Re: Wrong? Poor style? OK?

[Ned Bedinger <doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com>]

Caroline Tabach wrote:
> While the sentence did look OK to me the first time round, I would
> venture to suggest that maybe the word "how" bothered the editor.
> Many people do not like to use question words as parts of sentences,
> for example, instead of writing "how many people" to use "the number
> of people".
> So maybe she wanted you to write "the way test results are saved"?


Good eye!  The 'how' in the OP's sentence suggests that it was written 
in response to something like a question in an FAQ ("How can I...?"). If 
it is a response to an expressed 'How' question, then using 'how' in the 
response would help map the answer to the question.

Still, since we don't know the bigger context of the OP's sentence, I'll 
just venture a step further in this direction to speculate that the 
sentence with 'how' in it was written in anticipation of a user needing 
the answer, and not in response to an expressed question. In this case, 
I think you're right, that the OP's use of 'how' will cause some readers 
to wonder exactly what was asked in the unspecified, implied question.

Thanks,

Ned BEdinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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