RE: Grammar: "Multiply by" or "Multiply times"?

["Janoff, Steven" <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- hologic -dot- com>]

Interesting articles.

I'm thinking it's a domain-specific style.  I'd be inclined to look it up in CSE Manual or AMA Style Guide but based on the articles, it sounds like the sentence was correct as initially written.  Why mess with it?  You could change "times" to "by" but the way they spell out multiplication (chemical) suggests that "times" might be preferred.

Takeaway for me is that you really need to know the domain you're dealing with before you start making word changes.  I withdraw that rearrangement I suggested, even though it might be formally correct.

A lot to be learned with that one.

Thanks for posting these, Lauren.  You might be right about the formula being off, too.

Steve


On Tuesday, April 25, 2017 7:18 PM, Lauren wrote;

The formula is stated in an odd way. I wonder if it should read, "multiply the absorbance of the solution (or concentration) by the dilution factor times 20."


On 4/25/2017 5:06 PM, Janoff, Steven wrote:
> "Multiply by 20 the absorbance of the dilution."

> I come across something like "multiply the absorbance of the dilution times 20" and want to change "times" to "by".

These two statements do not mean the same thing. "Dilution times 20" is D*20. It is not multiply by 20 the absorbance, that is 20*A (of D).

Here is more on dilution formulas,
https://socratic.org/chemistry/solutions-and-their-behavior/dilution-calculations.
Another, https://socratic.org/questions/how-does-dilution-affect-absorbance.

The statement is missing context and I suspect a few other things. The formula makes no sense.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Visit TechWhirl for the latest on content technology, content strategy and content development | http://techwhirl.com

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to
techwr-l-leave -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com


Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwhirl.com/email-discussion-groups/ for more resources and info.

Looking for articles on Technical Communications?  Head over to our online magazine at http://techwhirl.com

Looking for the archived Techwr-l email discussions?  Search our public email archives @ http://techwr-l.com/archives