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Subject:Re[2]: Grammar, language change, & phobia From:KnoxML1 <KnoxML1 -at- TEOMAIL -dot- JHUAPL -dot- EDU> Date:Tue, 29 Aug 1995 16:44:19 EST
Stacy Kahn writes:
<stuff deleted>
>*Every* field has jargon. If we were to remove all jargon from computer
>documentation we'd be telling people to...<long and tortured replacement
>deleted> instead of "click on".
>Some amount of jargon is necessary to the degree that concepts of a
>particular activity or field are specific to that realm. <snip snip>
>... sometimes it's much easier for everyone if we gently introduce vocabulary >
>that has developed specifically for the situation we're describing.
I agree. My point, however, was not that we should *never* use jargon. Just
that we should avoid it when perfectly good, short alternatives exist in
standard, comfortable old English.
Margaret
Technical writer
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory
Margaret -dot- knox -at- jhuapl -dot- edu
