Language on ITTF site

says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
says Shoo...nothing to see here. - zeio
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ITTF has had a Chinese version for a long long time that republishes some of the English articles in Chinese. The folks struck up partnership with Sina last year and Sina took over the Chinese side of the business.

The irony is that there is no official Chinese version of the ITTF handbook. Hong Kong TTA has tried to get the proposal passed. They have the Chapters 2 & 3 translated already, so they just need the green light. ITTF has even stopped publishing it in French and Spanish since 2013.
 
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When I read, well, mostly anything nowadays, I weep for the English language. From content to word choice, I feel we are chasing the lowest common denominator. That said, table tennis isn't dominated by native English speakers, as here we are clearly the outsiders. As such, I think this should be a big consideration when writing articles on the subject. Tossing some fancy big words into news articles to give us some bootstraps to tug on would be great, but keeping a TT article at a level where google translate can get the job done is probably the best idea.
 
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Can someone translate this particular headline from ITTF's famous wordsmith into 'simple' English for me:

[h=1]Julia one common factor, first places against expectations another[/h]https://www.ittf.com/2018/03/15/julia-one-common-factor-first-places-expectations-another/
 
says The sticky bit is stuck.
says The sticky bit is stuck.
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Can someone translate this particular headline from ITTF's famous wordsmith into 'simple' English for me:

[h=1]Julia one common factor, first places against expectations another[/h]https://www.ittf.com/2018/03/15/julia-one-common-factor-first-places-expectations-another/

No. Gibberish, does not parse.
 
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Either that or 'another' at the very end of the sentence was left there by mistake (I have no idea what it is referring to or why it is needed in the first place). Unless that's how folks actually speak over there.
In any writing business with extremely strong editorial standards and oversight, these kinds of errors are common.
 
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Either that or 'another' at the very end of the sentence was left there by mistake (I have no idea what it is referring to or why it is needed in the first place). Unless that's how folks actually speak over there.

It's headline style. The idea is to compress a lot of meaning into a few words. You leave out unnecessary words and get extra points for clever wordplay. This headline is poorly written, so not easy to understand even for native speakers.

Headline: Julia one common factor, first places against expectations another

With missing words: THE NAME "Julia" IS one common factor, AND "first places against expectations" IS another COMMON FACTOR.
 
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It's headline style. The idea is to compress a lot of meaning into a few words. You leave out unnecessary words and get extra points for clever wordplay. This headline is poorly written, so not easy to understand even for native speakers.

Headline: Julia one common factor, first places against expectations another

With missing words: THE NAME "Julia" IS one common factor, AND "first places against expectations" IS another COMMON FACTOR.

Nonetheless, at first sight it's gobbledegook and entirely typical of Ian Marshall's style - he often makes these two part sentences, such as 'Defeat for Ma Long, but victory for Xu Xin'. Every time I read another one I want to scream.
 
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It's headline style. The idea is to compress a lot of meaning into a few words. You leave out unnecessary words and get extra points for clever wordplay. This headline is poorly written, so not easy to understand even for native speakers.

Headline: Julia one common factor, first places against expectations another

With missing words: THE NAME "Julia" IS one common factor, AND "first places against expectations" IS another COMMON FACTOR.


Thanks - it finally makes sense! I was beginning to suspect the writer hates verbs (among other things)... :)
 
says ok, I will go back and make sure you have access. Be...
says ok, I will go back and make sure you have access. Be...
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Nonetheless, at first sight it's gobbledegook and entirely typical of Ian Marshall's style - he often makes these two part sentences, such as 'Defeat for Ma Long, but victory for Xu Xin'. Every time I read another one I want to scream.

In fairness I wonder if he writes the headlines. A lot of times headlines are not written by the person who writes the article. Of course ITTF does not have a lot of staff, so who knows? His writing style does not do justice to his knowledge of the sport and his enthusiasm.
 
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