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Subject:Appears vs. displays? From:"Geoff Hart (by way of \"Eric J. Ray\" <ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com>)" <ght -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA> Date:Tue, 17 Nov 1998 09:40:33 -0700
Michelle Vina-Baltsas asked for preferences on <<The imported
information appears/displays in a table.>>
There's nothing really wrong with "appears" in most cases, though
there's a case against it for online information because "appears"
neither explains "when" or "who or what caused it to appear". I don't
like the use of "displays" either, because this doesn't follow the
dominant usage pattern, namely that "X is the actor that displays
Y"; in this case, the table displays the information, not vice versa.
That analysis also suggests the solution: "The table displays the
imported information."
--Geoff Hart @8^{)}
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
