I know that I am one of those people who write things, but that does not mean I am a high reader.
I was looking through a book that my second daughter has called "SPI(*) Question Book," and I was surprised when I tried the section called "(Japanese) Long Sentence Decoding.
(*)SPI stands for Synthetic Personality Inventory, an aptitude test developed in 1974 for employment selection based on personal qualities to measure the personality and abilities required of ordinary working adults.
From my perspective as an engineer,
"a spectacularly bad sentence."
I couldn't help but mutter to myself.
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For example, of long-form questions,
"Linguistics taken as a whole is still unwilling to stand outside the web of biologically shared language."
There was a question asking the meaning of the above sentence.
Before the question, does this phrase make sense in Japanese?
I would honestly write, 'In linguistics, they study language by focusing on biological aspects and commonalities.
If I had not written it this way, my supervisor would have yelled at me, and I would have yelled at my subordinates.
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I am an engineer (that's me) who believes technical writing is the best. Therefore, I always consider the following.
- Clear and accurate language
- Effective use of charts and graphs
- Organize paragraph structure
- Adoption of appropriate style and formatting to suit the target audience and purpose of the document
What are the basic principles common to all of them is
"The writer is 100% responsible for the unreadable text."
There is a consistent "reader-first" principle.
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I am not always a "technical writer" or a "reader-first" person.
理系オヤジたちの「クセつよ交換日記」を、のぞき見させてもらった楽しさhttps://t.co/Vlna28yDCS
? EE Times Japan編集部 (@eetimes_jp) December 18, 2023
In my columns, the readers are always secondary.
Well, 'How is this stance for a writer?' I think it is problematic.
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If the world were to become technical writing, literature would not be possible, and academic fields would lose flavor.
First, I think this kind of SPI question will be invalid.
However,
"Linguistics taken as a whole is still unwilling to stand outside the web of biologically shared language."
If you do not understand the above phrases, you need not think your language skills are poor.
At least, I didn't understand -- we are comrades.
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However, it seemed reasonable for the other areas of the SPI, arithmetic (math) and English (vocabulary).
I was able to understand the questions and derive the answers.
When I think about it that way, the possibility arises that 'only my language skills are deficient.'
Therefore, I would like to discontinue this topic here.