Top all-time · #19677
Mark Andre Alexander
Personal blog · sourcetext.com/grammarianwritinghistory
Mark Andre Alexander writes SourceText.com, a personal blog at sourcetext.com about writing and history. Since 2011, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 12 times. No feed was found, so read it on the site itself.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this archive of Richard Mitchell's Underground Grammarian newsletter and essays, which argue about grammar, language, clear writing and schooling, often as a counterpoint to education articles.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
THE UNDERGROUND GRAMMARIAN SHAKESPEARE AUTHORSHIP SOURCEBOOK MARK ANDRE ALEXANDER BOOKS AND PODCASTS THE CREATING YOUR LIFE CHANNEL ONCE CLICK TO MOZART PAGE JIM BUTCHER'S DRESDEN FILES READING ORDER The HU Page *****
Most-linked posts?
- /grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/12.htm2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-12-06
- /grammarian/2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-10-02
What Hacker News says?
"Neither can his Mind be thought to be in Tune, whose words do jarre; nor his reason in frame, whose sentence is preposterous; nor his Elocution clear and perfect, whose utterance breaks itself into fragments and uncertainties." - Ben Jonson via Richard Mitchell http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/
Comment linking /grammarian/
on “Please learn to write”Here is the definition of an exit discussion for you http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say...
Comment linking /grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/12.htm
on “I Don't Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore”Sure, but if a client asks what you're doing, and you suspect they're not clueful about the work, you'd tailor your reply to as close to plain English as possible. But when you're talking to experts you correctly use jargon to rapidly communicate actual information. There's a big difference between the example you gave and "executive" speak. About 80% of the uses I see of "leverage" / "leveraged" / "leverages" are b…
Comment linking /grammarian/
on “I Don't Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore”People are complicating their lives just to decomplicate later. Well, it's something to do 'til the undertaker comes. http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/the-booklets/7.htm
Comment linking /grammarian/the-booklets/7.htm
on “Confessions of a recovering lifehacker”But spelling is usually not that important. It's not as if anyone is confused by the use of the incorrect word "phosphorous". While it's nice to have the correct spelling this is the kind of word that can fail spell check (because phosphorous can be correct in other contexts) it's not a serious typo. It's not like silicone / silicon - often misused where people have to guess from context. (No one is getting a silico…
Comment linking /grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/06.htm
on “The Arsenic DNA paper exposes flaws in peer review”There's a difference between a dense legal definition of what an escape door is (so that a small number of people can correctly create escape doors) and obfuscatory fluff that everybody should be adhering to but that nobody reads. ToS often feel like they've been created to give the company a get out clause for anything they want. ( http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say... ) > As it happens, t…
Comment linking /grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/12.htm
on “Why Clarence Thomas Uses Simple Words in His Opinions”The original article is another iteration from the ancient and venerated Academics with Inferiority Complexes Society. Here is an article discussing an earlier effort from this time-honored society: http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/newslettersv06/6.1.htm This article is by the late malcontent newsletter The Underground Grammarian, a diabolical work which has cleverly trapped me into spending entire nights in the…
Comment linking /grammarian/newslettersv06/6.1.htm
on “Abandoning Algebra Is Not the Answer”The Underground Grammarian has a rant about legal language. If you like that kind of ranting you might appreciate this. http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/less-than-words-can-say... > Here is an example of the sort of thing that infuriates the advocates of plain English. It's an extract from one of those handbooks put out by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, an outfit notorious not only for its to…
Comment linking /grammarian/less-than-words-can-say/12.htm
on “Beautiful law: how design can make law simpler, useful and fascinating”That's fine - a questioning attitude is great. When someone says "This research shows us X, Y and Z" it's a useful skill to look at the research and spot any flaws in the methods or the stats or the write up. Anti-intellectualism is not that. Anti-intellectuals will say things like "I don't need to read the research, that scientist gets money from $CORPORATION and thus nothing they say can be trusted. That's why cli…
Comment linking /grammarian/newslettersv08/8.5.htm
on “Why I canceled my college subscription”> These school people hate literature. It stands for everything that they stand against. A work of literature comes from one, solitary mind, not from the consensus of a collective. It is an unequivocal assertion that this is so . It abides, or it dies, but it will not negotiate. It comes before us neither as a supplicant nor a defendant, but as a judge. It cares nothing for our favorite notions or our self-esteem. A…
Comment linking /grammarian-newslettersv06-html/
on “Hundreds of changes made to latest editions of Roald Dahl's books”This post is brutal. _Sorry_ in advance. Feel free to ignore it. (But I suggest, in a friendly way, that you read the link provided at the end.) >you it’s wears. Possessive its has no apostrophe. And that should be "wares", not "wears". This next sentence is where I stopped reading. >Procedures and doing things in the right and expected order, is in my opinion, is paramount to making work easier for everyone, so I’l…
Comment linking /grammarian/
on “Ask HN: What do you think about my first professional article?”