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On Mon, 14 Jul 1997, Terry Kuny wrote: > At 03:01 PM 7/14/97 -0400, you wrote: > >From: Peter Graham, Rutgers University Libraries > > > >5. OK, use screed if you like; the category i don't find helpful. One > >person's informal is another's document. A lot of webpages are informal. If > >that's what you mean, though, why not call it informal instead of a term open > >to interpretation when not deemed weirdly obscure. Or "personal". Or > >something that has more semantic value. But mainly I think the category > >isn't very well defined; maybe a better term(s) would define it better. > > A better term might be used. Perhaps "document.informal" is better. > I don't like "document.personal" as this seems ambiguous and equally > problematic, especially since there can be lots of "personal" documents. > "Informal" seems to suffer the same imprecision. > > My thoughts in using "screed" was to grab a category of documents that really > are often personal pages, informal and discursive. The key is an informal > piece > of writing which has not got the focus or intent of an article. "Screed" > has the advantage of being an actual noun which describes an kind of > informal or fragmentary document. According to the OED, 2nd ed., the relevant definition of "screed" is "A long roll or list; a lengthy discourse or harangue; a gossiping letter or piece of writing." Certainly in the U.S. there is a pejorative connotation, which is hinted at by the appearance of "harangue" in the OED definition. I'm with Peter -- value judgements about the relative seriousness of a document strike me as problematic, but if others need them, I would suggest another term. "Screed" is both too diffuse (see that definition above -- is it a list or a letter?) and too freighted to be a useful term. But I am certainly enjoying looking the wordplay... Lead on! --Robin Robin Wendler ........................ work (617) 495-3724 Office for Information Systems ....... fax (617) 495-0491 Harvard University Library ........... [log in to unmask] Cambridge, MA, USA 02138 .............