Re: 24/7 or 7/24?

Subject: Re: 24/7 or 7/24?
From: "William Sherman" <bsherman77 -at- embarqmail -dot- com>
To: <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 01:33:38 -0400

I would say not to use 24/7 as an indication of having round the clock whatever it is you are giving. 24/7 is slang.

I don't believe slang has a place in technical documentation.

I don't believe aircraft manuals refer to GIB or DIB or even Whizzo, yet that slang is in common use. They refer to the weapons officer, co-pilot, navigator, or whatever the function is. You don't say it is "big red switch time" but rather you say to reboot or power off the computer. You do use blue screen, but blue screen is an accepted term for a blue screen. I don't think I have ever seen in a technical manual it called the blue screen of death or BSOD.

Many of the wording issues on this list the last few months have been trying to get the language away from technical language and into a "street" language. While some say it is necessary to hit the target audience, I think there is a point where dumbing down the material for the lowest common denominator is a mistake. What's next? We going to write jive?


On 5/7/2012 12:20 PM, Peter Hirons wrote:
I would never use either. Say what you really mean "available round
the clock, 7 days a week" or just "Always on".

Peter




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Follow-Ups:

References:
24/7 or 7/24?: From: B.J. Smith
RE: 24/7 or 7/24?: From: Peter Hirons
Re: 24/7 or 7/24?: From: B.J. Smith
RE: 24/7 or 7/24?: From: Porrello, Leonard

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