Expert: Dan Smith - 1/19/2006

Question
Hello, Mr. Smith,

I?fm studying technical writing.  I have a question about the phrase ?gin the case of...being...?h.  In the following paragraphs, I think it would be better to rewrite to ?gwhen an attribute of the reproduced information is that of image information?h in place of ?gin the case of ...being..information?h.  What do you think?  In a what situation the phrase ?gin the case of...being?h is used?

It is an object of the present invention to effectively utilize a storage medium capable of mixedly storing wide-ranging information by forming a visible image from reproduced information in the case of an attribute of the reproduced information being that of image information.

Thank you for your answer.

Mineko


Answer
Would you please send me this question directly in an e-mail? Some of the characters in your question are not translating in this venue, and I can't tell what your question is.

Send your question to:

dan@wordsmithofaustin.com

Sorry. But some characters do not seem to work in this venue.

I will observe that the paragraph you are asking about does not appear to have been affected by this shortcoming in the venue. So far as I am aware, "mixedly" is not an English word. You use the word "information" too many times in the dependent clause in the sentence predicate. As nearly as I can tell, what is stored is defined in terms of itself. That won't work. When you send the revised question to me directly, rephrase the paragraph at least once in different words. Try to tell me exactly what is going on in a sentence that does not double back on itself.

Sorry not to be more help, but I can't make sense of either your question or the sentence in its present form. Since I am a native speaker and reasonably familiar with IT phrasing, that should tell you this sentence is not accomplishing whatever is intended.

Hope this helps, and I'll be watching for your direct communication.