conditions affect how people write, and am I the only one who writes better with the lights off?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I really think people are much too obsessed with not telling. Many of the novels I enjoy most, tell. Lots.</p>\n\n<p>... | 2017/02/05 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/26504",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/19246/"
] | I've started to notice that I do a lot more writing at night, with my lights off. When I write with a light on, I get a slight migraine, and I'm not sure why.
So do different lighting conditions affect how people write, and am I the only one who writes better with the lights off? | I really think people are much too obsessed with not telling. Many of the novels I enjoy most, tell. Lots.
If you have, for example, a group of characters recovering from a fight, just friggin' say so:
>
> For the next three weeks we stayed in camp and recovered from our wounds.
>
>
>
Really, please don't show me three weeks of recovering! I don't want to know what they ate and whether they brushed their teeth. Make it one sentence and be done with it. Thank you.
---
Re: Your edit
If something happens during the three weeks, you summarize ("tell") the week until that something happens, then narrate what happens as expansively as you do the rest of your novel ("show") and then summarize the remainder again.
Think of it this way: You constantly summarize uninteresting periods of time, but you probably don't notice it yourself. For example, when your characters are sleeping you don't "show" that but simply leave it out: `The next morning...`. But if a character wakes up during the night you continue your narrative in the middle of the night in stead of the next morning: `I woke up around midnight...`.
Your problem, as I see it, is that you think of that long period in your novel as a whole that you want to summarize, but have some things happening during this "summary" that you want to show in more detail, but don't know how. The solution is to stop thinking of the whole period.
Your think:
```
--------------long period of time------------------
event A event B
```
You should think:
```
---period A---event A---period B---event B---period C---
```
What you have is not one long period that you summarize and have to break out of, but a normal narrative with three unimportant periods (like nights) that you summarize.
Like this:
>
> For the next three weeks we stayed in camp and recovered from our wounds. In the second week, one morning John was torn from his lazy revery by... The next week all was quiet again, until finally everyone was healed and itching to fight.
>
>
>
If your characters *do not act* (that is, do not break their inactivity) but only *observe* certain things, then you don't need to break your summary ("telling") and can simply tell what they saw:
>
> For the next three weeks we stayed in camp and recovered from our wounds. During that time we saw the villagers raise unfair taxes and many other injustices, and they all served to steel our resolve to overcome Lord Dark. So when we were finally healed and ready to fight again, we...
>
>
>
Of course this is just a quick example, and you can go into much more detail in such a summary. There is nothing wrong with a few paragraphs of it. That's no different than taking some time to describe the setting or to provide a character's backstory. |
26,982 | <p>I am writing the built-in help for a command line program. The exact name is irrelevant, so let's use <code>foo</code> as a placeholder.</p>
<p>This utility can be called with some arguments (like <code>foo -v</code>) or without any arguments at all (just <code>foo</code>).</p>
<p>I'm struggling with describing the no-argument call in the built-in help. (There's a common practice that the <code>-h</code> or <code>--help</code> argument is used to print that help on the screen.)
A common output of <code>-h</code> command looks like this:</p>
<pre><code>$ foo -h
foo [OPTIONS...]
Do FOO in the most awesome way possible
-h --help Show this help
-v --version Show package version
</code></pre>
<p>Note the pattern for explaining arguments:</p>
<pre><code> (short) (long) Explanation
</code></pre>
<p>The no-argument call doesn't fit in this pattern.
All these variants look quite unnatural:</p>
<pre><code> foo Do the FOO
Do the FOO
(no arguments) Do the FOO
</code></pre>
<p>In search for examples I've looked at several utilities that have valid no-argument calls (e.g. <code>sh</code>, <code>bash</code> and other shells, <code>systemctl</code>), but none of them describe that in the <code>-h</code> output. </p>
<p>The question: what is the proper way of documenting the no-arguments call in the built-in help?</p>
<ul>
<li>Should I write something in the place of <code>(no arguments)</code> above?</li>
<li>Or should I explain that in a different place (where)?</li>
</ul>
| [
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"text": "<p>Arguments modify the behavior of a program. Running it without arguments means you get is default, unmodified behavio... | 2017/03/01 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/26982",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/14004/"
] | I am writing the built-in help for a command line program. The exact name is irrelevant, so let's use `foo` as a placeholder.
This utility can be called with some arguments (like `foo -v`) or without any arguments at all (just `foo`).
I'm struggling with describing the no-argument call in the built-in help. (There's a common practice that the `-h` or `--help` argument is used to print that help on the screen.)
A common output of `-h` command looks like this:
```
$ foo -h
foo [OPTIONS...]
Do FOO in the most awesome way possible
-h --help Show this help
-v --version Show package version
```
Note the pattern for explaining arguments:
```
(short) (long) Explanation
```
The no-argument call doesn't fit in this pattern.
All these variants look quite unnatural:
```
foo Do the FOO
Do the FOO
(no arguments) Do the FOO
```
In search for examples I've looked at several utilities that have valid no-argument calls (e.g. `sh`, `bash` and other shells, `systemctl`), but none of them describe that in the `-h` output.
The question: what is the proper way of documenting the no-arguments call in the built-in help?
* Should I write something in the place of `(no arguments)` above?
* Or should I explain that in a different place (where)? | Arguments modify the behavior of a program. Running it without arguments means you get is default, unmodified behavior. So the help should describe the default unmodified behavior first, in the body of the description.
```
$ foo -h
foo [OPTIONS...]
Foo does X. For example:
foo
X happens.
To make foo do Y, use the -y option. For example:
foo -y
X happens with a shot of Y.
Arguments:
-h --help Show this help
-v --version Show package version
-y Make Y happen
``` |
27,704 | <p>As I was looking up the Bowker website for when I go to buy ISBNs I found it has separate URLs for <a href="https://www.myidentifiers.com/get-your-isbn-now" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The US</a> and for <a href="https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/Get-your-isbn-now" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Australia</a> (which is good because I'm Australian). but the prices seem....strange</p>
<pre><code>No. of ISBNs | US Cost | USD -> AUSD | Aus Cost
-------------------------------------------------
1 | $125 | $165.45 | $44
10 | $290 | $383.85 | $88
100 | $575 | $761.09 | $480
1000 | $1500 | $1985.44 | $3000
</code></pre>
<p><sub><sub>USD -> AUD calculated using <a href="http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?From=USD&To=AUD" rel="nofollow noreferrer">xe.com</a> 24/04/2017</sub></sub></p>
<p>Up to 100 ISBNs it's cheaper for an Australian to buy from the.au site but when it's 1,000 it's actually more expensive to buy from the.au site than it is to buy from the US Site after currency conversion (this assumes the prices on the.au site are in AUD but if they aren't and are actually in USD then it's even more expensive).</p>
<p>But why is this? If it was in some odd way more expensive to deal with ISBNs brought by Australians then why aren't they more expensive across the broad? What stops an Australian buying 1000 ISBNs from the US Site and saving almost $1,000?</p>
<p>Also is the explanation for the price discrepancy between US and Aus prices for 1000 ISBNs the same for why in the US 10 -> 100 is less than 2x (~1.9827586206896551724137931034483) the price while in Australia it's almost 5.5x (~5.4545454545454545454545454545455) more?</p>
| [
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"selected": false,
"text": "<p>I'm not sure about your second question, but I can answer your first.</p>\n\n<p>This involves some linear equatio... | 2017/04/24 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/27704",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/9888/"
] | As I was looking up the Bowker website for when I go to buy ISBNs I found it has separate URLs for [The US](https://www.myidentifiers.com/get-your-isbn-now) and for [Australia](https://www.myidentifiers.com.au/Get-your-isbn-now) (which is good because I'm Australian). but the prices seem....strange
```
No. of ISBNs | US Cost | USD -> AUSD | Aus Cost
-------------------------------------------------
1 | $125 | $165.45 | $44
10 | $290 | $383.85 | $88
100 | $575 | $761.09 | $480
1000 | $1500 | $1985.44 | $3000
```
USD -> AUD calculated using [xe.com](http://www.xe.com/currencyconverter/convert/?From=USD&To=AUD) 24/04/2017
Up to 100 ISBNs it's cheaper for an Australian to buy from the.au site but when it's 1,000 it's actually more expensive to buy from the.au site than it is to buy from the US Site after currency conversion (this assumes the prices on the.au site are in AUD but if they aren't and are actually in USD then it's even more expensive).
But why is this? If it was in some odd way more expensive to deal with ISBNs brought by Australians then why aren't they more expensive across the broad? What stops an Australian buying 1000 ISBNs from the US Site and saving almost $1,000?
Also is the explanation for the price discrepancy between US and Aus prices for 1000 ISBNs the same for why in the US 10 -> 100 is less than 2x (~1.9827586206896551724137931034483) the price while in Australia it's almost 5.5x (~5.4545454545454545454545454545455) more? | (1) One word: monopoly.
(2) See above.
(3) Oh, all right, details:
The previous answer (involving math) is substantially correct, in a competitive environment. The producer factors in the costs of production, distribution, and service, along with a profit target. Competitors ensure that the values are reasonable. If a particular supplier cannot make a profit, then that supplier will exit the line of business.
The price to the customer can be broken down to a setup fee (possibly high) and a per-unit cost once setup is completed (in this case, very low). So, it could be possible to say, "$250 to sign up, then $0.10 per unit." Or, the same amount of money exchanges, with "$350 for the first 1000 units, then $100 for the next 1000 units."
The US supplier has chosen the second approach, by incorporating the setup fee into the cost of units sold. Apparently the AU supplier does not entirely incorporate the setup cost into the early units.
However, the linear equations approach is only valid in the case of competition. In the case of a monopoly, which is what we have here, the price is not necessarily calculated that way. Certainly it is calculated to cover costs and allow for profit. But unless there is some prevailing law or regulation against it, the supplier may choose a pricing strategy intended to reward some and penalize others. There is no market correction.
It seems that small do-it-yourself types assume that they are being penalized. That may be true, or not, since I don't know the cost factors. |
28,454 | <p>Imagine the following common conversation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Q: What are you up to?</p>
<p>A. The usual</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Now imagine it spoken by certain kids these days:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Q: What are you up to?</p>
<p>A: The yooooshj.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>My question pertains to the utterance "yooooshj," which is a shortened form of "usual" made up solely of its first syllable.</p>
<p>When writing dialog in fictional narrative, how do you spell something like this?</p>
<p>How, in general, do you handle slang that has questionable spelling?</p>
| [
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"text": "<p>I advise you to avoid the slang spelling, unless it will be commonly understood. There is no particular criterion fo... | 2017/06/03 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/28454",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/25214/"
] | Imagine the following common conversation:
>
> Q: What are you up to?
>
>
> A. The usual
>
>
>
Now imagine it spoken by certain kids these days:
>
> Q: What are you up to?
>
>
> A: The yooooshj.
>
>
>
My question pertains to the utterance "yooooshj," which is a shortened form of "usual" made up solely of its first syllable.
When writing dialog in fictional narrative, how do you spell something like this?
How, in general, do you handle slang that has questionable spelling? | I advise you to avoid the slang spelling, unless it will be commonly understood. There is no particular criterion for this.
For the example you gave, my answer is a firm "maybe." Would your target readership grasp that? If so, OK. If not, then substitute something such as:
```
He mumbled, "The usual," in that childish manner designed to irritate me.
```
But this works both ways. My suggestion is rather formal, which might not be sytlistically compatible with its surroundings. |
28,978 | <p>We use a BNF style to convey syntax for SQL statements. For a (fictitious) example:</p>
<pre><code>CREATE PARSER [schema.]function
[WITH [LANGUAGE='language']
[, MODE='[FENCED | UNFENCED]'
[, STUFF='anotherParameter']
];
</code></pre>
<p>This means that you must specify a function name (with optional schema), and you may specify zero, one, two, or three other parameters. (Some of our statements have ten or more optional parameters.) This is the style we've been using for a while.</p>
<p>Strictly speaking, though, it's incorrect -- if you omitted LANGUAGE but wanted to specify MODE, this would tell you to write something like:</p>
<pre><code>CREATE PARSER myFunctionName
WITH , MODE='FENCED';
</code></pre>
<p>...which isn't correct. That comma is a syntax error. Most readers can figure out what's meant, but it's a bit of s stumbling block for some.</p>
<p>Some of our super-precision-minded users have pointed out this problem, but they (and we) have not found a solution that preserves the overall style. Our users like the notation overall; it's just that we don't know what to do when everything in a clause can be optional. We considered something like this, but it's technically wrong in a different way as well as being ugly:</p>
<pre><code>CREATE PARSER [schema.]function
[WITH [LANGUAGE='language']
[,] [MODE='[FENCED | UNFENCED]'
[,] [STUFF='anotherParameter']
];
</code></pre>
<p>After the syntax synopsis we include a table of parameters and arguments (name, description). We're therefore considering reducing the syntax synopsis to something like this:</p>
<pre><code>CREATE PARSER [schema.]function
[WITH parameters];
</code></pre>
<p>We haven't tried that idea out on our users yet. Before we do, I'd like to find out about other options for presenting syntax information in an <em>informative</em> and <em>correct</em> way. We're not the first people to use this style of syntax but I haven't found examples of this situation to look at. What do others do?</p>
| [
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"answer_id": 28977,
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"pm_score": 2,
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"text": "<p>You are still missing the point of free writing and many of our suggestions in your previous questions. The ... | 2017/06/28 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/28978",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/1993/"
] | We use a BNF style to convey syntax for SQL statements. For a (fictitious) example:
```
CREATE PARSER [schema.]function
[WITH [LANGUAGE='language']
[, MODE='[FENCED | UNFENCED]'
[, STUFF='anotherParameter']
];
```
This means that you must specify a function name (with optional schema), and you may specify zero, one, two, or three other parameters. (Some of our statements have ten or more optional parameters.) This is the style we've been using for a while.
Strictly speaking, though, it's incorrect -- if you omitted LANGUAGE but wanted to specify MODE, this would tell you to write something like:
```
CREATE PARSER myFunctionName
WITH , MODE='FENCED';
```
...which isn't correct. That comma is a syntax error. Most readers can figure out what's meant, but it's a bit of s stumbling block for some.
Some of our super-precision-minded users have pointed out this problem, but they (and we) have not found a solution that preserves the overall style. Our users like the notation overall; it's just that we don't know what to do when everything in a clause can be optional. We considered something like this, but it's technically wrong in a different way as well as being ugly:
```
CREATE PARSER [schema.]function
[WITH [LANGUAGE='language']
[,] [MODE='[FENCED | UNFENCED]'
[,] [STUFF='anotherParameter']
];
```
After the syntax synopsis we include a table of parameters and arguments (name, description). We're therefore considering reducing the syntax synopsis to something like this:
```
CREATE PARSER [schema.]function
[WITH parameters];
```
We haven't tried that idea out on our users yet. Before we do, I'd like to find out about other options for presenting syntax information in an *informative* and *correct* way. We're not the first people to use this style of syntax but I haven't found examples of this situation to look at. What do others do? | You are still missing the point of free writing and many of our suggestions in your previous questions. The whole point of free writing is not to kill your flow. Think of it this way... you are watching a movie... someone comes in and talks to you so you pause it. Play it for another 5 minutes, someone else comes in and talks to you so you pause it. Then you play again. Again someone interrupts you and you got to pause the movie again. You can't enjoy the flow and pacing of the movie if you are having to pause it every 10 minutes. You also have to spend time trying to remember where even you left off and what just happened.
I understand you want to slow yourself down. This still causes the main issue of stopping yourself after every sentence. [Free writing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_writing) does not necessarily mean you rush through your writing with every first thought in your head. It simply means that you allow yourself to turn off the editor/revision mode in your mind and allow thoughts to be put to paper without critique. You can do this as fast or slow as you want, but the key is to not allow yourself to go back and edit or think if the sentence needs to be changed before writing.
That seems to be your biggest struggle because you want to control and force your words a certain way. It is hard to build rhythm and flow and elegance if you are trying to take your foot and jam it in. That's what it feels like you are trying to do to me. You need to let go and relax and stop looking for perfection with your first try.
I feel like, in your situation based on the questions you have asked, you would really benefit from free-writing and it should not be avoided. Especially if you want to learn how to build rhythm.
It's like playing an instrument. Just let it flow man, if you make a mistake keep going, you don't see musicians stop if they make a mistake. Often it is hard to hear mistakes when it is live because they keep the flow going. Imagine if you were listening to a live concert and every time someone in the band messed up, they would stop and redo the song. Concerts would be the whole day. Some times, you need to look past the minor mistakes, the minor issues, to build the overall flow and then go back and change the couple of words you feel are out of place. |
30,114 | <p>I will try to explain the general idea I've gotten from the most trusted source in my opinion.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>PLZ EXCUSE MY CRUDE INSULT TO SCREENPLAY FORMAT, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TRANSFER THE REAL THING INTO THIS APP.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><strong>The Ellipsis</strong></p>
<p>Starting with the ellipsis, there were two main uses: </p>
<p>1) a pause in a speaker's single thought he is expressing. (Examples seemed like it was for dramatics.)</p>
<pre><code>Joe
----------
I'm talking about a completely different school of thought ...
Joe scratches his chin.
Joe(Cont'd)
----------
... and it ain't the school of hard knocks.
</code></pre>
<p>2) the way I understood it was a pause in one's dialogue to think what or how to say.</p>
<pre><code>Joe
----------
(Tears begin to form)
I'm not sure how to say this ... Dad was always the orator in the family.
</code></pre>
<p>3) Trail off.</p>
<pre><code>Joe
----------
If I ever see your face up here again ...
</code></pre>
<p><strong>M-Dashes</strong></p>
<p>1) the interruption.</p>
<pre><code>Joe
----------
I assumed he was just —
Bob
----------
I'm not going off some assumption, Joe.
</code></pre>
<p>2) the stammer</p>
<pre><code>Joe
----------
(Aghast) I — I d — don't even know how that got there.
</code></pre>
<p>ANY HELP IS MUCH APPRECIATED ~ Matt</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 30116,
"author": "SF.",
"author_id": 4291,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/4291",
"pm_score": 3,
"selected": false,
"text": "<p>Rule of thumb: ellipsis for trailing out (or in), em-dash for turns and interruptions.</p>\n\n<p>The ellipsis is usual... | 2017/09/06 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/30114",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/26431/"
] | I will try to explain the general idea I've gotten from the most trusted source in my opinion.
>
> PLZ EXCUSE MY CRUDE INSULT TO SCREENPLAY FORMAT, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO TRANSFER THE REAL THING INTO THIS APP.
>
>
>
**The Ellipsis**
Starting with the ellipsis, there were two main uses:
1) a pause in a speaker's single thought he is expressing. (Examples seemed like it was for dramatics.)
```
Joe
----------
I'm talking about a completely different school of thought ...
Joe scratches his chin.
Joe(Cont'd)
----------
... and it ain't the school of hard knocks.
```
2) the way I understood it was a pause in one's dialogue to think what or how to say.
```
Joe
----------
(Tears begin to form)
I'm not sure how to say this ... Dad was always the orator in the family.
```
3) Trail off.
```
Joe
----------
If I ever see your face up here again ...
```
**M-Dashes**
1) the interruption.
```
Joe
----------
I assumed he was just —
Bob
----------
I'm not going off some assumption, Joe.
```
2) the stammer
```
Joe
----------
(Aghast) I — I d — don't even know how that got there.
```
ANY HELP IS MUCH APPRECIATED ~ Matt | Rule of thumb: ellipsis for trailing out (or in), em-dash for turns and interruptions.
The ellipsis is usually more sedate, like when you run out of thought and are not sure what to say next. Em-dash is more intense pause — you got interrupted, you change the subject rapidly, you want to say the next thing but can't.
These rules are not set in stone. The two are often interchangeable, providing merely a slightly different emphasis on the nature of the pause. |
30,257 | <p>Let's face it, I like edgy writing that borders on inflammatory. I read less for entertainment than I do for expanding my world view. I don't have to agree with the points or even like the style of writing as long as it is well articulated. Current fiction seems more focused on commercial success than it does on promoting dialogue or discourse with those having opposing views. <a href="http://thehofstrachronicle.com/provocative-writer-redefines-role-of-novelistbr/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://thehofstrachronicle.com/provocative-writer-redefines-role-of-novelistbr/</a></p>
<p>I have started on my next novel that explores mental illnesses in the not too distant future. The cast includes sociopathic gang members, a detective with Asperger who is investigating the murders of psychiatrists and a cast of societal malcontents. The premise is a 'cure' is attempted on a psychopath who although innocent, had a high potential for committing future crimes. The cure initially manages to replace his core personality with a more 'normalized' one, but a traumatic event results in the creation of a dissociative identity, the first an artificial one and the second the original psychopath who now seeks revenge against those who tried to obliterate his mind.</p>
<p>The real problem comes when describing outcast members using realistic terms. People living in ghettos are apt to use politically incorrect dialogue. I have one in particular that I think is accurate but also may be seen as inflammatory, even though the character is a positive example.
I have a scene where the witness to a crime is a transgender prostitute named 'Johnny'. Even using a transgender prostitute is edgy but having others call her a 'Tranny Hooker' although accurate in ghetto talk may strike many as offensive, even though the character loves that her appearance initially confuses the detective when he asks to speak to 'her' companion. The hooker laughs and explains he is 'Johnny' and the detective may use the pronoun 'he' if it makes him uncomfortable. <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/05/30/is_tranny_a_slur_or_an_identity_who_decides.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/05/30/is_tranny_a_slur_or_an_identity_who_decides.html</a></p>
<p>As I said, I am a provocateur and love writing that makes one question society 'norms'. There are many great historical writers who would surely be banned today simply for using descriptive words of their era. Are there words too provocative for use in the current politically correct fiction markets?</p>
<p>Update: I decided with all the attention about using the most offensive profane word in the English Language that it is time to add a link showing its origins and laugh at those who think they are shock jocks for using such a slur. Yes, even Chaucer used the word 'cunt'. So, if you wish to trace its naughty origins, here are a couple of links. <a href="https://medium.com/@minagreen/a-brief-history-of-the-cunt-f9d54e5b6a53" rel="nofollow noreferrer">history</a> <a href="https://qz.com/1045607/the-most-offensive-curse-word-in-english-has-powerful-feminist-origins/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">origin</a></p>
<p>Some authors avoid the use of profanity so much, they have whole blogs dedicated why they do not use four-letter words in their writing. </p>
<pre><code>*I wasn't raised to talk that way, so I don't write that way.*
http://www.markhenshaw.com/random-thoughts/2014/6/19/why-theres-no-profanity-in-red-cell-or-cold-shot
</code></pre>
<p>So, is it really offensive to use such a word in a novel if that word has been in common usage for centuries?</p>
| [
{
"answer_id": 30311,
"author": "Chris Sunami",
"author_id": 10479,
"author_profile": "https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/10479",
"pm_score": 5,
"selected": true,
"text": "<p>I would use caution, and be sparing. Keep in mind that slurs register very differently to the people they a... | 2017/09/17 | [
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/questions/30257",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com",
"https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/22690/"
] | Let's face it, I like edgy writing that borders on inflammatory. I read less for entertainment than I do for expanding my world view. I don't have to agree with the points or even like the style of writing as long as it is well articulated. Current fiction seems more focused on commercial success than it does on promoting dialogue or discourse with those having opposing views. <http://thehofstrachronicle.com/provocative-writer-redefines-role-of-novelistbr/>
I have started on my next novel that explores mental illnesses in the not too distant future. The cast includes sociopathic gang members, a detective with Asperger who is investigating the murders of psychiatrists and a cast of societal malcontents. The premise is a 'cure' is attempted on a psychopath who although innocent, had a high potential for committing future crimes. The cure initially manages to replace his core personality with a more 'normalized' one, but a traumatic event results in the creation of a dissociative identity, the first an artificial one and the second the original psychopath who now seeks revenge against those who tried to obliterate his mind.
The real problem comes when describing outcast members using realistic terms. People living in ghettos are apt to use politically incorrect dialogue. I have one in particular that I think is accurate but also may be seen as inflammatory, even though the character is a positive example.
I have a scene where the witness to a crime is a transgender prostitute named 'Johnny'. Even using a transgender prostitute is edgy but having others call her a 'Tranny Hooker' although accurate in ghetto talk may strike many as offensive, even though the character loves that her appearance initially confuses the detective when he asks to speak to 'her' companion. The hooker laughs and explains he is 'Johnny' and the detective may use the pronoun 'he' if it makes him uncomfortable. <http://www.slate.com/blogs/outward/2014/05/30/is_tranny_a_slur_or_an_identity_who_decides.html>
As I said, I am a provocateur and love writing that makes one question society 'norms'. There are many great historical writers who would surely be banned today simply for using descriptive words of their era. Are there words too provocative for use in the current politically correct fiction markets?
Update: I decided with all the attention about using the most offensive profane word in the English Language that it is time to add a link showing its origins and laugh at those who think they are shock jocks for using such a slur. Yes, even Chaucer used the word 'cunt'. So, if you wish to trace its naughty origins, here are a couple of links. [history](https://medium.com/@minagreen/a-brief-history-of-the-cunt-f9d54e5b6a53) [origin](https://qz.com/1045607/the-most-offensive-curse-word-in-english-has-powerful-feminist-origins/)
Some authors avoid the use of profanity so much, they have whole blogs dedicated why they do not use four-letter words in their writing.
```
*I wasn't raised to talk that way, so I don't write that way.*
http://www.markhenshaw.com/random-thoughts/2014/6/19/why-theres-no-profanity-in-red-cell-or-cold-shot
```
So, is it really offensive to use such a word in a novel if that word has been in common usage for centuries? | I would use caution, and be sparing. Keep in mind that slurs register very differently to the people they are directed against than to everyone else, so it can be hard to judge a slur if you aren't a member of the group being slurred. What reads to you, the author, as authenticity, might strike the informed reader as a transparent reflection of your own prejudices, especially if you aren't in a position to accurately judge your own authenticity. For instance, you say *tranny hooker* is "accurate to ghetto talk." But is it really? To me it sounds, if anything, old-fashioned and hopelessly outdated, even as a slur. But I'm not really in a position to judge, and, I suspect, neither are you.
In general, the further you are from the group you are describing, the lighter you should tread --the more likely your notion of authenticity is likely to actually be a conglomeration of stereotypes. For example, white audiences loved Tarantino's *Pulp Fiction*, but black audiences found it hard to stomach the scene in which the director cameos as a white man with a startling fondness for dropping the "N" word.
If you want the edge of offensive language without the risk of actual offense, why not coin your own near-future slurs? J.K. Rowling was very successful in making "Mudblood," a wholly invented slur, feel very offensive in context. As far as I know, however, it didn't offend any actual readers, since it doesn't mean anything in *our* reality. |