Re: appears or displays

[MarieM <marie -dot- moore -at- TEMPLATE -dot- COM>]

Michelle wrote:
>
>Which is the correct, appears or displays?  Is it a matter of preference or
>is one grammatically correct?
>
>1) The imported information appears in a table.
>
>or
>
>2)  The imported information displays in a table.

---------------------------------------------
John Hoppe <johnh -at- RADIONICS -dot- COM> replied:

In the sentence you gave, I would always choose "appears" because it
means
"shows up" or "becomes visible." "Display" is a transitive verb, meaning
that the action transfers to something else; in your situation, it's the
computer monitor which is literally "displaying" the information. The
information itself is appearing.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
John, thanks for pointing out that "display" is a transitive verb.  I've
found myself wondering if schools are even teaching about
transitive/intransitive verbs any more, given the proliferation of the
misuse of "display" and "ship" as intransitive verbs.

I think there has been a big increase in writing things like "The
customer's ordering record displays on the first screen; billing
information displays on the next screen."

I'm getting tired of arguing with people who think using "display"
correctly--"The customer's ordering record is displayed"--is incorrect
because it's passive voice.

Does it bother anyone else to see things like "The XYZ system ships with
a complete set of documentation," or is it just me?

--
TechComm101:  correct, complete, concise, cogent, coherent, and concrete


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