[Editors] Grammatical question

[Lois Slavin]

"Learnings" is corporate verbiage - commonly used in this realm, as is
"planful" and several other atrocities.

  _____  

From: Violeta Ivanova [mailto:violeta at MIT.EDU] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 24, 2007 7:04 PM
To: lslavin at mit.edu
Cc: MIT Editors
Subject: Re: [Editors] Grammatical question


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



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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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