Style is a personal choice. Some people choose wrongly.

This morning, a co-worker practiced giving a slide presentation. One of the group leaders' only suggestion was,

You should change "Can use GFF input" to "Is capable of utilizing GFF input".

Comments

[kalash93]

Was this really necessary?

[Honey Mead]

877611
You should have said. 'The necessity of this post is questionable.'

[kalash93]

877622

I think that a flame war in immanent.

[Honey Mead]

877629
-or-
The likelihood of a flame war developing in the near future is a predictable outcome.

[Pony Bones]

Wow, just wow. I'm sorry, I think?

[nemryn]

I don't see the problem, it removes the potential can/may ambiguity. :pokerface:

[Triple Word Score]

What a scrub. Clearly, "Enhanced functionality by leveraging GFF input," is the superior choice.

[Bradel]

This is just...
I mean...
How can someone seriously...

Okay, I know I don't need to preach to the choir about jargon and usage here, so I won't, but I believe that is the single most godawful writing suggestion I've ever had the displeasure to see. In anything but a business context, I would consider this to be some epic trolling.

[Georg]

There is no project so perfect that upper management can resist (censoring) with it, regardless of the results.

[Westphalian_Musketeer]

877636 A punch to the face is also likely.
( Kudos if you get the reference.)

[Themaskedferret]

..... I got nothing...

[bookplayer]

I can only picture said group leader as the pointy-haired boss from Dilbert. Anything else is impossible.

[GhostOfHeraclitus]

Upon utilizing my visual senses to perform a optical inspection of the rendered hypertext markup language that comprises the majority of your posting on this particular instance of internet fora, viz. the specific variety generally associated with the collection, storage, and dissemination of prose works of a certain length based on Hasbro-owned IP but leveraged by the preferential consumers of said IP, I came to the conclusion that, taking the long view and considering one thing with another that, on the balance of things, not to put too fine a point on it, the aforementioned group leader's singular correction to the presentation in question is...uh...stupid. And he's a big Stupid McMeanypants for making it.

[mrjerrio]

This makes up about half the suggestions other pre-readers seem to make on stories I edit. There is a lot of arguing.

[Blue_Paladin42]

Someone always has to be an ass I guess.

[Skywriter]

877636
This rephrasing has the benefit of removing the misspelling on "imminent". Unless the previous poster legitimately believes that a flame war is "indwelling or inherent" instead of "looming or upcoming".

I should hide now.

[Bradel]

877933
Ouch.

877905
REALLY ouch.
Please, stop it. You're an academic. There's enough pain already. Don't contribute.

'utilize' – the best counterargument I know against Leibniz's "best of all possible worlds".

[GhostOfHeraclitus]

878212
I actually tried to read my previous post and my eyes crossed. Damn. That is some foul prose.

Actually do you know what the original correction reminds me of? Eye of Argon! Very "beady grey organs of sight."

Except Eye of Argon is hilarious and this is just...depressing.

877796
"My name is Princess Celestia and this is my favorite shop in Canterlot."

[Westphalian_Musketeer]

878377 "Shining Armor may have reach, but... Cadence has flexibility."

[Triple Word Score]

877905
This is simultaneously glorious and horrifying.

[Charcoal Quill]

Yikes. It's almost as if the poor fool read that one section on office language in The Dilbert Principle, but took it seriously...

[Roan]

25.media.tumblr.com/0fa4acfa66cb679c51a46b0f91d300e7/tumblr_mh1a0aaePd1qj64ujo1_1280.jpg

But really though, why?

[UseFistNotMouth]

See, if I had been the one doing the presentation I would have responded:

[youtube=wQYob6dpTTk]

[Hadithi]

Um...is there something wrong with this? He was changing it because the second one sounds smarter. If they're pitching something to someone (and it sounds like that's what they're doing), you're going to use every trick in the book. One of those is carefully choosing your words. It simply sounds more impressive if you make a more complicated sentence and say "utilize" instead of "can".

Rule number one of writing any speech, essay, or presentation: Know your audience.

[Neon Czolgosz]

887128

It's the prose equivalent of The Big Bang Theory: a stupid persons idea of what smartness sounds like. So unless you've explicitly decided that your audience is stupid....

[Hadithi]

891181

I certainly don't think so. It really doesn't sound that bad. Like it or not, most people will believe that sounds smarter, just like most people believe that the people on Big Bang Theory sound smart.

[Bradel]

891668
I don't mean to sound harsh, but I suspect it may be unavoidable on this subject.

It's a matter of tradecraft. Replacing 'can' with 'is capable of' and to a much greater extent replacing 'use' with 'utilize' is a way of selling out ideas in favor of flash. You make a valid point that there's a marketing advantage to sounding smarter than you are. But there's a much larger marketing advantage to actually being smart, and jargon like 'utilize' gets in the way of proper communication when you have a point to get across.

Corporate 1337-speak may be something of an institution, but it's as bad in its context as number-for-vowel substitutions. It can get you the contract you have no business getting, since it lets you hide a lack of ideas behind fancy word gyrations. But if you're dealing with people who know their field, it can get your good ideas rejected, too, since it makes it look like you have something to hide.

So I have to agree with 891181. Unless you've actively decided that your audience isn't smart enough to judge your ideas on their own merit, and that you need to try to buffalo them with jargon, it's always best avoided. Assuming you're not trying to pull a Music Man.

------------------

Incidentally, by way of practical example, I know of at least one academic journal editor who will immediately flag any use of the word 'utilize' in exactly the way I've described.

[Bad Horse]

878377

"My name is Princess Celestia and this is my favorite shop in Canterlot."

What were you talking about?

[GhostOfHeraclitus]

2921070
Mass Effect. He made a reference to an amusing line from Mass Effect 2 and I responded in kind. Nothing fancier than that, I'm afraid.