Re: [PATCH] doc: replace jargon word "impact" with "effect"/"affect"

From: Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@gmail.com>
Date: May 27, 2021, 14:08 UTC
Message-ID: <60afa7d9d4ca_2056d208d9@natae.notmuch>
In-Reply-To: <20210527114629.GD8544@kitsune.suse.cz>

Michal Suchánek wrote:

Show 19 quoted lines

> On Wed, May 26, 2021 at 06:49:58PM -0500, Varun Varada wrote:
> > On Thu, 13 May 2021 at 04:48, Michal Suchánek <msuchanek@suse.de> wrote:
> > > Yet Felipe insists that 'impact' is somehow generally bad word to use or
> > > that it should be abolished solely because he finds it bad and nobody
> > > objected to the alternative wording.
> > >
> > > Opinions on use of 'impact' differ both among the participants of this
> > > discussion and authorities like authors well-known dictionaries.
> > >
> > > It looks like this is generally matter of stylistic preferences and
> > > opinions. That is even if there is some slight stylistic preference for
> > > not using the word 'impact' it is very hard to prove such and then it is
> > > very hard to request change based only on writing style preferences.
> > 
> > The argument is not that it is generally a bad word to use, but that
> > it is generally bad to use words when they don't mean what one thinks
> > they mean, especially when all evidence says otherwise.
> 
> Not all evidence. There are people who think the use is fine.

What people think is not evidence.

There's people who think the Earth is flat.

> > All major dictionaries define "impact" as "a strong effect" or "to
> > affect strongly". This is not style, but semantics. In the same way
> 
> Not all dictionaries, actually.

You don't need all dictionaries.

If 50% of trials show a drug is safe, and 50% show it's not, you don't approve bit because "not all say say it's unsafe".

If there's evidence that A is bad, you should consider avoiding A, especially when you have B, and you have *zero* evidence showing B is bad.

Show 9 quoted lines

> > that "per se" being used to mean "necessarily" is not a style issue,
> > using "impact" to mean "an effect" or "to affect" is not a style
> > issue.
> > 
> > As has been stated already, the clear and substantial argument for
> > this change is that it reduces the confusion that arises from
> > improperly using the word "impact" in the instances without any loss
> 
> There is no final authority on 'correct' word use in English.

You don't need a final authority.

There is evidence that A is problematic.

> We should learn to work together with people that use different
> variant of the language rather than insist that the variant that I or my
> teacher uses is the only correct one and everyone else should use it.

Except one variant is problematic, and the other is not.

Do you have *ANY* evidence that shows a problem with "effect"?

-- 
Felipe Contreras