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#97. 93 – UHF Blues
12 Sep 28, 2011
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#96. 92 – T.H.K.? T.M.I.
9 Sep 21, 2011
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#95. 91 – Techs Mex
10 Sep 14, 2011
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#94. 90 – Watch Your Tongue
9 Sep 07, 2011
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#93. 89 – Musical Chairs
14 Aug 31, 2011
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#92. 88 – Ridin’ Out
15 Aug 24, 2011
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#91. 87 – From Dusk ‘Til Dawn
11 Aug 17, 2011
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#90. 86 – Mentions In Passing
15 Aug 10, 2011
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#89. 85 – Smoke Irritation
14 Aug 03, 2011
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#88. 84 – Camerus Interruptus
17 Jul 27, 2011
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#87. 83 – Fireside Chat
13 Jul 13, 2011
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#86. 82 – All Pent Up
16 Jul 06, 2011
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#85. 81- Hot-button Issue
18 Jun 29, 2011
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#84. 80 – Pointless Points
16 Jun 22, 2011
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#83. 79 – Cold Comfort
21 Jun 15, 2011
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#82. 78 – Idealized Conditions
19 Jun 08, 2011
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#81. 77- Too Much Of A Good Thing
44 Jun 01, 2011
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#80. 76 – Beware Of False Profits
41 May 25, 2011
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#79. EPISODE FOUR
47 May 23, 2011
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#78. 75 – Dead Man’s Hand (END OF EPISODE 3)
42 May 11, 2011
On the evolution of grammar…
Policing language and grammar is ever a slippery choice of career (or hobby).
Don’t get me wrong, since for better or worse I am my own editor for Zombie Ranch and so have to do exactly that, especially before committing to print where fixing a typo is not just a matter of editing a text layer. I also have characters who are not necessarily adept at communicating in formal Oxford English, which is just a fancy way to say they “don’t speak good.”
Yet the very idea of someone’s quality of communication is a malleable concept. You may have heard that in modern writing, “passive voice” is to be avoided. “The ball hit Jed” and not “Jed was hit by the ball.” Some explain it’s because the latter, passive expression sounds “weaker” but as far as I can tell the derogatory view of passive voice is a 20th Century invention intended to conserve words while conveying the same concept. Go back to the mid-19th Century and you’ll see passive voice everywhere, even in military communications where you’d think Generals were getting paid by the word. Sorry, I mean the word paid the Generals.
Woof, that’s active voice but doesn’t make much sense. That’s the rub, isn’t it? The end goal of communicating is to convey ideas, everything else is just window dressing. A message forum question like “how to find code?” sounds ESL to me as a knee-jerk reaction, and yet the more I think about it, do we really need to say “How do I find the code?” or is that just a lot of unnecessary grammatical dressing? Everyone knows what you meant and much in the same vein as passive voice fell out of favor, isn’t this possibly just the next step in the name of efficiency? It’s arguable that the invention of the telegram is what led to the marginalization of florid verbosity (usin’ lots o’ big words) in favor of more succinct communications. Nowadays one of the main ways people communicate is by texting, which is like telegrams in real time. Data plans don’t make you pay per text any more like they used to but speed and compactness of message are big priorities, so who am I to look down upon a message like “where r u?” This may well be the future, like it or not. Today the smartphone, tomorrow the OED and the style guides.
Though in the meantime, you may continue to look forward to complete sentences from yours truly.
Mostly.
How to make webcomic?
2 thoughts on “536 – Great State Of Tech Sass”
Anonymous
Amusing spam above … Things are about to get weird with Casa De Chuck!
Dawn
Ugh, I try to get to the SPAM quicker but we have a new kitty and I have been distracted. It is gone now. 😀