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> Janet Murphy wrote:
>
> > >From http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/orders.html -->
> > Many pretentious writers have begun to use the expression "orders of
> > magnitude" without understanding what it means. ...
> >
> > ... If you don't have a firm grasp on such concepts, it's best to
> > avoid the expression altogether. ...
> ...
> Methinks very few thing make the writer look quite such a pretentious
> fool as using technical terms he or she doesn't understand.
A certain passion gets invoked in many people when they see refined
terminology used in a way that shows that the speaker doesn't really
understand the concept. I think Sandy pegged it exactly right with
the word "pretentious". Searching on Google Groups, I found many
recent Usenet postings in which people angrily explained the standard,
mathematical meaning of "order of magnitude" and in one way or another
accused others of using it pretentiously.
Here are a couple thoughts on pretentious writing.
1. Why does the passion get invoked? One reason it incites me is that
it took a lot of work, not only to devise and refine concepts like
"order of magnitude" to fit their subject matter so well, but to
establish a shared terminology for those concepts. When people use
refined terms sloppily, they spoil a precious part of our culture.
They undermine the assumptions that make it possible for us to
communicate--even to think--in ways that draw upon that conceptual
refinement.
2. Why do people engage in pretentious usage? Now here is where it
gets difficult. One reason is because, for purposes such as
marketing, people need to get attention, and they need to get it
through channels where there is a lot of competition for bandwidth.
If the phrase "a higher order of magnitude" acquires a certain cachet
because of its meaning in a small, specialized speech community, and
the term spreads, it's only a matter of time before someone decides to
use the term for its cachet and disregard its literal meaning. For
some purposes, the connotation matters more than the denotation.
Most of us got into tech writing because we love the precision that's
possible with language, and we love using language for absolute
faithfulness to truth. But factor #2 exists. And there's little we
can do about it. We might even benefit from other people's practice
of it. It might be essential to the economic engines that create
niches where people like us can ply our talents full-time. Now
there's a scary thought.
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