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Category: Creative commons
Posted on: April 19, 2007 11:30 AM, by Selva
A english language style quiz. Give it a go. I failed miserably. I should've RTFM. [via a reddit story]
Before the style guide, Orwell's essay on english writing would be a good refresher.
Since you've come this far, you might as well let Strunk give you a good beating.
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Comments
I got 8 out of 12, which is still pretty lousy. I think it's not bad for an American.
Posted by: Dave Munger | April 19, 2007 12:46 PM
10 of 12.
Posted by: Ahcuah | April 19, 2007 2:15 PM
Nine out of twelve, and I'm an English professor. Please don't tell my chair.
Posted by: Elf Eye | April 19, 2007 3:17 PM
11 out of 12 and I disagree with the one they said I got wrong. Of course, I really disagree with a number of their dicta, for instance, that passive is always worse than active. Information Structuring plays a large role in these things: in their sentence which was Topic: UN observers or paramilitaries? Too many sentences with bad information flow is harder to understand than too many passives. (That's not the one I got wrong, that was the one where I used Zeitgeist. I don't care if it's foreign, it's not a synonym for "spirit". Pfft.)
PS - Strunk is okay, White is a crank. He didn't help you pass this, did he? Use something else. Anything else, almost.
Posted by: The Ridger | April 19, 2007 4:10 PM