[Gllug] Star Office/ Open Office.org

[Rev Simon Rumble]

On Thu 06 Nov, Nix bloviated thus:

> Just about the only thing I've found it *doesn't* complain about is
> short memos written in baby-talk.

Try adjusting the settings to be appropriate for your form of
writing.  Then it tends to flag up the appropriate errors.

> (Corporatespeak gets complaints about
> the passive voice --- what's wrong with the passive voice? --- and
> overlong sentences.)

The passive voice is almost always a more complicated way of saying
things.

Which is clearer:
The cat sat on the mat.
The mat was sat on by the cat.

Of course, many people who receive MBAs think corporate-speak means
making yourself sound important, clever and complicated.  They end up
writing everything in complicated passive voice and do really
ridiculous things like turn innocent nouns into verbs ("incentivize",
"productize" et al).

Overlong sentences are the antithesis of clear writing.  Sometimes
they're unavoidable, but you should attempt to shorten them if at all
possible.

Word's grammar checker gets a lot of flack from people who don't
change from the defaults and don't understand the reasons it's
flagging up specific rules.  Actually it's an indispensable tool if
you don't have time to re-read your documents every time you issue
them.

<--- professional writer who uses Word's grammar checker every day

-- 
Rev Simon Rumble <simon at rumble.net>
www.rumble.net

Fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity.

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