Comments for In Defense of "Use"
Damn right! Although what really gets my goat up is people using "lay" instead of "lie", as in "I was laying on the beach". Lay is the past participle of lie. It's so wrong to 'utilize' it that way :)
Reminds me of a the George Carlin euphemism rant:
"THey don't have a negative cash-flow position, they're fucking broke!" If you haven't seen it, you owe it to yourself to find it.
Btw, the WYSIWYG editor is kind of weird. If I scroll I get lines accroos it in random places. I'm using Firefox 1.5, just thought I'd let you know.
Agreed. The only use for "utilize" is in the sense of "utilization" where use is quantified.
A Bullfighter classic: http://www.fightthebull.com/bullfighter.asp
And interestingly enough, if one searches the last 2 months of emails on the "dojo-contributors" list, there is only one instance to be found of the word "utilize". Guess that's a jargon-free bunch, eh?
(And aren't you relieved to know you weren't the one utilizing it? :) )
I agree; the correct use of the verb is important. Keeping our language standardized will enable everyone to be able to communicate more clearly. Our society requires this now more than ever. But I think you have more verbal power without the 'swear' words. They do reflect your profound frustration, but I have found that it is true that speech without it.
Good one !
And getting rid of "solution" in biz-speak might be a good one too.
Then again most of the biz-speak curls my toes, makes all my hair stand up etc etc
This input box doesn't soft wrap in Safari. And the cursor leave artifacts.Anyway, no kidding about utilized. That's not the only problem with businessspeak. For some reason, folks in management always prefer the most general,meaningless description over the clear and meaningful. Last year, a manager"corrected" my entry describing a problem at one of our offices: "couldn't reachthe Internet" became "network connectivity issues".