Dear All,
Some may have seen this, but I felt a need to forward this to the list,
Andrew Curphey
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeremy Gauntlett-Gilbert [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2001 9:49 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Jargon
painfully true -
>>"IT HAS LONG BEEN KNOWN"... I didn't look up the original reference.
>>"A DEFINITE TREND IS EVIDENT"... These data are practically meaningless.
>>"WHILE IT HAS NOT BEEN POSSIBLE TO PROVIDE DEFINITE ANSWERS TO THE
>>QUESTIONS"... An unsuccessful experiment, but I still hope to get it
>>published.
>>"THREE OF THE SAMPLES WERE CHOSEN FOR DETAILED STUDY"... The other results
>>didn't make any sense.
>>"TYPICAL RESULTS ARE SHOWN"... This is the prettiest graph.
>>"THESE RESULTS WILL BE IN A SUBSEQUENT REPORT"... I might get around to
this
>>sometime, if pushed/funded.
>>"IN MY EXPERIENCE"... Once
>>"IN CASE AFTER CASE"... Twice
>>"IN A SERIES OF CASES"... Thrice
>>"IT IS BELIEVED THAT"... I think.
>>"IT IS GENERALLY BELIEVED THAT"... A couple of others think so, too.
>>"CORRECT WITHIN AN ORDER OF MAGNITUDE"... Wrong.
>>"ACCORDING TO STATISTICAL ANALYSIS"... Rumour has it.
>>"A STATISTICALLY-ORIENTED PROJECTION OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THESE
>>FINDINGS"... A wild guess.
>>"A CAREFUL ANALYSIS OF OBTAINABLE DATA"... Three pages of notes were
>>obliterated when I knocked over a glass of beer.
>>"IT IS CLEAR THAT MUCH ADDITIONAL WORK WILL BE REQUIRED BEFORE A COMPLETE
>>UNDERSTANDING OF THIS PHENOMENON OCCURS"... I don't understand it
>>"AFTER ADDITIONAL STUDY BY MY COLLEAGUES"... They don't understand it
>>either.
>>"THANKS ARE DUE TO JOE BLOGGS FOR ASSISTANCE WITH THE EXPERIMENT AND TO
>>CINDY ADAMS FOR VALUABLE DISCUSSIONS"... Mr. Bloggs did the work and Ms.
>>Adams explained to me what it meant.
>>"A HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT AREA FOR EXPLORATORY STUDY"... A totally useless
topic
>>selected by my committee.
>>"IT IS HOPED THAT THIS STUDY WILL STIMULATE FURTHER INVESTIGATION IN THIS
>>FIELD"... I quit.
>>
>>
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