life imitates techwr-l

Subject: life imitates techwr-l
From: Martha J Davidson <editrix -at- nemasys -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 09:50:44 -0700


Hi everyone,

As one of those coincidences that sometimes hit you in the face, I just found the following text in the instructions at the top of a dialog box created by one of our GUI developers, whose expertise is in usability:

"To disable searching for a particular criteria, uncheck the corresponding check box."

If we hadn't just had the criteria/criterion discussion, I would have found the usage in this dialog box disconcerting. Instead, I'm going to have a chat with the developer to ask whether using "criteria" as a singular was a conscious choice on his part or the result of faster linguistic shift than I was aware of.

martha
--
Martha Jane {Kolman | Davidson}
Dances With Words
editrix -at- nemasys -dot- com

"Too many words bring about exhaustion."
--Tao Te Ching, chapter 5 (translated by Sheets/Tovey)



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Follow-Ups:

References:
Technical Writing Overview: From: Gene Kim-Eng

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