Interpreters and Commentators - DailyWritingTips

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Interpreters and Commentators Posted: 21 Sep 2010 09:00 PM PDT Mike Feeney overheard a business owner repeatedly [mention] that they would be using an "interpretator" and has asked for a post on interpreter/interpretator and commenter and commentator interpreter: one who interprets or explains; one who translates languages. In current usage, "interpretator" is nonstandard, as is the obsolete verb formation "interpretate." The OED has an entry for interpretator, but its the most recent documentation is from the 17th century and the word is labeled as "obsolete." The Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary has no entry for it. M-W does have an entry for "interpretate," which redirects to interpret. Here are some examples of nonstandard "interpretator": I know there is a secretary's day…Is there an interpretator's day? Speaking in Malayalam, through an interpretator, Poulse and his other colleagues said…  I bet I was the best… hand writing interpretator in the world. …software, incorporating the only true award interpretator system for Australian conditions since 1991… Chinese (mandarin) translator/interpretator service provider… Nonstandard "interpretate" also abounds: management will read the same contract as you but will interpretate it different[ly]. I'm pretty sure he misinterpretated the study, Himmler thought that Germany was going to recover because he misinterpretated one of Nostradamus's predictions. In November 2005 she interpretated the role Dame at "Dido and Enea" by Purcell While "interpretator" has no meaning apart from that of the standard word interpreter, commentator and commenter have distinctive meanings. commentator: A writer of expository comments or critical notes on a literary work; the writer of a commentary; One who reports or comments on current events, esp. on radio or television. commenter: One who comments Here are some examples of both words: Sometimes sports commentators say the strangest things Alan Watkins, doyen of political commentators, dies at 77 Political commentary has become an integral part of the media establishment and the U.S. political process in recent years. Texas police take on blog commenters Are Blog Commenters "Real" Writers? N.C. Judge Unmasks Pseudonymous Blog Commenters The 6 Types of Blog Commentors–Do You Know Them? (NOTE: The OED gives commentor as an alternate speling of commenter.) I see a useful distinction between commentator and commenter, especially in this "everybody's a writer" culture of ours. Commentators are qualified to write intelligently about a particular topic, approaching it and analyzing it in terms of a body of knowledge. Commenters, on the other hand, express opinions on matters about which they may or may not be particularly informed. Many DWT readers bring professional expertise in language to their comments, resulting in useful commentary. In general, however, blog commenters tend to be stronger on opinion than information. Bottom line: I'd reserve the word commentator for analysts operating from a professionally-informed perspective and writing or speaking in a formal setting. I'd use commenter for people who respond to blog posts. Like this article? Then you'll love our book: 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid. It lists 100 common spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage mistakes. You can buy it today with a 50% discount! Original Post: Interpreters and Commentators Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.

Bits and Bytes Posted: 21 Sep 2010 05:40 AM PDT In its election manifesto, one of the major political parties in the UK recently promised to provide "virtually every household in the country a broadband service of at least 2 megabytes per second by 2012." The "2 megabytes per second" was actually a mistake. A speed of two megabytes per second is the same way as saying 16 megabits per second, a speed which is technically feasible, but unlikely to be universally available in the UK any time soon. The sentence was altered in later versions of the manifesto to the much more realistic "2 megabits per second". The typo, however, highlights how easy it is to make mistakes using technical language where words often have very specific meanings. If you're using terminology from medicine, computers, statistics etc., it pays to check that you have each term correct. In this case, the original authors confused the words bit and byte. Both are units of computer memory/storage. A bit is the smallest amount of storage, a 0 or a 1, the word formed from a blend of "binary" and "digit". A byte, on the other hand, is a collection of bits – almost always eight of them. So, a kilobyte is eight times larger than a kilobit. While computer memory is generally expressed as a number of bytes (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes etc.), network speeds are generally expressed as a number of bits per second (kilobits, megabits, gigabits etc.) The terms are very easy to confuse especially when they are abbreviated to just "meg", "gig" etc. as both sets sometimes are. But, a broadband speed of "2 meg" would always mean "2 megabits per second" and never "2 megabytes per second". Abbreviations are often used for these terms, and the same care needs to be taken. For example, the abbreviation for megabyte is MB whereas the abbreviation for megabit is Mb. The case of the "b" makes all the difference. The same is true for kilobytes/kilobits (KB/Kb), gigabytes/gigabits (GB/Gb) and so forth. Like this article? Then you'll love our book: 100 Writing Mistakes to Avoid. It lists 100 common spelling, punctuation, grammar and usage mistakes. You can buy it today with a 50% discount! Original Post: Bits and Bytes Your eBook: Click here to download the Basic English Grammar ebook.