Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

For writers and those who name products and services: standard items have shorter names than special ones. Attach modifiers to exceptions to the rule, not the rule.

Apple recently changed their line of laptop computers. As expected, the newer computers have more performance and a lower price than last year’s models. In addition, Apple changed the name of one computer from “MacBook” to “MacBook Pro.” The name change gives Apple one model called MacBook and three models called MacBook Pro.

Whoa! Stop here: one MacBook, three MacBook Pro.

The writer and logical engineer in me shudders. It seems that henceforth journalists, bloggers, and typists of all kinds will have to type that extra p-r-o three times more often than not. That isn’t right; that is extra work and extra effort. That is a waste.

I don’t recall reading it anywhere, but surely out there somewhere is a convention of naming or branding something that states:

The rule has a shorter name than the exception.

Stated another way:

Name the exception by attaching a modifier (adjective or adverb) to the rule.

Hence, Apple would call the three computers MacBook and attach a modifier to the one computer and call it something like “Little MacBook,” “MacBook Lite,” “MacBook Home,” or such.

So as not to seem anti-Apple, there are other examples of confusing the rule and the exception. The U.S. Congress, never to be surpassed by anyone in the misuse of the English language, confuses the names of time shifts. The time we use five months of the year is called “standard.” The time we use seven months of the year is “daylight savings.” How can standard occur less frequently than special?

Again, there must be a convention out there somewhere which states:

Apply the title “standard” to that which occurs most often.

Apply special titles to all other situations.

Hence, the time we use from the second Sunday of March to the first Sunday of November (7 3/4 months in 2009) would be called “standard” time. The rest of the year would be called “Daylight Wasting,” “Less Daylight,” or simply “Dark.”

I doubt that any of the changes I recommend will come to pass – especially the one involving Congress. I do, however, feel much better now that I have posted these recommendations.

Perhaps one day, someone with a slight grasp of English will be elected and rise to some seat of importance in the U.S. Congress. Maybe the current U.S. Congress could hire a retired English teacher part time to help them with names and such.