The Writers’ Handbook has been developed to help all writers in the
Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre (DCDC), irrelevant of their role
or team. The publications DCDC produces are sometimes the only contact
we have with our intended audience and so it is vital we communicate our
messages well and maintain our reputation for producing high-quality products
DC writers were never up to Marvel standards
Clearly, they meant “irregardless of…”
My daughter studied English and creative writing at university and graduated with 1st class honours. She is currently doing an apprenticeship in administration type stuff and this has involved college work similar to what used to be know as day release. She has been a little shocked to find that her course notes are riddled with typos, spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. She is being taught by people who are less qualified than she is and in a sane world she would be teaching them. She is basically going along with it in order to get where she wants to go.
FYI
Knowing, and working with, DCDC – though not having seen the handbook – I’d guess it’s much more about technical matters than precise grammar, and more “quantify uncertainty or probabilities using the Defence Intelligence yardstick” than “I before E, except after C”.
Future Character of Conflict is an example of the sort of thing they produce – it’s not exactly light reading but separating known facts from evidenced assumptions from best guesses is an important part of writing for them.
If they are writing for American military readers why bother with precise vocabulary?
I assume ‘precedwence’ is an English English word.
“I assume ‘precedwence’ is an English English word.”
If you can get enough people to agree with you anything can be an English word
“We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary.” James Nicholl
Well done government indeed ….
Look what they’re spending on now.
I before E except after C isn’t used anymore because it is wrong more often than it is right.
Jason Lynch–it is still Govt bullshit. Can’t tell facts from assumptions/guesses? From the cunts who think a hard shoulder on a motorway is a bad idea? Either via stupidity or deliberate malice.
The turds should be made to literally eat their handbook–and then sweep the streets 16/7/365 until they have paid back our money they have wasted on it.
I before E except after C may be wrong, but as a rule that is remembered it gives the writer pause while he/she thinks about the correct spelling of a particular word.
I before E except after C when rhyming with “Thee” is remarkably useful.
Go on, name the exceptions!
The rhyming with Thee is important, because so many of the exceptions aren’t English in origin, and so pronounce IE differently. Glacier, say.
Weird, Albeit and Fancier aren’t hard to spell because the vowels are spelled out anyway.
What appals me, working in a big commercial law firm, is the piss poor standard of English usage and grammar by some of the professional staff. And it’s not just the youngsters, but some of the older people too.
Some of the examples are quite cringeworthy – I mean greengrocers apostrophes’ in writing’s by lawyers’ FFS.
One of the best managers I ever had working for me was a woman about 10 years my junior, so the poor lass had been taught using initial teaching alphabet. As a result, she was completely unable to spell anything, in common with almost the entirety of her generation.
I find that rather Orwellian/Stalinist – a Blair creation? Close it, sack all staff and banned from working in public sector/charity/ngo again for 20 years.