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RE: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would.
Subject:RE: I had say it because I was afraid no one else would. From:"Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com> To:<techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Mon, 2 Feb 2009 18:05:50 -0500
Somewhere on a marketing list somewhere, there are several hundred
copywriters loudly proclaiming the arrogance of technical writers who think
they are the language police and will defend the purity of the language unto
death or job loss ...And somewhere on a programmers' list, there are a bunch
of developers doing the same. I think perhaps this might have been part of
David Pogue's point.
Not sure I'd risk my livelihood or my reputation for a made up word by
somebody who may know nothing about the language but does have the ear of my
boss. I guess 30 years in marketing and technical communications has taught
me the importance of playing nice in the same sandbox.
However, YMMV
Connie Giordano
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Sarah Stegall wrote:
No, it does not. The English language does not belong to one company, it
belongs to all of us. No one person or body of persons has the right to
arbitrarily re-define words, make up words, or change words. Nothing,
and I mean NOTHING that I have encountered in more than a dozen years in
this business pisses me off more than the arrogance of marketing
departments that freely and oblivously play hob with a thousand year old
language--of which they are, largely, ignorant.
I have risked my job more than once, refusing point blank to mangle my
native tongue in order to suit the whims of a marketing director who
can't even spell. He does not have the right to re-configure this
language. If anyone does, poets do. Nobody else.
Don't bother arguing with me on this point. On anything else, we can
agree to disagree, but on this one I am not rational.
Sarah
Locked, loaded and ready to rock
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