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Subject:RE: I just heard another one From:"Downing, David" <DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com> To:"John Posada" <jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com> Date:Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:09:27 -0600
What did *I* do? Are you referring to my use of the word "verbing" and
the initial caps? The initial caps were supposed to be a parody, and I
supposed the word "verbing" is an example of the very practice I'm
complaining about, but that's still a way of calling attention to the
offensiveness of the practice.
-----Original Message-----
From: John Posada [mailto:jposada99 -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, December 12, 2008 10:14 AM
To: Downing, David
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: I just heard another one
On Thu, Dec 11, 2008 at 11:51 AM, Downing, David
<DavidDowning -at- users -dot- com> wrote:
> Yesterday, we were talking about the verbing of nouns. Well, I just
came
> from a training session in which the instructor said, "Our goal is to
> get everybody on this system, so that down the road, we can use it for
> career pathing." Come. On. Now. (Use of initial caps for emphasis.)
How is it that we find the grammar transgression of verbing nouns so
offensive, but it is OK to construct three sentences out of those
three words, which I don't think are valid sentences?
No ding to David, but isn't what the instructor did and what David did
pretty much the same and don't we all do it? To construct something
using the English language in a way that makes a specific point? Both
get a point across.
--
John Posada
Senior Technical Writer
NYMetro STC President
Looking for the next gig.
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