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>>Will they know the phrase "vice versa?" If not, what is a not-too-wordy
replacement phrase that implies the same thing?
IMO, most ESL people will not understand the term immediately since it is a
Latin borrowing and prone to usage in more "elite" registers or dialects.
In many cases (writing for ESL audiences, for example), brevity is not
equivalent to clarity. Brevity in writing often depends upon finer
distinctions in vocabulary (the very reason we HAVE so many foreign borrowings)
and on sentence embedding. Both of these attributes make comprehension a more
complex task.
Aside from these factors, the phrase is also vague. (The other way around? In
reversed order? Conversely?)
As far as I know, English doesn't have a ready phrase that means the same as
vice versa. For the audience to whom you're writing, I'd simply state exactly
what vice versa replaces.
Example:
Either I'll fire Jo Ann and then she will shoot me, or Jo Ann will shoot
me and then I'll fire her. 8-)
Hope this helps.
Bill Burns *
Assm. Technical Writer/Editor *
Micron Technology, Inc. *
Boise, ID *
WBURNS -at- VAX -dot- MICRON -dot- COM *
