Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by arp242 381 days ago
No, you have certain ways you like communication to happen. That's okay, everyone had that. To present this as some sort of objective standard is complete bollocks, as is your claim that it somehow "degrades" discourse.

This applies twentyfold when the topic of the scientific paper is swearing. Like mate, seriously?

Anyway, I tried. Good luck with your life.

2 comments

I tend to agree. A lot of medical and scientific writing often falls on deaf ears because most people only respond to a conversational tone. That's why you write corporate emails in a conversational tone, it's just what's most effective.

I think, if the subject matters call for it, which clearly this does as they're literally looking at swearing, then it can be fine to swear. It can be more concise and more accurate.

I agree as well, I really dislike the overly formal tone we've tended to adopt in order to signal that the content is important. If you have important stuff to say, it'll be important even if you use simple words to say it.