A young Belgian man recently died by suicide

[GoodTaste]

A young Belgian man recently died by suicide after talking to a chatbot named ELIZA for several weeks, spurring calls for better protection of citizens and the need to raise awareness.

Source: ResetEra

Does the content above sound natural to you? It sounds odd to and doesn't look like being written by a native English speaker. I am not absolutely sure. But I believe that a native speaker would have written like "A young Belgian man recently committed suicide..."

Is it written by a native speaker?

 

[SoothingDave]

I think it's to avoid the criminal language of "commit" and to be more sensitive to mental health issues surrounding suicide.

No, I don't find it natural, but politically correct language rarely is.

 

[Barque]

I agree. The words used don't suggest that the chatbot encouraged him to commit suicide as much they'd have if it'd read "committed suicide".

GoodTaste, why do you keep trying to find errors in native-speaker writing? That's the impression I get from your posts.

 

[Barque]

But I believe that a native speaker would have written like

But I believe that a native speaker would have written something like ...

 

[Barque]

and doesn't look like being written by a native English speaker.

and doesn't look like it's been written by a native English speaker.

No offence meant but I think you need to work on your grammar rather than look for mistakes in writing that you come across.

Basically I'm saying - stop looking for errors in what others write. Concentrate on improving your English.

 

[Barque]

Does the content above sound natural to you?

Yes.

It sounds odd to and

It sounds odd to me and ...

 

[GoodTaste]

No, I don't find it natural, but politically correct language rarely is.

Yes. （In answering the question of "Does the content above sound natural to you?")

Here's a situation of No vs. Yes. If it is you, what will you choose to believe?
For me, I prefer the former.

No offence meant but I think you need to work on your grammar rather than look for mistakes in writing that you come across.

Basically I'm saying - stop looking for errors in what others write. Concentrate on improving your English.

More accurately speaking, I've been looking for better linguistic solutions; or simply put, looking for better English. The question in the OP is an example; the question is "are there better ways to express it?" while there are no errors there. And the replies I've got are conflicting. Do you think stopping looking for better solutions is a good idea?

Native speakers, be their native language English or Chinese, make mistakes every now and then. It is common sense. So keeping aware of them is a necessity for improving one's linguistic skills. For those happening in prestigious journals like Nature, Science, The Lancet or NEJM, one should be very careful about whether it is indeed a grammatical mistake; and the uncertainty drives one to post to ask native speakers to help. It is a natural process of learning, do you think this process itself a mistake and should be stopped？

 

[Tarheel]

@GoodTaste I'm not sure what you mean by the "yes and no" thing, but I do have a comment about "former" and "latter". I don't use them because I figure it's at least possible that other people have the same problem I do. (Whenever I see one of them I always have to reread what I just read so I can figure out what it refers to )

I am not at all sure what you mean by "linguistic solutions".

It's normal for people to disagree somewhat -- especially in gray areas.

You read stuff that is probably over my head in a lot of cases. (One thing for sure is that your English is much much better than my Chinese will ever be )

As for the question at the end, rather than looking for errors in prestigious publications I think you should work on areas where you have weaknesses. (There aren't many.)

One final thought. If I were you I would avoid referring to myself in the third person. (That can look weird (for lack of a better word).)

 

[emsr2d2]

Here's a situation of No vs. Yes. If it is you, what will you choose to believe?
For me, I prefer the former.

Are you talking about closed questions, sometimes called "Yes/No questions"?
If what was me? What would I choose to believe (or not)?

More accurately speaking, I've been looking for better linguistic solutions no semi-colon here or, simply put, looking for better English. The question in the OP is an example; the question is "Are there better ways to express it?" while even though there are no errors, there. and the replies I've got are conflicting. Do you think stopping looking for better solutions is a good idea?

You're not "solving" anything. You're frequently picking apart perfectly well-written texts. As the others have said, it would be a better use of your time to write original texts and ask us how they could be improved.

Native speakers, be their native language English or Chinese, make mistakes every now and then. It is common sense. That's [just] common knowledge. So keeping Being aware of them is a necessity necessary for improving one's own linguistic skills. For those happening With errors in prestigious journals like Nature, Science, The Lancet or NEJM, one should be very careful about I want to check whether it is they are indeed a grammatical mistakes; and the uncertainty drives one me to post to ask native speakers to for help. It is a natural process of learning. Do you think this process itself a mistake and should be stopped？

You misused "common sense".
You can "be aware of" or "stay alert to" but "keep aware" doesn't work.
It's difficult to appropriately use "and" and "so" at the start of a sentence (even for native speakers).
Using "one" leads to some unnatural constructions and you're stuck with using it once you've started.
You need to work on the appropriate use of semi-colons.

 

[Tdol]

Here's an article about why mental health advocates prefer the term die by suicide:

Why mental health advocates use the words 'died by suicide'

By changing the way we speak, we remove the culpability from the person who has lost their life.

www.nbcnews.com