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Re: Display or appear (Was: Can "either" be used if there are three or moreselections?)
Subject:Re: Display or appear (Was: Can "either" be used if there are three or moreselections?) From:Elna Tymes <Etymes -at- LTS -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 04 Oct 2001 18:02:40 -0700
Laura_Hammett -at- scruggs -dot- com wrote:
> My team solves this dilemma in the following way:
>
> Use "displays". "Appears" implies a mystical, fairy-like presentation of
> material.
>
> Example:
>
> After you click New, the Product dialog displays.
>
> vs.
>
> After you click New, the Product dialog appears. (Spooky.)
Laura -
And your team is out of sync with the standards followed by most of the rest of
the tech writing world. Spookiness or not, what you're promoting is flat out a
grammatical error. Displays is a transitive verb, meaning that it takes an
object. Appears is an intransitive verb, meaning that it doesn't need an
object. And the subject has been discussed to death on this board before -
check the archives.
What your groupthink has done is sign up for popular, but incorrect, usage,
much like the idiots who think that because the word "already" is spelled
correctly that way, "alright" is correct spelling. (It isn't. Look it up.)
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