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One of the best pieces of advice I learned in high school from an incredible English teacher: when doing technical, avoid "-ly" words entirely. It has always be
by junon 4y ago
One of the best pieces of advice I learned in high school from an incredible English teacher: when doing technical, avoid "-ly" words entirely. It has always been solid advice and has rarely led me astray.
- stavros 4y agoWhat, like "butterfly"?
- sametmax 4y agoLike "otherwordly", obviously. Never use "otherwordly" ph'nglui technical documentation, ngnah ymg' risk s̵͖͕͓̒̾̾ǘ̵̢̺͓͊́m̵̟͙̓̒̚m̴͉̠͖̈́͊͠o̸̞̺̻̾́̀n̵͖̻͓̓̔i̴̢͚͕̿̕͝n̴͇̞͎͒̀̚g̵̢̟͙̾̚͝ z̴̪̠̟̾̿͘a̸͇̞͙̔͌͛l̵̢̟̘͆̒g̴͓͔̀́̿ö̵̪̠́͑̓.̴̢͙̪́͝͠
- rzzzt 4y agoAvoiding "butterfly" when writing technical documentation sounds like a good advice.
- loloquwowndueo 4y agoThe keyboard in your thinkpad 701C has a mechanism we affectionately call butter… oh never mind.
- rzzzt 4y ago"Affectionately"?! One point for Slytherin!
- latexr 4y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_keyboard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butterfly_keyboard
- BellsOnSunday 4y agoC-h f butterfly
- Hendrikto 4y ago> avoid "-ly" words I hope this isn’t the actual advice you were given. They are called adverbs.
- junon 4y agoIt was the exact advice given. Not all adverbs end in "-ly", either, and not all adverbs should be avoided in technical writing; that'd be impossible. The rule states "-ly" words because those words are often cruft or crutch words that can be removed. If the sentence can't stand on its own without that word, then the sentence probably doesn't belong in the body of technical writing. Compare this with time-related adverbs, which generally provide chronological structure. Those are more relevant for technical writing. So yes, avoid "-ly" words. Not adverbs in general. That was the advice given.
- nohuck13 4y agoSome adverbs not ending in "-ly" are always, soon, today, ever, yet. "The Python interpreter has a number of functions and types built into it that are always available." [1] "Long option values can be split across multiple lines simply by indenting the continuation lines." [2] Agree with your teacher in that the first one seems fine. [1] https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html https://docs.python.org/3/library/functions.html [2] https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/configfile.html https://docs.python.org/3/distutils/configfile.html
- sorokod 4y agoI think that the advice is a bit more nuanced, your first example is fine as it is but consider the variants: "...that are clearly always available." "...that are obviously available." "...that are simply available." These adverbs are not only redundant but their presence suggest that things are actually not clear, simple or obvious.
- Fnoord 4y agoFor non-native English speakers -ly is simpler than adverts. But simpler does not necessarily mean better long-term.
- commandersaki 4y agoThis is a rule in the Hemingway app: https://hemingwayapp.com/ https://hemingwayapp.com/
- latexr 4y ago> when doing technical, avoid "-ly" words entirely. Following its own advice, “entirely” can be cut without loss of meaning. Considering the replies you’re getting, perhaps a better way to phrase it in the future would be: > eschew "-ly" adverbs. That way it’s clear you’re referring to a specific subset of adverbs.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]