Questions tagged [writing-style]
Questions about the writing style of a particular sentence, phrase or construction in English. Questions asking for advice on writing style are off-topic.
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Best English language classics to use as an example of clear writing [closed]
I would like to suggest a bunch of non native speakers some titles that are in English (not translations, no matter how good), that are good examples of a language that is clear, and simple.
I am ...
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How would you let a reader know of a long sentence intonation?
I'm not sure if this would go here or in writing.stackexchange.com it's related to writing but it's more of a general English language question.
After reading this question and the first answer I ...
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". . . , but thinks by Easter he'll have grown into it"? [closed]
(From A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Part II Cambridge Choir, chapter 21)
(It's Christmas. William, the chorister, at home)
William's present is a bike, waiting for him in the communal ...
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correct usage/type with conjunctive adverb [duplicate]
a) Our vacation was wonderful, however, it was too short.
Is a) incorrect or acceptable use? I understand it should have a semicolon with a comma or start a new sentence, but some resources conflict ...
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In a sentence like "The discipline studies the political and economic patterns of the world," what is really going on? [duplicate]
The discipline studies the political and economic patterns of the world.
The intended meaning of the sentence is clear; but upon closer scrutiny, one notices that it is, of course, not the discipline ...
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Much-Watch: How is this construction allowed?
I have received an email from Crunchyroll today, titled “Discover Today’s Much-Watch Anime!”. From the title, I immediately assumed that it’s about today’s “must-watch” anime series. The email ...
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A good and scientific way of saying "holistic approach" or "holistic philosophy"
I am struggling to write the introduction of a scientific journal paper because it is absurdly novel. I am trying to show the community that we have approaches in different domains that need to be ...
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Grammatical Coherence in Hanna Arendt's Writing [closed]
I've recently come across a quote by Hanna Arendt in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil that looked quite interesting:
"It is in the very nature of things ...
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differences of usage with conjunctive adverb
a) You must have a good reason for possession of a bladed instrument.
It will have to be genuine, for example, someone back packing may
use one for the preparation of meals.
b) You can put knives in ...
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Quotation marks and commas [duplicate]
I know that, when using a period, comma, or exclamation mark with quotation marks, we should generally place the punctuation inside the quotes. Does this hold in general?
For example, consider the ...
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Should redundant "also" with "too" in the same sentence count as a (style) error?
As a non-native English speaker, I keep seeing (professional) articles, often by native speakers of English, that say something like "The bass is also quite strong too". This strikes me as ...
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Hyphens are used in words from 0-99 (correction 21-99), but what if a number larger than 99 is a compound adjective before a noun?
For example, which of these are correct?
The pizza delivery service had three thousand, seven hundred and eighty-two clients.
The pizza delivery service had three-thousand-seven-hundred-and-eighty-...
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Connotation of "for" / "for the"
I asked this question on ELL and got a satisfactory answer about whether "A new material for manufacture of bricks" is a correct title for a scientific article.
However, it seems that ELL is ...
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Trying to understand how to connect phrases/clauses with commas
Take this fragment for example:
The snow had come from the north, in the mist, driven by the night wind, smelling of the sea.
It is from John Le Carré's The Looking Glass War. I've seen writers do ...
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Is it proper to switch from the third person singular (The Department of Environment) to the first person plural (we) in the same sentence? [duplicate]
I often have to translate sentences such as:
The Department of Environment has offices everywhere in the country, and we would love for you to join us [us as in "the whole department, and not a ...
