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.
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
David
RE: Errors and omissions
That must be the page that contains the ommisions...
RE: Errors and omissions
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
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
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
RE: Errors and omissions
If this text is on the page, then it is no longer blank. True?
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
It would BE the hole
RE: Errors and omissions
TTFN
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
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:
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
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RE: Errors and omissions
"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
RE: Errors and omissions
Never seen a drill press in a bakery, do they outsource.
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
TTFN
RE: Errors and omissions
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.
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RE: Errors and omissions
"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
RE: Errors and omissions
Then, it's indeed ironic that donuts are made by a similar process
Drills are so retro, lasers are the ticket
TTFN
RE: Errors and omissions
Jesus is THE life,
Leonard
RE: Errors and omissions
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
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
Jesus is THE life,
Leonard
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
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.
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RE: Errors and omissions
Now, is that Mechanical Engineering Heaven or what??
rmw
RE: Errors and omissions
JMW
www.viscoanalyser.com
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RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
Jeff
RE: Errors and omissions
RE: Errors and omissions
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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