[HN Gopher] The Armed Forces Officer Chapter Twenty: Writing an...
___________________________________________________________________
The Armed Forces Officer Chapter Twenty: Writing and Speaking
(1950)
Author : happy-go-lucky
Score : 82 points
Date : 2021-01-25 14:35 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.gutenberg.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.gutenberg.org)
| LanceH wrote:
| I tried to find where it says, "No officer shall review a
| document without requesting changes."
| [deleted]
| jrd259 wrote:
| How regrettable that the document has no named author, other than
| the official sponsor. The advice stands or falls without it,
| still one would like to know the name of the one who advocated so
| well for clear writing.
| KineticLensman wrote:
| (1950).
|
| Interesting to compare this with a 2017 equivalent [0] which
| contains a lot more actionable guidance (written in PowerPoint).
|
| A lot of this is relevant in commercial writing, e.g. the use of
| active voice - which tends to make it clear who has
| responsibility for things. Important in contracts, etc.
|
| [0] https://www.jmu.edu/uwc/tutor-
| resources/MSL202L15%20Writing%...
| mattkrause wrote:
| Much of the advice over active/passive voice misses the mark.
| Decide what you want to emphasize and choose the form that does
| so.
|
| Consider some of the examples in that deck. "PVT Jones wrecked
| the HMMWV." That's a good choice if you're describing the
| (mis)adventures of Private Jones.
|
| On the other hand "The HMMWV was wrecked by PVT Jones" might be
| better if your argument continues with "but the problems with
| the motor pool started long before the accident."
| tyingq wrote:
| The USAF has their "Tongue and Quill" book also:
| https://static.e-publishing.af.mil/production/1/saf_cn/publi...
| captain_price7 wrote:
| > Men who can command words to serve their thoughts and feelings
| are well on their way to commanding men to serve their purposes.
| Terretta wrote:
| > _"Superior qualification in the use of language, both as to
| the written and the spoken word, is more essential to military
| leadership than knowledge of the whole technique of weapons
| handling."_
| steve76 wrote:
| The purpose of battle is to end it and limit the violence. The
| natural way, as in not swimming against the tide, is to bring
| civility to martial conflict. Military instruction on writing may
| be inspirational to people who short change some pursuits of
| knowledge. It may also be a giant trap, led to lure the naive and
| adolescents to the land of I Have No Mouth and Must Scream.
| Please do not turn everything into a special ops mission. The
| real face of conflict is ugly, human degradation and slow motion
| suicide that spreads across generations.
|
| The article mentions Churchill, who would watch movies with naval
| officers about Nelson and Raleigh and be moved to tears. School
| kids today watch movies that would make him vomit or be forever
| horrified. That's a much better emotion if you are going to led a
| martial life. RoboCop, or Saw would be better movies to show the
| officers of the Royal Navy. Something that really creates
| horrific anger because of sadistic cruelty.
|
| Instead of Nelson, may I direct everyone to one Eugene Fluckey,
| who after winning the Medal of Honor, demanded a return to the
| Pacific. His officers mandated a psychiatric assessment, which he
| failed, due to his novel ideas of submarine mounted rocket
| launchers, bombardments, boarding parties, and shore raiders.
| Immediately he returned to the fight and went on to build under
| water launched nuclear missiles. That was close to 100 years ago.
| With the weaponization of space, on the scale of solar systems,
| galaxies, maybe even everything, imagine what we can do to each
| other. Awful.
|
| Killing other people is never a good thing. If anything should be
| censored, it's this, the pursuit of the martial, as in teaching
| your children how to use fatal combat techniques and intelligence
| on one another. They get it enough. We have enough of it in the
| world already.
| gdubs wrote:
| This reads like it's straight from "The Art of Plain Talk", 1946.
| [1]
|
| I picked up that book over a decade ago, and it had a big effect
| on the way I write. There's a temptation to use big words to
| sound more professional. Part of it is understanding your
| audience. But even when speaking to a crowd that can grasp the
| meaning of fancier language, you risk clouding your message.
|
| Feynman understood this. A big part of his brilliance was taking
| hard ideas and making them simple.
|
| My first real introduction to the idea of writing with simple,
| clear sentences came from Cliff Stoll. People thought the
| Cuckoo's Egg was ghostwritten. In Silicon Snake Oil he shared
| thoughts on what made his writing so enjoyable. What I remember
| most is simplicity. And short sentences.
|
| 1:
| https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862302.Art_of_Plain_Tal...
| Nodraak wrote:
| For anyone in Germany (or any country which is blocked by this
| website), here is the raw html. Save it and open it with your
| favorite web browser :) http://paste.awesom.eu/Y36k
| macintux wrote:
| For anyone like me who was unfamiliar with this restriction:
|
| https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180306/03423339363/proje...
| commandlinefan wrote:
| Thanks for the context - I had assumed that Germany was
| blocking it because it pertained to the US military.
| folli wrote:
| Somehow ironic that Germany restricts access to Project
| Gutenberg, which is named after a famous german.
| watwut wrote:
| It is other way round. Gutenberg blocks Germany.
| vulcan01 wrote:
| This is because Germany wanted Gutenberg to restrict access
| to most of their collection, which is not in the public
| domain in Germany. Gutenberg instead decided to block
| Germany rather than comply with copyright law.
| watwut wrote:
| Where do you see most of their collection? Most of
| Guttenberg collection does not have copyright claim in
| Germany.
| lailalessdad wrote:
| https://instapage.grsm.io/lailaless8672
| ckozlowski wrote:
| My grandfather gave me some advice when I was in high school.
|
| He was a radio and communications engineer from the 1950s to 80s.
| By the time he retired, he'd worked as a program manager with a
| staff of hundreds. His advice to me, a budding IT enthusiast and
| likely heading for a career in such, was simple:
|
| "Learn to read and write well. You can't be a good engineer if
| you can't write well."
|
| It was invaluable advice.
| mcguire wrote:
| I kind of like Chapter Three:
| http://www.gutenberg.org/files/25482/25482-h/25482-h.htm#CHA...
|
| " _There is a common saying in the services, and elsewhere, that
| greater privileges grow out of larger responsibilities, and that
| the latter justifies the former. This is part truth and part
| fable._ "
|
| Actually, this book looks pretty good generally.
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2021-01-25 23:02 UTC)