Re: "Appears" or "displays"

Subject: Re: "Appears" or "displays"
From: Nick Marino <Rhetonic -at- GTE -dot- NET>
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1998 23:36:21 -0600

But this doesn't work either because it breaks a cardinal rule of all tech
writing: brevity.

Seven words vs. one two or three: Do the math.

Scott McClare wrote:

> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Michelle Vina-Baltsas [SMTP:Michelle_Vina-Baltsas -at- US -dot- CRAWCO -dot- COM]
> > Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 1998 10:52 AM
> > To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> > Subject:
> >
> >Hello All!
> >
> >Which is the correct, appears or displays? Is it a matter of
> >preference or is one grammatically correct?
> >
> >1) The imported information appears in a table.
> >
> >or
> >
> >2) The imported information displays in a table.
>
> I personally don't like either, because information doesn't really
> "appear," "display," or *do* anything other than be there.
>
> Try, "The following table lists the imported information," or whatever
> variation thereof bets fits your context.
>
> Take care,
>
> Scott
>
> --
> Scott McClare - Technical Writer
> DY 4 Systems Inc., Kanata, Ontario, Canada
> (613) 599-9199 x502 smcclare -at- dy4 -dot- com
> Opinions are my own
>
> From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000==

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