RE: MS will help us find the right words?

Subject: RE: MS will help us find the right words?
From: "Michael West" <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 25 Feb 2009 19:11:01 +1100

Dan Goldstein wrote:

> MS knows a lot about linguistic incompetence. The following is from a
recent
> company statement:
>
> "Microsoft is reaching out to those impacted to relay that we will not
seek any
> payment from those individuals."
>
> I count three bad verbs in the first nine words. But when I ran Word's
grammar
> check with full consideration of stylistic suggestions (clich?s,
colloquialisms, jargon,
> etc.), that awful sentence passed with flying colors. Well, the main thing
is the
> active voice, right? :-)


Sure, but again, the person capable of excreting a sentence like that one is
not going to benefit from having the most brilliant style guide in the world
close at hand, either. It's nothing to do with automation.

The only people who benefit from dictionaries and style guides (printed or
electronic) are those who (a) know how to use them, and (b) care enough to
do so.

--
Mike West


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