Gabfest: And Thereby Hangs A Tail

Sanskrit meaning of Iravati is "Daughter of the Ocean". Ocean is generally referred in a name to "Love" or "Knowledge". Ira could be a male or female name. Ira means wind God, father of Hanuman. Sometimes, the name Ira is associated with Goddess "Saraswathi" or "Earth" in Sanskrit. In Russia and Finland, the name Ira is always associated with female Greek Goddess Eirene. In Hebrew, Ira means several things among them most notable is "watchful". I like the name "Iva" which in Hebrew means a "Gift from God".

By the way, is it to be pronounced as in "Eraq" or like Bush pronounces as "I Rock". I guess it is "I-RAVATI", right?

Viswa

 

It is "Airavati", tending naturally toward the contraction "Aira", but the other names are "Ee-ra" and "E-ra" in Sanskrit. The Greek is "Ee-ree-Knee". The rest, I do not know.

 

Is that what the kids are calling it these days? Pretty thrifty, I must say! Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.

Don't forget I live in the United States. We think nothing of burning entire planets to heat our homes and keep our clothes dry! U-S-A, U-S-A ...!

You been hitting the documentaries again, eh Devotchka?

None. Actually, in what little of Bellow and Nietzsche I have read, I do not remember any character named Ira. I reached lazily for the first "Jewish" author who came to mind - I might just as well have said Singer or Malamud, if a convenient adjective were available.

 

Oops, neglected to point out that "Devotchka" (meaning 'girl') is a made-up word from a fake language, Nadsat. The novelist Anthony Burgess invented it for his novel "A Clockwork Orange".

 

I am sensitive to that. Posting on IL is education enough.

This is the question I was trying to address. How to function effectively in her job, as a member of a team, representing the interests of both her boss and her organization. Now, if the boss were to send an email saying "Your late - again!", I would not advocate that OP rush to reply "Actually, that should be "You're"!". On the other hand, if the boss were to write a missive to the higher-ups saying "Dear Ms. CEO, re: your request for performance metrics on the Turbo Encabulator v2.0, I am enclosing herewith the Principle Componant Anaysis performed by our lead analist JAG ..." - then, some intervention is necessary both to save him from himself and to protect your own contribution. Nevermind exuberant writing to clients beyond the exec suite.

I was following scientific tradition here. The day an undergraduate steps into the research group, she is a colleague, as is the Nobel laureate next door.

I do see what you're saying. If that has been your experience, I wouldn't argue, never having had anything to do with the corporate business world. Scientifically oriented companies that I have interacted with are not like that. In science, when you write up your results, the manuscript always does the rounds among colleagues, or gets posted on arXiv or whatever, before submission to a journal. Better to be embarrassed within the group than in front of the whole world**.

No wonder 'corporate communication' is such an oxymoron.

**Nowadays, there's this thing called PPP or "Post Publication Peer Review", in the form of websites in which anyone, anywhere in the world can comment anonymously on the shortcomings of your latest published work. No sane scientist would refuse constructive criticism, usually far milder than PPP which can be brutal.

 

In theory. In real life its much harder for a student or a newbie in the lab/group to take a stand against a professor/veteran in the field. I am far removed from academia now but I do hear stories every now and then. I do not say dont do it. I only say choose the setting under which u would do it.

Yes most companies at least where I live also make documents/design papers/code open and almost all of them are peer reviewed esp by stake holders and the reviews are brutal. But the culture of a company has to be open and progressive for that . OP still does not know the organization. And its an email with an offer letter . She is not a part of the organization yet. Its best not to jeopardize the offer.

 

Again, I'm not talking about editing the offer letter. Really, who would do that?

OP is raising questions about the linguistic competence of her future boss and his carelessness while taking pains to point out that he is/may be smart in other ways. I am talking about how she could make herself an asset to him, to the team, and the organization, after she's at her job while taking pains to point out that making her boss look good is part of the game.

"Taking a stand against ..." is a very different level of conflict from what we are discussing - say, of the sort that arises with scientific fraud. Here, we are instead considering the confident and competent editing of a careless writer, whose mistakes may reflect badly on the team or the organization or both, jeopardizing everyone's best interests if there are legal/regulatory implications. The question is how to do that skillfully, without ruffling feathers. In the case of the professor, it is about pointing out that bit in the research proposal that ought to read "log-base-2" instead of "log-base-10" - wordsmithing and eliminating egregious errors as opposed to confrontational questioning or the denigration of foundational ideas. There is no research group in the world that would not welcome it.

We agree on this!

 

No speculation. It is ingrained by now. This is what we were taught, weren't we?

 

I could have misread but this was the flow of the thread .
Naari said : Very rightly said. I got a taste of it already while reviewing the documents, as I had to point out the mistakes but didn't want to appear to be a smart ass. As a result, just went ahead & suggested changes where the mistakes materially altered the meaning being conveyed in the agreement. So, yes, that's going to be a real challenge.
Sokanasanah said : One good way to do this is the following - when you send the doc back for review/approval, just attach the edited version and say: "Mostly minor edits - typos corrected, etc. A couple of significant modifications for your approval." Then flag the few "major" edits prominently. That should focus attention on specific spots, leaving you free to run wild on the rest of the document! As long as you're a confident and competent editor, this will get the job done and avoid hurt feelings and misunderstandings.

OP was still talking about the offer letter and her edits . If u were talking about her ways of handling things after she joins the org then the argument is moot.

That was specific to ur generalized statement.

My take no... not true ..far from it.