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Kelly Oja wondered: For the title of a doc I am starting, should be is
XXXX Daily Tasks Heuristic or XXXX Daily Tasks Heuristics? Or maybe
something else?>>
Unless your audience is part of the 1% of the population who has
actually seen the word, and the even smaller proportion of that 1% who
knows what it means, you're probably choosing a $100 word to describe a
$1 concept. From context, it's not at all clear to me how you're using
the term, so I can't suggest a definitive rewording. Perhaps "decision
guidelines for daily tasks" or "the logic behind daily tasks"?
The singular form (heuristic) is more commonly used as an adjective
(e.g., a heuristic approach), but is a legitimate singular. The problem
is that heuristics (pleural) tend to come in packs, hanging out at
malls so they can ambush engineers and programmers and beg to be taken
home. So the odds are good that you're talking about multiple
heuristics rather than a single one.
There is an older usage of heuristic (singular) to refer to the overall
problem of making decisions or exploring a question (e.g., "Grammar:
the heuristic of choice for editors"), but it strikes me as quaint or
at best, overly academic.
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