Web site or website?

Web is short for World Wide Web. It should therefore be capitalized. If we accept that Web is a proper noun (and I do), it cannot be arbitrary joined at the hip to the word "site." Hence, neither "website" nor "Website" is acceptable. This is consistent with most authorities I have consulted, though perhaps not with much of geekdom, which invented these words. Language changes, and nowhere is it changing more quickly than in cyberspace, but it is best that it change slowly when it comes to smashing words together. As one of my authorities points out, "if the Internet is replaced by direct-broadcast-to-the-brain technology tomorrow, website will soon look as silly as draftdodging and braburning and goldfishswallowing." (Bill Walsh, Lapsing into a Comma)

My own preference is to avoid the word "Web" altogether because it lacks precision. Not everything that is available via the Internet is on the Web. I use "Internet" or "Internet site." I especially dislike the notion that something can be "posted on the Web." I prefer to "make it available on the Bank's Internet site" or "on the Bank's internal network" or similar locutions.

Similarly, I use home page and Web page when referring to a particular virtual page, but I use "document" or "file" when I am referring to a file that can be opened from that page.

Finally, I am not an editor who insists that the language stand still to suit my prescriptions. At some point in the future I may need to change my mind about this stylistic point.

Banished words

Since 1976, Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, has been compiling a list of words that many of us in the writing business would like to see banished.

Word-watchers from around the world pull their annual nominations from everyday speech, as well as from the news, the fields of education, technology, advertising, politics, and more. A committee gathers the entries and chooses the best in December.

The list is released on New Year’s Day. Read this year’s selections at http://www.lssu.edu/banished/current/default.html or browse through the lists from precious years by selecting Compiled Lists on the main page.

Weed out Latinate language

Latinate words have many legitimate uses, but they can also overwhelm and obscure meaning. They are quite common in bureaucratic and academic writing, much of which aims to impress the reader by conveying authority and complexity rather than to illuminate and inform. The careful writer will keep a sharp lookout for such words and question whether they are needed. When they appear in great abundance the reader should question the writer's purpose.

Many Latinate words can be recognized by their suffixes; watch for the ones listed below.

-age
-ality
-ance
-ation
-ence
-ific
-ity
-ist
-ization
-ize
-ocentrism
-ous

Facts, findings, lessons, and recommendations

I have often found that the distinctions between facts, findings, lessons, and recommendations are not well understood. Many World Bank documents mix them up. The following table has proved useful in explaining the distinctions.

	What is it?	Example	Intent
Fact	What happened – an event and data (results). Not in dispute.	“The project manager was dismissed in Year 5”	Provides the story line.
Finding	What the analyst interpreted from the factual events, establishing the significance of the facts recorded. Can be arguable.	“Mainly because replacement of the project manager was delayed, the project did not meet its targets”	Draws conclusions (from the facts) specific to the project.
Lesson	The broader significance of a finding.	“Poor performance by project managers can critically affect project outcomes.”	Draws a general conclusion from experience beyond the single instance of the operation under review.
Recommendation	Suggests how to proceed in the future in the light of this experience.	“Ensure that key project management positions are filled with competent staff. Ensure this through appropriate covenants and prompt supervision follow-up”	An imperative; proposes action(s).