[Editors] Grammatical question

[Violeta Ivanova]

Dear Lois et al.:

On behalf of all engineers who respect the English language, may I  
ask what you mean by "shared their learning"? Did they learn together  
(i.e. "they shared the process of learning") or did they share their  
knowledge (i.e. "they shared what they had learned")?

I can think of no case where using "learnings" or "learning's" would  
be the best word choice. But I never majored in English, so what do I  
know ... When in doubt, I read my Strunk & White.

Regards,
Violeta Ivanova CE'95


On Apr 24, 2007, at 3:29 PM, Lois Slavin wrote:

> Is the following use of "learnings" correct?
>
> "....shared their learnings with other companies......."
>
> I have a colleague who says it should be "learning's". He was an  
> English major in college, not an engineer, so I thought I'd better  
> check with this group!
>
> Thanks.
> Lois
>
>
> Lois Slavin
> Communications Director
> MIT Engineering Systems Division
>
> 77 Massachusetts Avenue
> E40-315
> Cambridge, MA  02139-4307
>
> Tel.  617.253.0812
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---------------------------------
Violeta M Ivanova, Ph.D.
Office of Educational Innovation & Technology
Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education
http://web.mit.edu/violeta/www
617.252.1383


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