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User:Retro/Phrases to watch

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See also: Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to watch

Sometimes I notice errors in articles that aren't dependent on the accuracy of the phrasing, but simply an issue of structural accuracy. This page collects phrases I notice. I am ultimately limited by Wikipedia's search: the search handles small phrases well, but can't account for context or conditional arrangements of phrases because the regex options in the search engine are so limited. AWB supports more regex options, but can't efficiently search because database dumps don't appear to contain an index (or at least one that AWB has access to). Perhaps I will download a database dump and index it in the future.

I currently use two labels in categorizing my phrasing concerns:

  • Clarity: This is the lowest level of phrasing concern that means that a phrasing may detract from a hypothetical optimal clarity. There's too much nuance involved to easily fix these with a bot. Sometimes (often?) these are debatable, making mass "hit and run" editing inadvisable.
  • NPOV: These phrasings lean towards favoring a certain perspective, making removal imperative. Even if the sources support a certain perspective, the encyclopedia should still neutrally state perspectives or attribute non-neutral statements to the sources.

I would like to merge the phrase and search columns, but I haven't yet figured out a good way to translate regex searches containing brackets ([]) into search links using {{sl}}.

Clarity
Phrase Query # results Explanation Examples Search notes
"the fact that" My old enemy. I've mellowed out a bit, but I avoid the phrase in my own writing.
"[am/are] of the opinion [that]" Verbose; could be replaced by "thinks" (though the connotation differs slightly)
"by far" Unnecessary qualifier; a bit non-neutral.
"in order to" Often replaceable by "to"
"not unlikely" "not unlikely" 225 "not" before any "un" word is questionable, because it's imprecise in its degree and a double negative. It usually is a weakened version of "likely".
"had the effect of [verb]ing" Replaceable by [verb]ed; the indirection by "effect" may sometimes indicate more nuance. There are possibly more broad queries like "[had/has] the effect" that may be worth investigating
"Also, " Unencyclopedic tone to begin sentences.
NPOV
Phrase Query # results Explanation Examples Search notes
"to the maximum" "to the maximum" insource:/to the maximum[^"\- ]/i 104 Informal tone. 1 The search is a representative sample of problematic use that minimizes false positives. The most useful filter is the inclusion of a space in the character class, which reduces the number of results tenfold.
"in interesting" insource:"in interesting" 220
"in fact" This does add meaning by contrasting with the previous statement, but it is a bit non-neutral.
"unprecedented"

Unsorted edit

This lists phrases that are probably problematic within certain contexts, but that I haven't gone to the trouble of sorting into the above table. Often a diff is included demonstrating a fix; if the diff exists for a reason other than demonstrating a fix, it is noted.

I could probably improve my organization here if I created templated table rows that would include a search. But that would be complicated in cases that have multiple possible searches.

I'm not sure if there's an easy way to detect this (I've thought of a few, mostly utilizing insource:, but there shouldn't be external links inline like this. I've tried this search, but I'm not sure if the initial query catches acronyms, and it times out because google is mentioned so much in articles: "google" insource:/google\.com/. But the search "books google" makes me confident my previous search works as expected. How about "www google com"; this could get me closer to filtering for external links in articles.

External link in article prose: Special:Diff/891706818. I've found a search construction that worked: "instagram" insource:"www instagram com instagram"

I should also comprehensively check my contributions for my article editing from the same period when I created this list; I'm pretty sure there's a few I forgot to add when I created the list because I was fatigued near the end.

Sorting in alphabetical order in the future may be ideal. The only difficulty is that a phrase may have forked variants, and the base phrase may be ambiguous.

  • "watch out for" - negative connotation.
  • "just hit"
  • "since then"
  • "It affects only " -> "It only affects": This is not always a valid replacement. Many false positives live here.
  • "scheduled to be released later in 2017."
    • "scheduled"
      • Ideally, there could be some automation here, where statements about future events that have now passed could be tagged automatically. It would certainly be difficult to find all of them, because there's too much nuance here, but there could probably be a set of phrases that could be logged by a bot and acted upon later. Editing filter tagging wouldn't be a good solution here, since one would have to backdate the edit; it's probably better to have a search and log-based mechanism that could be refined. I would like to propose this on
  • Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission
    • Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (2017) – contemporaneous case, currently on appeal from the Oregon Supreme Court to the Supreme Court of the United States, resulting from the denial to a same-sex couple of a wedding cake due to the bakery owners' religious beliefs
    • This is also outdated. The word "currently" is probably a word that could be used by a bot to flut of date events; the case ended, I think.
    • Oh wait, I guess it might be possible that it's still under appeal.
      • I think "As of <date>" is a good phrasing would for events that have occurred recently. It does get a bit tiresome to read, so it should be used with care.
  • "most glorious"
    • Bias on on Anarchism-related page (I think it was History of anarchism): In the Spanish Civil War, anarchist's most glorious moment, This seems like a strong claim to make with only one source that I can see backing it up. But it has been removed since I noticed it.
  • "the as" (1,925 results, mostly false positives.)
  • "claimed a casualty"
  • "were equipped with"
  • "internet sleuths"
  • "which is like"
  • "there is or is not" (12)
  • "is or is not" (310)
    • Special:Diff/892375057
      • Does the part "or is not" add anything? I'm skeptical that it contributes meaning, and even if it does on a small level, there are better choices.

"there is argument about"

  • f.k.a is an improper abbreviation (should be "f/k/a"), and not a common one: Wikipedia is an encyclopedic work, and could use more encyclopedic vocabulary.
  • Cybersquatting
  • "cites as precedent"
  • "cites as"
  • "cited as precedent"
  • "interesting ways"
  • "are ISO standards"
    • I did a diff that fixed something like this.
  • "first-ever"
    • Special:Diff/892495471 (On Andrew Chael, now deleted.)
    • But "first ever" (45932 matches)
      • This suggests the phrase has some additional meaning (though there are probably better alternatives in most cases.) I imagine the meaning comes from the absoluteness of "ever", which is used to indicate that something is the first in all contexts, not simply in a more specific context.
    • Could "had their first ever appearances" simply become "premiered"? But "premier" is often used in the context of pieces of art, and might not quite fit the first appearance of basketball players. I'm not ever sure what two Final Four participants had their first ever appearances means, though.
      • Perhaps other terms may become useful: (from chippewa.com, cited in the article): "first-timers", "first-time champ". But reading back through what I just wrote, I haven't got any
  • "storm of protest" (168 results)
  • Phrases found on a version of Dmitri Shostakovich:
    • "Whatever the case,"
    • "he decided to"/"she decided to"/"decided to"
      • Most of the time, separating the decision from the act itself probably doesn't convey additional meaning. Perhaps when one is discussing the decision itself and the motivations for a decision, it becomes more useful, but it may be unnecessary even then.
    • "due to receive its premiere" -> "due to premiere" ("to receive its")
  • "has signed" (simplify the pattern, "has" + verb)
  • Second letter capitalization (probably not easy to detect on mass scales, unless one creates a dictionary. It probably would be easy to check with a tool. And it's probably more common among a certain subset of editors with a specific typing style).
  • Temple Run
    • s/Temple Run is considered to popularize the endless running format of platform video games./Temple Run is considered to have popularized the endless running format of platform video games./
    • Or even better yet, make a stronger claim, if the sources support it. Otherwise it's meaningless...
    • s/Temple Run is considered to popularize the endless running format of platform video games./Temple Run popularized the endless running format of platform video games./
    • No longer can be found - http://whazzup-u.com/profiles/blogs/yet-it-moves-puzzle-platformer-full-game-free-pc-download-play-8 - This must have mirrored an old version of the Wikipedia page.
    • "Temple Run is considered to popularize"
      • "is considered to" (25,814) - it's a bit weaselly and nonspecific,
      • "considered to"
      • considered to be"
  • "are often used to aid"
    • No diff, I guess? Or is it the next.
  • "this piece of code written in <x>" -> "this <x> code"
  • Special:Diff/892918352 (solitary diff0
  • "runs the world"
  • "informed" -> "told"
  • Wonder if there could be a filter that catches things like this. There perhaps already is.
  • "de facto"
  • Special:Diff/892949773 (solitary diff, not much broadly actionable here)
  • Frasier
    • He has an affair with many women, all of which are a failure including one who looks exactly like his late mother.
    • "has an affair" - weird phrasing, and not the common definition of affair; Frasier wasn't married.
  • "has more" as an introduction for quotes.
  • "this move"
    • "this move sees" - Weird, bit awkward way of introducing wrestling moves. But based on a search, I think I found it in relatively common use in wrestling articles. That doesn't necessarily mean it's valid though.
    • Special:Diff/892968573
  • Special:Diff/892969851: "completely phased out"
  • was composed not by Vivaldi, but by an impostor,
  • is not known to have made it much of a political issue
  • "on the other hand" Retro 2019-04-25
  • Bad phrase: "In the end".
  • "the year YYYY" can usually just be changed to "YYYY".
  • "in the sense of"
    • -> "to denote"
  • "leads me to another issue"
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