RE: "Gage"

["Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com>]

I'll concede that the verbing of "text" and "message" may be a necessary
evil. Using the single word "decide" doesn't work in my case, however,
because you can't "decide a loan." What you do is make a decision
whether to approve, reject, or whatever, the loan application. By that
figuring, I supposed you'd have to defend "decision" as a verb, but I
still refuse to use it unless I'm made to.

-----Original Message-----
From: Combs, Richard [mailto:richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com] 
Sent: Wednesday, December 10, 2008 4:52 PM
To: Downing, David; Lauren; quills -at- airmail -dot- net;
techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: "Gage"

Downing, David wrote:
 
> I would call it "sending a message," although I concede that then you
> have three words instead of one. As I said before, I can't bring
myself
> to write about "decisioning a loan." I still feel compelled to write,
> "making a decision on a loan," and I'll keep doing that until our
editor
> tells me it's not acceptable.

I agree wholeheartedly regarding "decisioning," but it and "messaging"
aren't really analogous. 

"Decisioning" is an abomination because it's a verbification where none
was needed. There's already a perfectly good verb for expressing that
concept: "deciding" 

OTOH, the verbing of "message" and "text" is much more defensible
because it lets us express new concepts more concisely. "Texting" is to
"sending a text message" as "deciding" is to "making a decision." 

Richard


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------





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