http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2011/06/21/criterion-standard/ Official blog of the AMA Manual of Style Tue, 09 Apr 2013 06:05:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/2011/06/21/criterion-standard/#comment-53 Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:43:18 +0000 http://blog.amamanualofstyle.com/?p=218#comment-53 Totally agree with Rennie and with Stewart (end of post). Slang that doesn’t die off will eventually become standard register. The good neologisms or borrowings (ones that succinctly fill a need in the communicative toolbox) are the ones that last, and they eventually lose their novelty. Since that happens pretty fast in STM nowadays, editors are better off keeping up. Trailing a little bit to stay on the conservative side is appropriate to the role; but it’s important not to trail /too/ far back, lest one take on the role of the annoying laggard that pesters the group to wait up. Glass has a great point (“implies more of a sense of permanence than is appropriate for scientific topics”), but Rennie’s point (“the merit of being customary, memorable, understandable”) will override it in the end anyway. And that’s OK. Thanks for the great post.

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