Shorthand that leads to illiteracy.

[c9]

Found in a large corporation's project plan just now:

"Deliver customer sessions in FY08Q4/Q5"

This is the sort of elegant shorthand that could be 100% clear and really be a nicer way of saying "end of this year, maybe the very beginning of next" but I can see people adopting this and then someday nobody will remember what the Q used to stand for.

I try not to be such a prescriptivist*, but god.

* Linguistic prescription means "this is the rule in English and it must never change". I bitch and whine about spelling and apostrophes a lot, for example.

Comments

[simplisticton.livejournal.com]

I think it's more a question of ilnumerancy than illiteracy.

[c9.livejournal.com]

Yeah but I hate learning to spell new words. (evil grin)