RE: To utilize or not to utilize?

["Stegall, Sarah" <sarah -dot- stegall -at- terayon -dot- com>]

> ----------
> From: 	Hart, Geoff
> Sent: 	Tuesday, September 4, 2001 11:15 AM
> To: 	Techwr-L (E-mail); 'Stegall, Sarah'
> Subject: 	To utilize or not to utilize?
> 
> 
> Anything that looks weird (or even wrong) to
> readers, irrespective of whether it's correct, should generally be
> avoided.
> 
I understand your point, but what do you do if the industry as a whole, say,
misspells a word?  I guess that gets us back to the spelling issue we see in
another thread. The telecomm industry is driven by engineers, not technical
writers, and I think I would be shirking my responsibility (and the job they
pay me for) if I just rubber-stamped every error I see. What I'm trying to
do, I suppose, is find out where to draw the boundaries. I certainly don't
want to (and couldn't) dictate usages to the entire industry, but on the
other hand, don't technical writers have a certain responsibility not only
to our audience (who are NOT necessarily jargon-savvy engineers) but to the
language as a whole? 



Sarah Stegall
Senior Technical Writer
sarah -dot- stegall -at- terayon -dot- com

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