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Errors and omissions
4

Errors and omissions

Errors and omissions

(OP)
I was reviewing some meeting minutes submitted by a contractor, and found that there were numerous errors and omissions.

My first cut at the reply was "The minutes as submitted contain numerous errors and omissions."

Then I started wondering, how can something contain an omission.

RE: Errors and omissions

Dang, that is deep.  I wonder about my "Errors and Omissions Insurance".  If a document can't contain an ommission (by definition?) then what am I paying for?

David

RE: Errors and omissions

2
I've seen certain publications that contain pages with only the text, "This page intentionally left blank.",

That must be the page that contains the ommisions...

RE: Errors and omissions

digger242j,

I have a rule on jokes received by e mail.  If it makes me laugh out loud, I forward it.  If not, I trash it.  Your post made me laugh out loud, so I starred it.

rmw

RE: Errors and omissions

I wonder why some participants write ommisions with a double m. Deleting one m, would it be an omisssion ?

From reading specialized grammar books one can conclude there are "omissions" that can indeed be parts of written documents.

Examples: walkin' would be an apocope; phone, for telephone, or 'bout for about, would be omissions by aphesis or aphaeresis; th' appetite or there's (common in verse lines) would be called elisions.

There are also syncope and haplology and other figures of speech called ellipsis, aposiopesis, asyndeton.

All these beside the obvious act of disregarding, neglecting, passing by or preterition. Would you believe me if I told you that I didn't want to exaggerate but to embellish the subject ?

RE: Errors and omissions

"Your post made me laugh out loud, so I starred it. "

Thank you. It always feels good to brighten somebody's day.




"I wonder why some participants write ommisions with a double m. Deleting one m, would it be an omisssion ? "

Arrrgh! Obviously my fingers got ahead of me. Actually, if you look carefully there's only a single "s" in there as well. I guess my spelling of that particular word would then be guilty of both an error and an omission.

Wait a minute--"omisssion" ??



RE: Errors and omissions

It appears many of us don't preview and amend our own postings before submission.

RE: Errors and omissions

"I've seen certain publications that contain pages with only the text, 'This page intentionally left blank.'"  I've seen this, too.

If this text is on the page, then it is no longer blank.  True?

RE: Errors and omissions

(OP)
Yes, but it is necessary to differentiate from a page that has been left blank unintentionally.

RE: Errors and omissions

Where would a donut be without its hole?

RE: Errors and omissions

"Where would a donut be without its hole?"
It would BE the hole

RE: Errors and omissions

In the jelly-filled section

TTFN

RE: Errors and omissions

The interesting part is that without the nothing in the middle, you wouldn't have a donut.

RE: Errors and omissions

Conversley do all holes have donuts round them?

PS in german, a "Berliner" is a donut which gives me a nice seguey into another problem with foreign languages.

This provides an amusing take on a famous speech once given there, and which my wife, a Berliner, is fond of pointing out, and suggests the pitfalls of talking politics in a foreign language:
"I am a donut."

He is not alone.

Tony Blair just caused affront (possibly with those eager to find an affront, which might or might not include President Chirac) by refering to President Chirac, in public and in Tony's own inimitable English schools version of the language, as "Tu" or "Toi" instead of using the less familiar form. I guess what they say in private is upto them, but in public it was deemed "over-familiar".
Some commentators suggest President Chirac started it with a gift (and the note with it) he sent to Tony and that in general use, the use of the familiar is more tolerated today. I guess this wasn't considered general use.

And so we see that however well intentioned and however "right", there will always be some "wrongness" for comentators to find. It must be tough to be a politician.

In the case of the Berlin speech see http://www.training-for-germany.de/german99/german13.htm and the comment:

Quote:

Berliner means citizen of Berlin or from Berlin. Stuttgarter means citizen of Stuttgart or from Stuttgart. The er-ending describes inhabitants of that city or it makes adjectives. When Kennedy said these famous words, he meant "Iam one of you, I am like a berlin citizen." He for sure did not say somthing like "I am a donut" I heard this misinterpretation already some times....
Berliner = donut is only understood as a bakery produkt only when talking in a bakery or when talking about food. Compare: Hamburger means citizen of Hamburg or "hamburg" as an adjective. I've never heard the misinterpretation of canibalism when someone says "I eat a Hamburger!".....

Hmmm. I think this "Note" might itself be subject to some debate which i will try to resolve when i am in Berlin next month. I was particularly struct by the term "he for sure didn't say..." which struck me as a particularly American construction and raised the question of the objectivity of the note.

What it does suggest is that the English speaker can be glad that like the gender of nouns, the use of familiar and formal terms is something else we can do without. I shall have to be careful, when in Berlin, not to use the "Du" familiar too casually.
As if i don't have enough problems with English, now i have to worry about my bad German.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: Errors and omissions

This is truly a philosophical debate...

"Where would a donut be without its hole?"
(a Fritter!)

"The interesting part is that without the nothing in the middle, you wouldn't have a donut."

The response to this is simple if you are Canadian like me. A donut is just a donut (thanks to Freud on that one), whereas THE HOLE is a "Timbit", regardless of whether or not you bought it at Tim Horton's or not. At that point you would go out for a coffe and stop thinking about it.

Have a good weekend everyone,

Mark

RE: Errors and omissions

This page intentionally left blank

RE: Errors and omissions

Who drills the holes?

Never seen a drill press in a bakery, do they outsource.

RE: Errors and omissions

I think it's done in a punch press, 13 at a time

RE: Errors and omissions

Good point, it's much faster than drilling

RE: Errors and omissions

It's an extrusion process, no drills involved

TTFN

RE: Errors and omissions

Your originbal teeth come via an extrusion process.
Too many sugar coated/iced donuts and you'll find out about the drills.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: Errors and omissions

"If this text is on the page, then it is no longer blank.  True?"

"Yes, but it is necessary to differentiate from a page that has been left blank unintentionally. "


I guess I should really worry if I see a page that says, "the information on this page has been unintentionally omitted ."


"Where would a donut be without its hole?"
(a Fritter!)  "

So then, a fritter is a donut with the hole erroneously omitted?


RE: Errors and omissions

For those of us of spanish upbringing, a donut: a torus-like, fat-fried ring-shaped cake.

RE: Errors and omissions

Quote:

Your originbal teeth come via an extrusion process.
Too many sugar coated/iced donuts and you'll find out about the drills.

Then, it's indeed ironic that donuts are made by a similar process

Drills are so retro, lasers are the ticket , not that I've ever needed either.

TTFN

RE: Errors and omissions

Right blank

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: Errors and omissions

The text on the previous page was intended to be left blank, i.e. omitted  .  However, I did not know how to accomplish it.

I bet non of you have ever heard of a donut turner.  In the late 1940's and in the 1950's many donut shops used this invention to flip several dozen donuts simultaneously in the frying fat.  My Dad invented and built these devices.  Others tried to copy these machines but could not make them work.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: Errors and omissions

I, myself, am a donut turner!
hee hee

I have seen a document once sent to me that had 15 pages. Page 13 was left blank! Page 2 was written..."page 13 intentionaly left blank".
weird

RE: Errors and omissions

Whattayamean weird?  Makes perfect sense to me.  Better than the ones where it says it was left intentionaly blank but was not.

Jesus is THE life,
Leonard

RE: Errors and omissions

superstitious...like not having a 13th floor in the elevator

RE: Errors and omissions

Sorry, I haven't digested all the witty donut comments.

My thought is a document can have an omission, like a fence can have a hole.  If it is a specification for a motor and you forget to say what voltage, what else are you going to call it?

Hole in a fence is a little more directly relevant than hole in a donut because like the omission in the document, it is unintentional.

=====================================
Eng-tips forums: The best place on the web for engineering discussions.

RE: Errors and omissions

There is a thread currently running in the pumps or piping forum concerning the pumping of chocolate.

Now, is that Mechanical Engineering Heaven or what??

rmw

RE: Errors and omissions

I like distilleries.

JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
Eng-Tips: Pro bono publico, by engineers, for engineers.

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips Fora.

RE: Errors and omissions

I remember old debit notes written in spanish with the acronym SEUO always added to express "Salvo Error U Omision", meaning "barring error or omission". I wonder whether this custom is still in vigor.

RE: Errors and omissions

Back in the days of hand written or typed invoices we used to have "E&OE" (meaning "errors and omissions excepted") printed on our invoice forms here in Australia. An attempt to cover our backsides I suppose.

Jeff

RE: Errors and omissions

The dieters in our office liked my theory that since a doughnut hole is, by definition, a hole, it therefore must have no calories.  Is a doughnut hole an omission by design?

RE: Errors and omissions

As to blank pages, I remember Navy logs with the acronym "TPLIB" for This Page Left Intentionally Blank.

Ray Reynolds
"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."
Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949
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