I have written a book about wooden boatbuilding and design

Hi. It was Ike, not me, who has the book on electrical systems.

Cheers,

Earl

 

Ike-got a book title? You can pm me.

 

Good luck with the book. I admire your work very much. And never use a preposition to end a sentence with.

 

Fallguy, I'll send you a PM

 

Sadly the webmaster doesn't like the PM that we are all used too.
Prefers to call it a "conversation"...what utter rubbish!

I've just finished writing my book....Springer will be the publisher. But it takes even longer to get all the dam permissions from publishers for quoting text and images....very slow and tedious process.

 

yes but you need the permissions, in writing. photos, quotes, etc. I take my own photos. I got permissions from ABYC to use their tables. Most of the rest of it is my own. My wife is very good at editing, so that saved me a lot of time and $$$. Plus that, since she does not have an electrical background, if she understands it, then I know I have gotten it across. I have had several other people with electrical backgrounds read the on-line pages as well. What's in the book is just a copy of the online stuff, just in a convenient package.

 

Conversations is appropriate, if you understand that the "old" messages (PM) thing wasn't a private affair. Yep, there were likely (assumption) several that had access to the old messages (moderator, site master, etc.) and I'll assume the same is true of the current "conversations" format, which is why I prefer email contacts.

I've been bothered to write a book by many in recent years. There's a lot more to "writing" a book then just some raw text or MS Word file. One of the things I've had some issues with are keeping grammatically correct tense and manner, such as over use of a passive voice or not repeating adverbs and adjectives continuously, chapter after chapter. I have a booklet of common alternatives I can use, the usual other tools as well, but keeping the phrasing and content consistent is the difference between a well written book, that's easy to read and understand than one that offers more words than help. I too am having big issues with permissions and their related documentation. My point is it's not nearly as simple as jotting down some text, running it through spell check (which misses quite a bit) and then through a grammar checker too. This is one reason for an editor. The format can be jobbed out if you like, though I have very specific about this as well, adding to my headaches. Even something as simple as a appropriately place comma, can make a difficult to understand line, into one that's easy to comprehend. I think I can write well enough to get it done, though I'd like a little more from it, as well as it's presentation, than more commonly seen in recent decades.

 

thank you very much everybody

 

Don't want to take this too far off topic, but just to reply to the above: sorry for any confusion created by the changed terminology. The new software uses the term "conversation" whereas the vbulletin software used "private message" or "PM". Other software uses "personal message" or "direct message" or "DM" for a similar function. As PAR says, it would be better to send any trade secrets or other such material via an encrypted email or similar system where you hold an encryption key and provide the decryption key to the receiving party only. On the forum, in (rare) cases of abuse, spam, or if any illegal activity should be reported, messages could be reviewed.

 

Well said PAR. Never trust a spell or grammar checker.

Ahhh... the Oxford comma. (If you don't know what that is, look it up, and don't write until you understand it.) I too had to take a writing course in my Freshman year of engineering. The professor was a real stickler for concise clear language. He hated the's, that's, and any other word that wasn't needed to make the sentence clear. I learned a lot from him.

 

I tend to be an AP (Oxford) comma guy, being raised with a parochial grade school understanding, I (and the nuns) found the additional comma before "and" redundant, so that's the way I still am (check my previous posts and you'll never see a comma before this conjunction). Some confusion can be seen with particular sentence constructs, though easily reworded for clarity.

Peter, I have several filters on my generic grammar check and about 10,000 additional words, added to my spell checker. FWIW, I never run the grammar checker here, though my atrocious spelling, requires a check on every post. What bugs me most are common grammatical errors, like; "Mike, he went and bashed a home run", that are used in national news broadcasts and everywhere else. Maybe I'm getting old, but there was a time you can rely on TV anchors that had successfully passed a Media and Journalism course, with appropriate imposed style books, (AP, Columbia, Wall Street Journal, MLA, etc.), but now very common errors are abundant and I find little excuse for them. Granted, I'm not the best writer around, but I like to think I'm better than average and use enough commas.

 

Here is Australia, we speak and write the "Queen's English". In theory, not so much in practice.

 

It's a good thing we haven't degenerated down to Trump's English (here in the states) yet, I've have to lose 3/4's of my vocabulary and kiss goodbye to any concepts of appropriate sentence structure.

 

Oh please don't get me started on writing by the media! Since the advent of news being broadcast mostly on the internet, the use of improper grammar and horrid slang has just flooded the news. My pet peeve is use of "going forward". George Bush used that a lot and the media picked it up. Ugh.

However, if you want to see really bad writing, take a look at the US government style manual. There is no such person as I or me. There are lots of "it's" (as if "it" is an entity) and on and on. I was required to take a course called (don't laugh too hard) "Writing the Coast Guard Way". Surprise, surprise. Actually a good course on writing. But as soon as I wrote something in the way the course taught, everyone up the chain of command demanded it be rewritten and all the old governmentese came right back. Of course, Since I retired in 2004 a miracle might have happened and someone who knows how to write might have revised the manual. Who knows? Miracles do happen. Even in the Federal government. LOL!!

My worst writing fault is the "run on" sentence. I was constantly criticized in High School for my excessively long sentences. Even my wife chops my sentences up into more discreet bits. Oh well. Bad habits die hard.

 

Another thing I would recommend if you are faced with a major writing project is to subscribe to the online version of the Chicago Manual of Style. This guide is used by most of the major publishers, and the online version gives you access to their monthly Q&A service. It's a bit intimidating at first, and contains strictures that I disagree with (e.g. "captain" instead of "Captain") but really valuable nonetheless.

Cheers,

Earl