7 ms·

Shell scripts to improve your writing, or "My advisor rewrote himself in bash."

143 points by mbrubeck 16y ago

dododo 16y ago
there are two gnu utilites that are useful for writing: gnu style and gnu diction. http://www.gnu.org/software/diction/diction.html http://www.gnu.org/software/diction/diction.html diction finds common mistakes. style gives some metrics (may or may not be useful, YMMV). they have a similar theme as this article.
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
raffi 16y ago
My style checker finds weasel words, passive voice, and repeated words (a lexical illusion). It also finds confused words as well (another lexical illusion). It's not integrated with LaTeX but it is available for Firefox, Google Chrome, and OpenOffice.org. http://www.afterthedeadline.com http://www.afterthedeadline.com
- daleharvey 16y ago
  I just deleted my half written comment about afterthedeadline, I use it a lot to do exactly as the post describes. It catches my mistakes every time, eventually I will stop making them heres hoping. Thanks for it though, great tool.
- Groxx 16y ago
  >and repeated words One of the things I hate most about English (and this is by no means a rant on how stoopid English is) is that "that that" can be grammatically correct. It's a minor thing really, but I could swear it's mocking me some days.
  - crystalis 16y ago
    That that that that offers a nice example too.
    - hugh3 16y ago
      That "that that that that" that that comment included would only be correct if you included quotation marks.
      - bmm6o 16y ago
        The first draft had had "had had".
  - bdr 16y ago
    Check out the "Lexical ambiguity" section of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sentences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sent...
    - Groxx 16y ago
      haha, nice, hadn't seen that one before. I love the last Japanese one (chosen because I've had some Japanese) Touou wo ooou. (東欧を覆おう。) meaning "Let's cover eastern Europe."
- alextp 16y ago
  detex is easy to use and strips the latex out of latex files. You can also extract the text from a dvi using catdvi, and from a pdf using pdftotext, so I think you could probably afford to support latex :-)
jgrahamc 16y ago
My doctoral supervisor also taught me to write and it was very, very valuable. It enabled me to write for newspapers later and write my book. Learning to write is important because it helps you to see the subject you are writing about clearly. In ReWork, the 37 Signals' guys mention that if they have the choice between two potential hires of equal ability, they'll choose the one who's a better writer.
- pbhjpbhj 16y ago
  >if they have the choice between two potential hires of equal ability, they'll choose the one who's a better writer There's a modifier missing in "equal ability" to make that sentence logical. Writing is an ability itself.
  - kes 16y ago
    I don't think that deserved to be downvoted, but I think that it implies "all other things being equal".
    - bdr 16y ago
      All other things being equal, I'll take the candidate who's better at pinball.
    - Psyonic 16y ago
      Isn't that sort of a given, though? If two people are otherwise equal, and one is better at something that will contribute even the smallest gain to your business, why wouldn't you choose him? There can be no other criteria, as they are otherwise equal.
      - alextgordon 16y ago
        Jesus, the advice is perfectly clear. It doesn't require logical dissection. If you are unable to choose between two candidates, pick the candidate who is a better writer (as opposed to a better lumberjack). It assumes that your original method of choosing did not take into account writing proficiency, and that one candidate is a better writer than the other.
andolanra 16y ago
The passive gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but getting rid of passives isn't always the best way to go about things. An approach which forbids all passive verbs often results in less readable or less appropriate prose, because there are honestly places where the passive is the correct thing to use. Broadly speaking, it's better to educate yourself about those situations than to treat it as wholly bad and eliminate it entirely. I'd go into more detail, but Language Log has discussed it in great depth: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/+passive+voice http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://languagelog.ldc.u...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
blahedo 16y ago
There's no problem with having a house style, of course, but it's obnoxious to claim that following one particular stylebook makes one a "better writer". Particularly obnoxious in the linked article are the claims that "the removal of all adverbs from any technical writing will be a net positive," and likewise for "the removal of the passive voice". Adverbs are indispensable to good writing, technical or otherwise. Notwithstanding the claims of a variety of self-proclaimed experts, no good writer will omit adverbs, and no writer can successfully omit all adverbs without at the very least sounding incredibly choppy and awkward. The author of the linked article included quite a few; even just counting those adverbs that end in "-ly", I found ten (fortunately mechanically really genuinely personally frequently unfortunately solely rightfully technically), and there was even an adverb ("so") right there in the sentence where he was condemning adverbs! As for the passive, the author acknowledges the difficulty of avoiding them, but claims that their removal is still an improvement, though without explaining why. In fact, it makes the writing seem rather choppy (as if the author had to spend too much time paralysed by a set of rules to follow to actually be able to make the text flow). And despite apparently putting in a great deal of effort to avoid them, the author still included at least two that I found in a quick reread: "drawn for them" in the "beholder words" section, and "accepted for publication" right at the bottom. In both cases, the result is perfectly readable, not at all fuzzy, and entirely unremarkable---which shoots a rather gaping hole in the argument that there is anything wrong with a passive voice. I feel sorry for his grad students, and only hope that when they come out the other end, they will sensibly discard the silly mandates of their advisor, rather than perpetuating the myths....
- scott_s 16y ago
  All writing rules have exceptions. But in my experience as a CS grad student, his guidelines are good. His guidelines tend towards less words and more precision. Those are good goals. Also, having seen Matt Might give a talk on a day's notice when he was still a grad student, I think his students are in good hands.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
- 16y ago

143 points by mbrubeck 16y ago

there are two gnu utilites that are useful for writing: gnu style and gnu diction. http://www.gnu.org/software/diction/diction.html http://www.gnu.org/software/diction/diction.html diction finds common mistakes. style gives some metrics (may or may not be useful, YMMV). they have a similar theme as this article.

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

raffi 16y ago

My style checker finds weasel words, passive voice, and repeated words (a lexical illusion). It also finds confused words as well (another lexical illusion). It's not integrated with LaTeX but it is available for Firefox, Google Chrome, and OpenOffice.org. http://www.afterthedeadline.com http://www.afterthedeadline.com

daleharvey 16y ago
I just deleted my half written comment about afterthedeadline, I use it a lot to do exactly as the post describes. It catches my mistakes every time, eventually I will stop making them heres hoping. Thanks for it though, great tool.
Groxx 16y ago
>and repeated words One of the things I hate most about English (and this is by no means a rant on how stoopid English is) is that "that that" can be grammatically correct. It's a minor thing really, but I could swear it's mocking me some days.
- crystalis 16y ago
  That that that that offers a nice example too.
  - hugh3 16y ago
    That "that that that that" that that comment included would only be correct if you included quotation marks.
    - bmm6o 16y ago
      The first draft had had "had had".
- bdr 16y ago
  Check out the "Lexical ambiguity" section of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sentences http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_linguistic_example_sent...
  - Groxx 16y ago
    haha, nice, hadn't seen that one before. I love the last Japanese one (chosen because I've had some Japanese) Touou wo ooou. (東欧を覆おう。) meaning "Let's cover eastern Europe."
alextp 16y ago
detex is easy to use and strips the latex out of latex files. You can also extract the text from a dvi using catdvi, and from a pdf using pdftotext, so I think you could probably afford to support latex :-)

jgrahamc 16y ago

My doctoral supervisor also taught me to write and it was very, very valuable. It enabled me to write for newspapers later and write my book. Learning to write is important because it helps you to see the subject you are writing about clearly. In ReWork, the 37 Signals' guys mention that if they have the choice between two potential hires of equal ability, they'll choose the one who's a better writer.

pbhjpbhj 16y ago
>if they have the choice between two potential hires of equal ability, they'll choose the one who's a better writer There's a modifier missing in "equal ability" to make that sentence logical. Writing is an ability itself.
- kes 16y ago
  I don't think that deserved to be downvoted, but I think that it implies "all other things being equal".
  - bdr 16y ago
    All other things being equal, I'll take the candidate who's better at pinball.
  - Psyonic 16y ago
    Isn't that sort of a given, though? If two people are otherwise equal, and one is better at something that will contribute even the smallest gain to your business, why wouldn't you choose him? There can be no other criteria, as they are otherwise equal.
    - alextgordon 16y ago
      Jesus, the advice is perfectly clear. It doesn't require logical dissection. If you are unable to choose between two candidates, pick the candidate who is a better writer (as opposed to a better lumberjack). It assumes that your original method of choosing did not take into account writing proficiency, and that one candidate is a better writer than the other.

andolanra 16y ago

The passive gets a bad rap a lot of the time, but getting rid of passives isn't always the best way to go about things. An approach which forbids all passive verbs often results in less readable or less appropriate prose, because there are honestly places where the passive is the correct thing to use. Broadly speaking, it's better to educate yourself about those situations than to treat it as wholly bad and eliminate it entirely. I'd go into more detail, but Language Log has discussed it in great depth: http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/+passive+voice http://www.google.com/search?q=site:http://languagelog.ldc.u...

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

blahedo 16y ago

There's no problem with having a house style, of course, but it's obnoxious to claim that following one particular stylebook makes one a "better writer". Particularly obnoxious in the linked article are the claims that "the removal of all adverbs from any technical writing will be a net positive," and likewise for "the removal of the passive voice". Adverbs are indispensable to good writing, technical or otherwise. Notwithstanding the claims of a variety of self-proclaimed experts, no good writer will omit adverbs, and no writer can successfully omit all adverbs without at the very least sounding incredibly choppy and awkward. The author of the linked article included quite a few; even just counting those adverbs that end in "-ly", I found ten (fortunately mechanically really genuinely personally frequently unfortunately solely rightfully technically), and there was even an adverb ("so") right there in the sentence where he was condemning adverbs! As for the passive, the author acknowledges the difficulty of avoiding them, but claims that their removal is still an improvement, though without explaining why. In fact, it makes the writing seem rather choppy (as if the author had to spend too much time paralysed by a set of rules to follow to actually be able to make the text flow). And despite apparently putting in a great deal of effort to avoid them, the author still included at least two that I found in a quick reread: "drawn for them" in the "beholder words" section, and "accepted for publication" right at the bottom. In both cases, the result is perfectly readable, not at all fuzzy, and entirely unremarkable---which shoots a rather gaping hole in the argument that there is anything wrong with a passive voice. I feel sorry for his grad students, and only hope that when they come out the other end, they will sensibly discard the silly mandates of their advisor, rather than perpetuating the myths....

scott_s 16y ago
All writing rules have exceptions. But in my experience as a CS grad student, his guidelines are good. His guidelines tend towards less words and more precision. Those are good goals. Also, having seen Matt Might give a talk on a day's notice when he was still a grad student, I think his students are in good hands.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
16y ago