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<font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt">That would be utilizable information...<br>
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On 3/12/10 10:44 AM, "Lily Underwood Burns" <<a href="lub@MIT.EDU">lub@MIT.EDU</a>> wrote:<br>
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</span></font><blockquote><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt">Thank you so much - and thank you everyone for sending along such useful information!<br>
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Have a fantastic weekend,<br>
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Lily<br>
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On Mar 12, 2010, at 10:29 AM, Marilyn C Wilson wrote:<br>
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</span></font><blockquote><font size="2"><font face="Comic Sans MS"><span style="font-size:10pt">Dear Editors,<br>
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For your Friday morning mild amusement --<br>
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I just had yet another annoying encounter with the word “utilize” which seems more and more commonly used in sentences where the word “use” is the better choice. <br>
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So I went to the Internet to see if others share my reaction, and of course there is quite a bit written about it! In case you are interested, here’s one example, from the blog of a man named Bob Sutor:<font color="#0000FF"><a href="http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=4227">http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=4227</a><br>
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<font size="5"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:16pt"><b>“Use” vs. “Utilize”<br>
</b></span></font></font><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><font size="1"><span style="font-size:9pt"><i>This entry is one in a series that tackles issues of proper word use and grammar in English.
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<font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">The incorrect yet increasingly common use of “utilize” instead of the simpler “use” is well documented in several places around the web. See, for example,
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<font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">Indeed, <b>utilize</b> can often be no more than a pretentious substitute for <b>use</b>, and this should be avoided. However, <b>utilize</b> does have its own meaning: ‘to turn to profitable use; to make a practical use for’. This is not the same sense as ‘to bring into service’, which is what <b>use</b> fundamentally means.
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<font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">at <font color="#0000FF">Random House <<a href="http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19980828">http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19980828</a>> </font>.
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<font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">When words such as these are used incorrectly, the people to whom you are speaking may think:
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<ul><li><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">you are ignorant of the definition of the word, so what else is wrong in what you are saying?
</span></font></font><li><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">you are using a pretentious “big word” to sound more sophisticated than you are
</span></font></font><li><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">you are slipping into jargon and can’t explain something in simple terms
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<p align="CENTER"><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">None of these reflect well on you as a speaker, a writer, or as a communicator in general.
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<font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">Here’s some guidance:
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<ul><li><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">If you are about to say “utilize” but “use” would work just as well, then say “use.”
</span></font></font><li><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">If you previously thought something was useless, but you got clever and now it isn’t, you are utilizing it.
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<p align="CENTER"><font size="1"><font face="Tahoma, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">Note that outside the United States, “utilize” will likely be spelled “utilise.”
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Have a great weekend all!<br>
Marilyn<br>
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Marilyn C. Wilson, PhD<br>
Sr. Career Development Specialist<br>
Career Development Center<br>
MIT ~ GECDC<br>
</span></font></font><font face="Comic Sans MS"><font size="1"><span style="font-size:7pt"> </span></font><font size="2"><span style="font-size:10pt">617-258-9149<br>
Twitter: mcwillow<br>
<font color="#0000FF"><a href="mcwilson@mit.edu">mcwilson@mit.edu</a></font></span></font></font><font color="#0000FF"><font face="Calibri, Verdana, Helvetica, Arial"><span style="font-size:11pt"> <<a href="mailto:mcwilson@mit.edu">mailto:mcwilson@mit.edu</a>> <br>
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</span></font><font size="1"><font face="Helvetica, Verdana, Arial"><span style="font-size:9pt">Lily U. Burns<br>
Manager of External Affairs<br>
Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology<br>
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617.258.6966<br>
<a href="lub@mit.edu">lub@mit.edu</a><br>
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