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"golden mountain"
DU
Jul 22, 2011 10:45
13 yrs ago
English term

the questions: Why? What? and How? to convince

English Other General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters punctuation
This entails answering the questions: Why? What? and How? to convince others of the importance of change.

How do I punctuate/capitalize this sentence?
Responses
5 +3 the questions "why", "what" and "how" to convince
5 +5 the questions why, what and how to convince.
4 +1 Why, what, and how
4 -1 Why, what and how am I to convince the others of the importance of the change?

Discussion

veratek (asker) Jul 25, 2011:
bloated indeed And that's why to call something that could lead to an error "dangerous" is a bloated choice of a word.
If you think not enough context is given on purpose, as you seem to imply, that's another bloated assumption. The best thing is not to make so many wrong (and bloated) assumptions in the first place, otherwise you will not be helpful. The purpose of kudoz is for translators to help others, not the contrary.
Tony M Jul 25, 2011:
"Bloated"?! "Dangerous", simply in the sense that it would lead to a translation error; if you don't give us enough context to work with, then we have no way of knowing if it is made clear elsewhere... the best thing is to use clear, unambiguous language that stands on its own two feet.
veratek (asker) Jul 22, 2011:
yep @Tony, the "in order to" would solve the ambiguity problem for Noni's suggestion below. It was nmmad who correctly pointed to the ambiguity issue.

My original just needed to have the caps off, since it was not ambiguous. Even if it had been, that's why I was asking how the sentence should be punctuated in the first place.

=============
@Tony: Presumably, the questions in fact refer to that which has to be changed: What needs to be changed? Why change it? How are we going to go about changing it?

Yes. But the reader will be able to easily understand this from the rest of the text.
===========
And "a dangerous ambiguity"? What a bloated choice of adjective...
Tony M Jul 22, 2011:
Right, now that changes everything! The whole problem with the original proposed EN translation is that it creates a dangerous ambiguity that is not there in the FR — and all because of translating 'pour' as 'to'.

So your proposal reads as if it is "what is needed, and why should we, and how to go about convincing..." — which in fact is not all what the s/t means (as is made clear by the use of 'pour' in FR).

So what you need is to replace your 'to' with, for example, "in order to" — " we need to ask the questions Why? What? How? in order / so as to convince..."

Presumably, the questions in fact refer to that which has to be changed: What needs to be changed? Why change it? How are we going to go about changing it?
veratek (asker) Jul 22, 2011:
text was... an organisational change communications manual. Original French: Il s’agit de répondre aux questions pourquoi ? quoi ? et comment ? pour convaincre de l’intérêt...
Style was a mix of PP and flowing text, I thought Noni's suggestion worked fine. But I hadn't seen nmmad's remark that was posted later. Noni's version does create ambiguity without something after "how." Oh, well.
Tina Vonhof (X) Jul 22, 2011:
Agree I agree with BD: in some context it could be made punchier with question marks and without the words "the questions".
B D Finch Jul 22, 2011:
Context Surely the answer depends upon the context in which this is to be used. If it were a Powerpoint presentation then, to make it punchier, I'd retain the original capital letters and question marks. If it were in continuous, flowing text, I'd change it as suggested by Noni and Liz.

Responses

+3
2 hrs
Selected

the questions "why", "what" and "how" to convince

US punctuation, comma before the quotation mark:
the questions "why," "what" and "how" to convince....

or stick with the original (removing the capitals):
the questions: why? what? and how? to convince....

There needs to be some punctuation after "how" in order to stop "how to convince..." being taken together on first reading and thus potentially requiring the reader to reread and reconstrue the sentence.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 8 hrs (2011-07-22 19:38:06 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

AS Tony M comments above, seeing the original does make a difference, if only because it offers flexibility with respect to the English wording. I agree with him that using "in order to" clarifies the structure and is probably still best preceded by some punctuation mark, such as a comma.

If you want to use commas:

It involves answering the questions of why, what, and how, in order to convince...

OR question marks

the questions of why? what? and how? in order to convince

OR quotation marks

the questions "why", "what" and "how", in order to convince
Note from asker:
Thanks a lot!
Peer comment(s):
agree Tony M : You have picked up on the very point that was worrying me, and as I have suggested in the discussion above, I'd go so far as to change the 'to' to something less ambiguous.
5 hrs
Thanks. See note above.
agree AllegroTrans
21 hrs
agree Phong Le
1 day 21 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "thanks again!"
+5
2 mins

the questions why, what and how to convince.

Chuck the colon, the question marks and the capital letters!

You were quite right to be dubious.
Peer comment(s):
agree Sharon Toh, MITI MCIL
5 mins
Thank you Sharon
agree Jenni Lukac (X) : This works fine without the serial coma for a British English audience.
26 mins
Thanks Jenni
agree Jack Doughty : Agree, and I don't think the absence of a serial comma would put a British English audience into a coma.
30 mins
Hee hee, thanks Jack
agree Thayenga : I agree with Jenni and Jack. The sentence is clear without the serial comma.
48 mins
Thank you
agree Tina Vonhof (X) : With serial comma for a US audience.
6 hrs
Thanks Tina
neutral Tony M : But in fact, this repeats Asker's mis-rendering of the source text, now we have the rest of the context.
8 hrs
Ah... ;-)
Something went wrong...
+1
3 mins

Why, what, and how

I think

This entails answering the questions: Why? What? and How? to convince others of the importance of change.

works well enough.

You could try these alternatives, though:

This entails answering the questions: Why, what, and how to convince others of the importance of change. [with or without capital after the colon, depending on what is in the rest of your text, with or without the Oxford comma]


Peer comment(s):
neutral Tony M : But in fact, this repeats Asker's mis-rendering of the source text, now we have the rest of the context.
8 hrs
To be fair, I posted this before the context was provided. I can remove it if you feel I should.
agree Thuy-PTT (X)
2 days 16 hrs
thank you for the one agree!
Something went wrong...
-1
2 days 6 hrs

Why, what and how am I to convince the others of the importance of the change?

It's OK to construct a question sentence for a title (I guess it's a sort of a title for smth).
Peer comment(s):
disagree Tony M : But according to Asker's added context, thta isn't actually the questions are about
1 day 3 hrs
Something went wrong...
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