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Subject:RE: "in terms of" vs. "with regard to" From:"Miller, Alan" <Alan -dot- Miller -at- prometric -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 8 May 2002 14:37:26 -0400
Kevin:
If you can't think of a good reason to make a change, why do it? It'll just irritate the original author and make subsequent changes that much more difficult to justify. I don't think it's worth it. In terms of two of my personal thumb-rules, namely number of words and number of letters, it's a wash. You're going from three words to three words and nine letters to twelve. Save it for serious issues with the document (assuming that there may be some).
But then, I'm grumpy today, so YMMV.
Al Miller
"Chief Documentation Curmudgeon"
Thomson Prometric
Baltimore, MD
> -----Original Message-----
> From: bounce-techwr-l-40429 -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com@ITP On Behalf Of "Kevin Christy" <kevinchristy -at- socal -dot- rr -dot- com>
> Sent: Wednesday, May 08, 2002 2:10 PM
> To: TECHWR-L
> Subject: "in terms of" vs. "with regard to"
>
>
> I'm editing a document, and a sentence fragment reads:
>
> "[we] conducted a design and analysis of [our system] in terms of the
> switching efficiency, wavelength dependence, extinction ratio, polarization
> dependence and its material and electro-optic parameters."
>
> I want to change that "in terms of" to "with regard to," and then I realized
> that I couldn't intelligently explain the difference between the two if
> someone asked me to; "with regard to" just *feels* more appropriate. Any
> thoughts or guidance?
>
> Kevin
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