RE: the liaison between or the liaison among??

Subject: RE: the liaison between or the liaison among??
From: Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com, Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:45:46 -0700 (PDT)

Mrs. Mintz wasn't a technical writer. She was talking about the general-population usage of the words "between" and "among." We're talking about a specialized usage. We very often deal with situations where we have to use words in a way that the general population doesn't. Many words in a technical writer's vocabulary will vary according to industry. This is one of them.



--- On Thu, 10/16/08, Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com> wrote:

> From: Dan Goldstein <DGoldstein -at- riverainmedical -dot- com>
> Subject: RE: the liaison between or the liaison among??
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008, 3:38 PM
> Nope -- Mrs. Mintz was very clear about this one back in
> 10th grade. You
> can't stand *between* three people. If you stand
> between two people and
> one of them throws a pillow at the other, it hits you
> instead. If you
> stand *among* three or more people, they can hit each other
> willy-nilly.
>
> The same goes for communications: At the same time that
> you're
> clarifying to Bob what Anne really meant, Charlie is
> telling Dora
> something that you don't hear. You can't serve as a
> conduit *between*
> all four of them; but if you understand that limitation,
> you can work
> *among* them very well.
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Keith Hood
> > Sent: Thursday, October 16, 2008 3:30 PM
> > To: TECHWR-L
> > Subject: Re: the liaison between or the liaison
> among??
> >
> > My $0.02: Use "between." The word
> "among" makes me think of
> > being "within." A cat among the pigeons is
> among them, but it
> > surely is not working to help them effect information
> transfer.
> >
> > The word "between" has connotations of being
> in position as a
> > sort of conduit, which is, I think, slightly more
> descriptive
> > of a liaison's work.
> >
>
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RE: the liaison between or the liaison among??: From: Dan Goldstein

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