Re: professional approach to communication

Posted by Oshel, Philip Eugene on
URL: http://confocal-microscopy-list.275.s1.nabble.com/LSM-510-VS-LSM-710-tp2914140p2939244.html

Thank you. Nice to know that there is at least one other person
howling from the lonely cliff edge.

Phil

>Without any intention to single out one individual, I'd like to
>address a worsening issue regarding electronic communication.  This
>is not a diatribe about "artistic license", the difficulties of
>English as a second language, regional differences in slang or
>syntax or the subtleties of hanging participles.  What I would like
>to see is less casual and more appropriate use of the fundamentals
>of English by those who should know better.
>
>Professional communications should reflect not only the expertise of
>the individual, but their intellectual acuity as well.  We are not
>Twittering each other, so we should be writing in complete sentences
>with proper capitalization and punctuation.  While I may be a
>Luddite in this regard, doesn't it take more effort to purposely
>write without these attributes than with them, as all our years of
>formal training would dictate?
>
>We have enough trouble with the bastardization of the current
>lexicon.  For instance, when was the last time you "migrated" a
>chair from one room to another, or you asked yourself what
>"impacted" your decision to buy a particular car?  In my opinion we
>should eschew the tendency to accept trendy but lazy language and
>work to maintain some semblance discipline, if only to slow the
>progression toward the use of "like" three to five times in every
>sentence.  (Is that just in America, or has this disheartening trend
>spread to other English speaking countries?)
>
>I would propose that a given writing or language style should be
>appropriate for the forum in which it is used.  In the case of this
>forum, where intelligent and highly educated scientists predominate,
>we should stick to that level of discourse.
>
>Rantingly yours,
>Carl
>
>Carl A. Boswell, Ph.D.
>Molecular and Cellular Biology
>University of Arizona
>520-954-7053
>FAX [phone]

--
Philip Oshel
Microscopy Facility Supervisor
Biology Department
024C Brooks Hall
Central Michigan University
Mt. Pleasant, MI 48859
[phone]