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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: plotd@*********.com (J. Mach)
Subject: Twists and turns in spelling
Date: Fri Jun 7 14:00:01 2002
(An open letter to:)

Allan--

I have to say I'm enjoying your plot line so far. So I'm sorry
when I have to nitpick you here.

Please, for the love of Mike, run a spellcheck on your work.
Please!

Now there are a number of runners on STk that are supposed to be
from uncultured backgrounds (Twitch is a good example, or at least he does
a good impression) and we are given to believe their dictation software
transliterates what they are saying word for word. Also, there are some
deckers that like to write in their own jargon or patois (type what they'd
say, not what they'd write) rather than "proper" English. In
"footage"
you _expect_ to read quotations exactly as people would say them. These
are good excuses to have things written the way they'd sound. However,
when a high level biologist calls VITAS (Virally Induced Toxic Allergy
Syndrome) "Vitus," and has several other mistakes in his writing, it hurts
the character's credibility, a.k.a. he does not "sound" like a biologist.
It also can make the message unclear and hard for us to read. We're not
asking for perfection--anybody can make a typo now and then--just be more
careful in the future.

Two suggestions for you and others out there. Try to remember to
spell-check (and grammar check) your work before you send it out. If you
do not have a checker built into your mailer, then try writing it up in a
word processor that does, and then either drag and copy the message over
into your mailer or save the message as raw text and import it into your
mailer. The other suggestion is that if you are not sure how something is
spelled or written, ask your fellow writers (preferably offline questions
to the other writers involved in your plotline). I am sure they would be
glad to help.

--My two yen

Jeff
Message no. 2
From: plotd@*********.com (Pete)
Subject: Twists and turns in spelling
Date: Fri Jun 7 14:35:01 2002
From: "J. Mach" <jjmach@**********.com>
To: <plotd@*********.com>
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 6:57 PM
Subject: Twists and turns in spelling


> a good impression) and we are given to believe their dictation software
> transliterates what they are saying word for word. Also, there are some

If I can just respond to this part.

Software interpreting spoken word to text even today can be trained to spell
in "slang" or local dialect if you prefer. One thing that I found extremely
irritating with Dragon Nat was having to speak with a southern "twang" just
to get the silly thing to recognise certain words. Needless to say I gave up
and haven't recommended that software to anyone. I'm British, why do I have
to speak American? :)

That's with relatively primitive software today. Initially it will attempt
to spell everything correctly and this is the main reason you spend hours
training it to your speech patterns. But, alternative words can by
substituted and, especially with heavy dialect the software can become a tad
confused with words and substitute wrong ones or insert additional letters
approximating what it 'hears'. Allowing that in the last 5 years this
software has improved ten fold in ability I think it's safe to assume that
by the time of Shadowrun it will be sensitive enough along with speech
interpretors on OS to allow a person to be written they way they speak. I
personally will often use colloquialisms when writing to friends or people
I'm working with. Though for potential clients I'll make that extra effort
not to use them. :)

The transliteration of "class" is another matter altogether and I would
personally put that under writer caveat. If I write the way I would normally
write for a character like Twitch, then you'll get a cross between upper and
middle class English. Completely unsuitable for the character. I honestly
don't see any harm in attempting to get education/social upbringing etc into
the writing for Stk to give characterisation to someone. There is a certain
amount that can be achieved with "correctness" but a little local colour
adds a bit more in my opinion. Otherwise we'd all be writing in such a
similar form that characters would be harder to recognise. I won't use any
examples of this as they're my interpretation and I don't want to insult any
authors here by implying I can't tell their characters apart until I read
the From line. :)

It may be wrong to allow colloquialism and speech habits to transliterate
across a cyber medium but as with any written media there are few enough
ways to show a character already.

Just a thought from the peanut gallery. :)

--
Pete
Message no. 3
From: plotd@*********.com (Allan Hoffman)
Subject: Twists and turns in spelling
Date: Fri Jun 7 16:00:01 2002
Jeff,
Thanks for the tips on the spelling and stuff. Let me apologize right now
for the mistakes. I have a slight handicap when it comes to spelling and
written English. I'll start using Word to pick up the errors. And also thank
you for saying that your enjoying the story line. It's an idea that just
floated off of my head on day. I'm still learning about how things work
around here so thanks for all of your patients.

Al

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Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.

Thwap!