4 ms·
My favorite part of this essay is where he translates a verse from Ecclesiastes: I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the b
by tc 17y ago
My favorite part of this essay is where he translates a verse from Ecclesiastes:
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
Into modern English:
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.
... which is identical to the style of nearly all modern research papers.
- bitwize 17y agoThat doesn't necessarily mean they are good research papers :) See the advice of Shivers: http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/diss-advice.html http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/shivers/diss-advice.html
- nazgulnarsil 17y agoyour writing signals values. being unaware of this doesn't mean you aren't signaling anything, just that your signals might be a jumbled mishmash. people are unconsciously aware of this and respond better to more consistent works. This is what your english teacher was talking about when they said to eliminate everything that doesn't directly support your main idea. When trying to convince someone of something it often seems like a good idea to just toss any justifications we can think of out there and try to overwhelm them with sheer numbers.