2. (a) Sisters reunited after 10 years in checkout line at Safeway
(b) Large hole appears in High Street. City authorities are looking into it.
(c) Mayor says bus passengers should be belter.
Better:
(a) After 10 years separation, sisters meet in checkout line
(b) City authorities investigating cause of large hole in High Street
(c) Mayor says bus passengers should wear seatbelts
3. Original: "No head injury is too trivial to ignore."
Better: "Treat all head injuries, no matter how small"
4. "In case of fire, do not use elevator."
This one reminds me of the limited-English-speaker at JFK airport many years ago who wanted a smoke and didn't have a match. He pulled the lever that said, "Pull lever in case of fire."
A whole new meaning appears when you think of defining a "case of fire" and how a person would fit in that case.
5. "This page intentionally left blank." Except for this statement, of course.
Better: "Except for this sentence, this page is intentionally left blank."
3. "No head injury is too trivial to treat." I prefer: "Treat every head injury."
ReplyDelete4. "Do not use elevator during a fire."
7. The temperature can be high or low, but it is a number and cannot be hot.
My child was hot when his temperature was 105 degrees F; I was hot when the temperature outside hit 85 degrees F. If my child had a temperature of 85, he would be cold (and dead!).
ReplyDeleteHot is a relative word; temperature is a measurement.
thanks gor coming by, Margie!
I actually think the newspapers DO intend these second meanings. :)
ReplyDelete2b. Large hole appears in High Street. City authorities are investigating cause.
3. What do you think the second meaning is? I think it's treating "No head injury" as the subject of the sentence, as in "the state of not having a head injury."
4. I think the second meaning here is "do not use elevator - doing so may cause a fire" or "do not use elevator, just in case there may be a fire."
5. I like "For formatting purposes, this page has no content from the document." However...
To answer the fairly obvious subquestion, "What is the purpose of making such a statement?" - it's so we know that the page is not supposed to have any content. Sometimes it might not be clear if it was intended (because e-publishing is not restricted to the same limits physical pages have), or if there was an error. Context doesn't necessarily give you a clue - just because the flow of the document isn't broken doesn't mean that there wasn't a full-page sidebar there.
Given that, I really wish publishers would make a note at the start of the book about the blank pages, and show a symbol that will be used to indicate that state. Then those pages would only need the symbol to show that the "blank" (save for the symbol) page is intentional, and you wouldn't need to keep seeing that statement.
(Max)
I like your idea for the blank page, Max. As a writer of technical documentation, I am always bothered by the "Intentionally left blank" statement. And it is very true that, in the case of electronic documents, a blank page can arise when your pixels just won't cooperate.
ReplyDelete2nd attempt :( blogger doesn't like me today.
ReplyDelete2. a. If you qualify the ten years such that it can't be confused for being how long they've been waiting in line you would probably get the desired meaning. Sisters reunited after ten years apart in checkout line at Safeway. Though I'm not sure that's a complete disambiguation.
b. Turning it around might help a bit. City authorities looking into how large hole appeared in High Street.
c. The term "belted" is more a UK English formulation, I think. But just adding "seat" might make it better. Mayor says bus passengers should be seat belted. Or "should wear seat belts."
3. This sounds like "the lack of head injuries is too trivial to ignore." A head injury, no matter how trivial, should never be ignored.
4. A classic of the genre, can be understood as if the elevator is on fire, don't use it. In case of building fire, don't use the elevator.
5. This page intentionally left blank of content.
I thought of 3 as a decapitation at first, but knew that was not a normal way of thinking about it. (No head)+injury is too trivial to ignore. It doesn't make any sense that way, however - because decapitation is almost completely untreatable ;) and very hard to ignore.
ReplyDelete5.) I like Evan's statement. This had been mine. 'Except for this line, this page intentionally left blank.'
I am thinking through the shoelaces question, as well..