Need help with a pompous engineer
Wade Courtney
The word is re-notification, people are suggesting that we use
renotification instead. I asked what set of rules they were using to make
this decision and one of the engineers quipped of "Why don't you go look in
the dictionary."
Before I go went and did something stupid, like prove him wrong, I looked in
several online dictionaries, renotification was nowhere to be seen.
What is the best way to approach this without any loss of face on either
side?
Thanks,
C. Wade Courtney
Technical Writer
-----------------------------
NOCPulse Inc.
1283 Mountain View-Alviso Road
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Direct 408.541.2847
Fax 408.735.3775
mailto:wa...@nocpulse.com
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Bill Burns
| The word is re-notification, people are suggesting that we use
| renotification instead. I asked what set of rules they were using to make
| this decision and one of the engineers quipped of "Why don't you go look
| in
| the dictionary."
|
Check instead in an online style reference. I think many (though probably
not all) would say that the hyphen isn't necessary. It doesn't make the term
any clearer, and prefixes don't have to be prepended using a hyphen in most
cases.
I think my primary concern would be why the engineer chose to respond in
that fashion. It doesn't give the impression (or even the illusion) of
respect.
Bill Burns
Technical Communications Manager
Lionbridge Technologies, Inc.
12585 W. Explorer Dr., Suite 150
Boise, ID 83713
Phone: 208.321.4406
FAX: 208.321.4490
E-mail: bill_...@lionbridge.com
Tom Murrell
|
| What is the best way to approach this without any loss of face on either
| side?
Ignore his comment. Don't make the change, and go with what you know to be
correct. The odds are that nothing further will be said by this individual, but
if he does say something, tell him that you checked several sources and are
satisfied with your spelling of the word. If he wants to know why you didn't
say anything to him or follow his edict (or however he says it), smile and say
that you didn't want to further embarrass him.
=====
Tom Murrell
Lead Technical Writer
Alliance Data Systems
Columbus, Ohio
mailto:tmur...@columbus.rr.com
Personal Web Page - http://home.columbus.rr.com/murrell/index.html
Page Last Updated 02/11/02
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-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-tec...@lists.raycomm.com
[mailto:bounce-tec...@lists.raycomm.com]On Behalf Of Wade
Courtney
Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2002 12:08 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: Need help with a pompous engineer
Before I go went and did something stupid, like prove him wrong, I looked in
several online dictionaries, renotification was nowhere to be seen.
What is the best way to approach this without any loss of face on either
side?
Thanks,
C. Wade Courtney
Technical Writer
John Posada
humor.
Send him an email, CC everyone else in the meeting....and his boss if
hew wasn't in the meeting.
Say something to the effect:
"I researched the word as you suggested, I come up with 4 of a kind."
(or whatever poker hand equates to the number of resources.) Unless
you can beat my hand, I'm going with my version."
--- Wade Courtney <wade.c...@nocpulse.com> wrote:
| In our engineering meeting this morning the subject of using a word
| came up.
| The word is re-notification, people are suggesting that we use
| renotification instead. I asked what set of rules they were using
| to make
| this decision and one of the engineers quipped of "Why don't you go
| look in the dictionary."
|
| Before I go went and did something stupid, like prove him wrong, I
| looked in
| several online dictionaries, renotification was nowhere to be seen.
|
| What is the best way to approach this without any loss of face on
| either side?
=====
John Posada, Senior Technical Writer
Current gig ending 4/15
mailto:jo...@tdandw.com, 732-259-2874
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Kim Roper
|
| Wouldn't help. Hyphenation of prefixes is a style issue, for
| the most part.
| Check instead in an online style reference. I think many
| (though probably
| not all) would say that the hyphen isn't necessary. It
| doesn't make the term
| any clearer, and prefixes don't have to be prepended using a
| hyphen in most
| cases.
|
Been there.
Try explaining exactly what Bill said, and show this fellow Table 6.1 in the
Chicago Manual of Style (14th Edition), where it lists "re" as a prefix
usually forming a closed compound and the standard exceptions to that
guideline.
Cheers ... Kim
kim....@vitana.com
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Rebecca Stevenson
sounds clumsy with or without a hyphen. I'm afraid to ask how this
word is being used in an engineering context.
At 12:07 PM -0800 2/14/02, Wade Courtney wrote:
|In our engineering meeting this morning the subject of using a word came up.
|The word is re-notification, people are suggesting that we use
|renotification instead. I asked what set of rules they were using to make
|this decision and one of the engineers quipped of "Why don't you go look in
|the dictionary."
|
|Before I go went and did something stupid, like prove him wrong, I looked in
|several online dictionaries, renotification was nowhere to be seen.
|
|What is the best way to approach this without any loss of face on either
|side?
|
|Thanks,
|
|C. Wade Courtney
|Technical Writer
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---
EBo...@exchange.webmd.net
style guide. According to the Handbook of Technical Writing (Third Edition -
albeit, not the latest), I think renotification is fine.
On the other hand, this is a rather silly argument. Why do you care what
word this guy uses? I would save my breath for more important things. But if
you think it important enough to pursue, I would use humor. Send him a note
saying you spent hours researching the word and the spelling is
"renote-ification". Maybe he'll use it. ;->
Mark Twain had some really funny things to say about spelling that I often
use to put non-writers at ease. It works like a charm.
Elizabeth
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---
Beilby, Margaret
seen.>>
|From Read Me First: A Style Guide for the Computer Industry, pages 79-80:
"Because the computer industry has developed unique terminology, the use of
hyphens has become troublesome. Computer documents are often littered with
unnecessary hyphens. . . apply this general rule: Hyphenate a multiword
expression when used as a modifier; do not hyphenate the expression when
used as a verb or noun."
Hope this helps.
Margaret
tek
engineer redundant? (Re-dundant)?
On the matter at hand, I agree with Rebeca. Use of the word "re..." seems
clumsy to me.
Peter
"Wade Courtney" <wade.c...@nocpulse.com> wrote in message
news:95658A138477D411A93E...@zeus.nocpulse.net...
Bruce Byfield
|What is the best way to approach this without any loss of face on either
|side?
|
When people argue about whether or not to use a hyphen, thie issue is almost never grammar or excellence. It's ego. The engineer felt the need to score some cheap points, and evidently succeeded.
While the temptation to respond in kind may be irresistable, ask yourself what you'll gain. Everybody's time will be wasted in trivia, and you probably won't do your working relation with the engineer any good, either.
Let it slide. That not only gives you a moral victory, but refuses to perpetuate an issue that isn't worth keeping alive. Keep your spleen for something more important.
--
Bruce Byfield 604.421.7177 bbyf...@axionet.com
"A thousand nights, a thousand years,
He feeds us all, he feeds our fears,
Don't stir in your sleep tonight my dears,
We're all working for Pharoah."
-Richard Thompson, "Pharoah"
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---
Janice Gelb
|In our engineering meeting this morning the subject of using a word came up.
|The word is re-notification, people are suggesting that we use
|renotification instead. I asked what set of rules they were using to make
|this decision and one of the engineers quipped of "Why don't you go look in
|the dictionary."
|
|Before I go went and did something stupid, like prove him wrong, I looked in
|several online dictionaries, renotification was nowhere to be seen.
|
|side?
|
Tell him that computer jargon is rarely found in common
dictionaries but that you checked with several technical
writing experts (Techwr-l :-> ) and that they suggest
that the word be examined in context and that you avoid
adding the prefix "re" to "notification" in favor of
rewriting the sentence to say something like "another
notification."
*******************************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janic...@eng.sun.com | this message is the return address.
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8018/index.html
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---
Emma Lawrence
"line" and "card". The billion dollar questions was whether these words
should be hyphenated or not (marketing say "yes", tech pubs and the results
of extensive research say "no").
I would write the documents with the two word spelling, he would mark up the
review copies to the hyphenated spelling; I would ignore his mark ups, he
would point out that I'd missed his comments, I would mutter something about
"two words", we'd release the document and move on. We managed to keep this
up for about three months when the game finally wore itself out. Today, he
saves his red pen and I save my breath. Perfect.
The moral of the story is that there's probably no "best" way to deal with
sort of thing. However you do decide to handle it, remeber three things:
1) You're a professional
2) YOU are in the right
3) It's only a word.
Good Luck
- Emma
"Wade Courtney" <wade.c...@nocpulse.com> wrote in message
news:95658A138477D411A93E...@zeus.nocpulse.net...