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I understand Lynne's team's line of reasoning, but if I were on her
team, I probably would have argued in favour of "Administer". I'm not
saying that I believe administrate is correct or incorrect, but I prefer
Administer because of parallelism with other words that people tend to
interchange: "Orient" and "Orientate". I definitely don't like using
Orientate, so to keep parallel structures I would use "Administer" and
"Orient". Using Administrate could create a Parallelism Pickle by
forcing you to use Orientate as well.
Roberto in Toronto
-----Original Message-----
From: Wright, Lynne
This very issue is one that legend says people in my group once almost
came to blows over.
While they ARE interchangeable according to the dictionary, I've always
seen "administer" used more in contexts where something is being
dispensed (ie administering to the sick, or administering advice).
We ended up siding with "administrate", presumably because we're talking
about "administrATors".
Lynne Wright
Technical Communications
Positron Inc.
5101 Buchan St. H4P 2R9
(514) 345-2200
fax: 345-2272
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