• Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours ago

    The very first thing written by a something called “proofreading services.com” is functionally wrong. That’s a helluva start.

    “exact” and “very accurate” are not the same thing. Not by a long shot.

    “Very accurate” still leaves room for innacuracies while “Exact” does not. So why exactly would I trust a service whose very first sentence is an error?

  • Angry_Autist (he/him)@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Hi, as a published writer: There is nothing wrong with very as long as you don’t repeat it needlessly.

    A lot of these guides are very, very stupid.

  • ilinamorato@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    “I never give advice, but there is one thing I wish you would do when you sit down to write news stories, and that is: Never use the word ‘very.’ It is the weakest word in the English language; doesn’t mean anything. If you feel the urge of ‘very’ coming on, just write the word ‘damn’ in the place of ‘very.’ The editor will strike out the word ‘damn,’ and you will have a good sentence.”

    —William Allen White

  • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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    13 hours ago

    Don’t say “very accurate,” say “exact”

    “exact” is a synonym for “very precise,” not “very accurate.”

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      The percentage of people among the general population who know the difference is about 2.5356%. I’ll allow it.

      For the shooters out there, I’m all about accuracy. Sometimes precision for fun, but I just want in the general area for most cases.

      • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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        7 hours ago

        2.5356%.

        clever. (But is that accurate?)

        I don’t entirely agree with that image – the first one says low accuracy, low precision – but it’s the best accuracy possible given the low precision.

          • jsomae@lemmy.ml
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            4 hours ago

            As I recall, the mathematical definition of accuracy does have some overlap with precision, so increasing precision improves accuracy as well. It’s just a little confusing.

    • absGeekNZ@lemmy.nz
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      11 hours ago

      I agree!

      Accuracy and precision; when I used to shoot archery long ago; measure different things, accuracy is a measure of the spread of your shots, precision is a measure of how close to the middle your shots are.

    • shalafi@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      And I would be thrilled to fucking death to see more ads just like it. Touch my brain lovingly, don’t just fuck it.

  • pseudo@jlai.lu
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    11 hours ago

    Challenge accepted. I’ll try to avoid that word for as long I possible. I’ll ping you next time I realise I fail.