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Subject:RE: Don't say what you CANNOT do in documents From:"Cheyne, Andrew" <Andrew -dot- Cheyne -at- vicorp -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 21 Apr 2004 18:10:43 +0100
Not really. I'd say that it was getting into the issue of writing in the way
that most of your readership find most easy to read. In any case, it isn't
separate from linguistic drift because it's the difference in the rates of
linguistic drift in the UK and US that causes this situation.
My personal view is that in technical writing it's safer to be a little
conservative about adoting new usages and neologisms. If a word or usage is
"becoming accepted", that means to me that there are still some people to
whom it's not yet acceptable.
/a
-----Original Message-----
From: Downing, David [mailto:DavidDowning -at- Users -dot- com]
Sent: 21 April 2004 17:49
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: Don't say what you CANNOT do in documents
Well, this is getting into the issue of UK vs. US English, which is
separate and distinct from the issue of linguistic drift, which is what
John seemed to be getting at.
-----Original Message-----
From: Cheyne, Andrew [mailto:Andrew -dot- Cheyne -at- vicorp -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 12:10 PM
Subject: RE: Don't say what you CANNOT do in documents
"Criteria" used as a singular sounds very wrong in the UK. Wrong enough
to undermine the authority of the document, I'd say.
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