I mean, journalists need to follow the same rules as their print counterparts. I would assume that any online professors out there would also tote the academic line of their on-campus colleagues.
― pplains, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:25 (nine years ago) link
presumably they would toe the line
― Giant Purple Wakerobin (Aimless), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:27 (nine years ago) link
OK vs o.k. vs O.K. vs ok
i say the first one
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:50 (nine years ago) link
I only use "okay" basically.
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:51 (nine years ago) link
ha! why that didn't occur to me i don't know. i would use that for a verb, i.e. "did he okay it?" but not for the affirmation
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:51 (nine years ago) link
xposts tote that line on down the road
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:52 (nine years ago) link
pplains there are a few rules i've seen bandied for online specifically, i.e. jakob neilsen's contention that online writing should always use digits for all numbers
― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:53 (nine years ago) link
I just think "Okay!" looks more cheerful somehow.
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 20:53 (nine years ago) link
Using "okay" allows this expression which is used as a single word to be written as a single recognizable word, whereas ok and OK, although very common, are more ambiguous (if you tried to pronounce them, they'd resemble "awk") and using O.K. is just asking for trouble.
― Giant Purple Wakerobin (Aimless), Wednesday, 22 April 2015 22:08 (nine years ago) link
A.P. style is OK.
And I hate it.
I mostly agree with Neilsen. I can't bring myself to begin a sentence with a number though, but I do usually try to weasel myself out of that situation anyway.
― pplains, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 22:09 (nine years ago) link
pretty tired of working around '18-year-old ______ did ______' tbh
i mean at least give me captions, headers
― mookieproof, Wednesday, 22 April 2015 23:49 (nine years ago) link
Tangential question: could anything written expressly for the internet be considered formal writing?
I've recently heard a prof. web writer/editor say web writing is informal writing by default. Of course if you're a journalist writing for an online publication it might be a different story, but you're going to have a house style or w/e that will address these questions, hopefully?
― franny glasshole (franny glass), Thursday, 23 April 2015 00:15 (nine years ago) link
Writing anything on paper by default is usually informal too!
You should see my grocery list. It's nothing but sentence fragments.
― pplains, Thursday, 23 April 2015 00:40 (nine years ago) link
formality is a function of venue, audience, purpose, etc.
not medium
― j., Thursday, 23 April 2015 02:54 (nine years ago) link
I was reading the Jezebel piece on CVS/church burnings and noticed that the author uses the phrase "on accident," which I've heard spoken but had assumed was not accepted grammar. So I looked online and found this study: http://www.inst.at/trans/16Nr/01_4/barratt16.htm which found that "by accident" is vastly preferred by people over the age of 35, while "on accident" is preferred by those under 35. No one seems to know what precipitated the shift.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:36 (eight years ago) link
Oh no shit. That's really interesting! "On accident" definitely sounds wrong to my elderly ears.
― from batman to balloon dog (carl agatha), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:40 (eight years ago) link
It actually makes sense as a parallel phrasing to "on purpose" but yeah it sounds wrong to me too.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:41 (eight years ago) link
man, how did that happen?
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:43 (eight years ago) link
i've never heard it spoken.
― skateboards are the new combover (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:44 (eight years ago) link
"on accident" sounds vaguely posh and antiquated to me, ironically (sort of like "on approval")
― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:44 (eight years ago) link
Maybe a regional thing? I've never heard it (southern US)
― Brad C., Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:45 (eight years ago) link
The blog I found the article through said it would probably have to be via some kind of national media (like Barney) because it seems geographically widespread.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:45 (eight years ago) link
I will say I'm not super well-versed in academic studies but that one does not seem like the most rigorous research possible. Still interesting though.
― Immediate Follower (NA), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:46 (eight years ago) link
barney... the dinosaur?
― wizzz! (amateurist), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:47 (eight years ago) link
I think it's OK to acknowledge that ppl using "on accident" are wrong but that also we can't do much about it
― irl lol (darraghmac), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 20:50 (eight years ago) link
"on accident" makes me stabby. It sounds like baby-talk.Mind you I realllllly hate the phrase "take the decision" which seems to have surpassed "make the decision" in popularity. I have vague memories of reading an interesting article many years ago about how "taking decisions" cropping up in political speeches was a marker of who the real author was, uncommon as it was back then.
― kinder, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 21:16 (eight years ago) link
Take the decision! That's terrible!
I feel more forgiving toward a generational shift like "on accident" than I do toward stupid business culture speak like "take the decision."
I'll tell you what, why don't you open the kimono and you can take the decision where the sun don't shine.
― from batman to balloon dog (carl agatha), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 21:18 (eight years ago) link
I've never heard or read anyone say 'on accident'
― Let's go, FIFA! (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 21:20 (eight years ago) link
I have a vague feeling that those who preferred "on accident" would overwhelmingly choose to say "whom" in all cases where it was unclear in their minds whether "who" or "whom" was the correct choice.
― Aimless, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 21:24 (eight years ago) link
"take decisions" is a commonly made error i've seen on account of tomar being used wrt decisionmaking en español(you don't make decisions, you take them)
― La Lechera, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 21:28 (eight years ago) link
http://skepticism-images.s3-website-us-east-1.amazonaws.com/images/jreviews/John-Langshaw-Austin.jpg
'on' accident??!
slovenly, simply slovenly
― j., Wednesday, 1 July 2015 21:35 (eight years ago) link
"taking decisions" has become the norm in UK politics
― kinder, Wednesday, 1 July 2015 22:03 (eight years ago) link
My wife says "on accident." It
― Half as cool as Man Sized Action (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 22:10 (eight years ago) link
...sounds odd to me too, but I've never questioned where she got it from.
― Half as cool as Man Sized Action (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 22:11 (eight years ago) link
maybe there's a lot about her you never questioned
maybe it's time to start looking into her background
― j., Wednesday, 1 July 2015 22:13 (eight years ago) link
too right
― Let's go, FIFA! (Nasty, Brutish & Short), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 22:15 (eight years ago) link
One of my clients uses "Ok" as house style and it makes me stabby.
― A Smedley Adoption (get bent), Wednesday, 1 July 2015 22:19 (eight years ago) link
as long as she pronounces it "okk" aloud, she's fine
― wizzz! (amateurist), Thursday, 2 July 2015 00:07 (eight years ago) link
taking decisions is for brits; taking shits is for americans
― mookieproof, Thursday, 2 July 2015 00:23 (eight years ago) link
"On accident" is definitely a young people thing near me (NYC/NJ), and because I'm from this area I just thought it was a regionalism (probably fucking Long Island, those fucking people ruin everything). Had no idea it was national/international. Oh, and I'm 43, so yeah, that's a paddlin'.
― the top man in the language department (誤訳侮辱), Thursday, 2 July 2015 02:12 (eight years ago) link
"by accident" is a direct translation of the french "par hasard" where "par" = "by" and "hasard" = chance, hence the equivalent expression "by chance"
maybe soon people will start saying "on chance"
― transparent play for gifs (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 2 July 2015 08:57 (eight years ago) link
I prefer "by purpose"
― ogmor, Thursday, 2 July 2015 09:51 (eight years ago) link
I have NEVER heard or seen "on accident" before and I'm under 30, but I'm also Canadian and that shit isn't legal here afaik
― the naive cockney chorus (Simon H.), Thursday, 2 July 2015 12:15 (eight years ago) link
I figure if New Yorkers will say "on line," they'll say anything.
― Orson Wellies (in orbit), Thursday, 2 July 2015 12:30 (eight years ago) link
I assumed "on accident" was a US thing. It deeply annoys me currently but I guess prepositions like that are malleable, so maybe I'll get used to it.
― emil.y, Thursday, 2 July 2015 12:49 (eight years ago) link
"Made the decision" and "took the decision" have both been used in British English for a long time:
http://i.imgur.com/LGsDDpb.png
Neither phrase existed before the 20th century.
― Alba, Monday, 6 July 2015 21:37 (eight years ago) link
Generally I'm laid back about transatlantic drift in language but one thing that bugs me beyond all reason is the American habit of adding in superfluous prepositions (esp "out") after verbs.
Close outChange up (I know this has a particular meaning in baseball, but in general use it doesn't)Beat out Swap out Build it out
"Swap out" has swept Britain in recent times.
― Alba, Monday, 6 July 2015 21:44 (eight years ago) link
american english is overly reliant on phrasal verbs in general imoit drives language learners crazy
i was just explaining this the other day with turnturn onturn offturn out(turnout too but that's a noun) turn up (increase)turn up (appear)turn around turn downturn inturn intoand so on turn turn turn
also makes sentence structure a mess when you have phrasal verbs and prepositional phrasesbarf on phrasal verbs
― La Lechera, Monday, 6 July 2015 22:12 (eight years ago) link
tracer how do you know it is a borrowing from french and not the other way around?
― wizzz! (amateurist), Monday, 6 July 2015 22:13 (eight years ago) link
Ha, I've just noticed that I wrote "adding in" instead of just "adding".
― Alba, Monday, 6 July 2015 22:28 (eight years ago) link