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I'm not going to preach about how to write properly. The medium used for writing dictates how to write properly. I am, however, going to ask you to examine what you write before you publish it.
I prepared myself a "Maruchan ® Instant Lunch" meal today and was reading the caution label when I realized that it could have two meanings, simply because the word "to" was left out.
Examine these two sentences:
Original sentence: Product is hot; please handle with care especially when serving children. (Do children taste good?)
Suggested sentence: Product is hot; please handle with care especially when serving to children.
As an American who speaks English as a first language, I knew what it meant but what about people who speak English as their second language? Of course, this is a minor example but it's important to make the distinction, especially when writing on a blog. Your readers come from every modernized country in the world and many of them speak English as a second language or use a translation service to read what you write.
One way to prevent a simple "mistake" like this from happening is to read what you have written out loud, pretending that you're speaking to someone else in the room. You'd be surprised at how many times I've found myself leaving out "a", "at", "in", "to" and other connecting words by including this step. Grammar checkers such as the one included in Microsoft Word won't always catch omissions and aren't reliable enough to implicitly trust.
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"when serving children" – That's really great! :razz:
Greetings from switzerland!
Thank you and welcome to UV. :smile:
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My primary language is not english. Someone can correct me if I am wrong? I understood that the '(Do children taste good?)' line should have been removed.
Or I am wrong?
Thanks,
I put that there to emphasize what the original sentence could mean. Putting a "to" between the last two words in the sentence removes that possibility.
[...] Connecting Words by RT Cunningham [...]
iam facing with writing problem.can anyone help me to improve my writing skill?
fahim
A blog isn't the best place to learn about writing, unless you find one that caters to it.
[...] Connecting Words by RT Cunningham [...]
This a good post is it. Writing great goodly. Blah blah blah. Irony FTW.
I really dislike it when people write craptastically and then try to sell it as good. It's a huge problem on Digitalpoint with all of the one cent per word idiots lowering the value of quality writing.
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When we are talking about english……
Ha…ha… I can't speak English
But Doesn't it would be good if we try it and then correct it in other times.