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I'm reviewing a document at work, which lays out the structure for a much larger document, and am looking for some better words to suggest to the author.
Section I is to be called "Background and Diagnosis" and Section II simply "Prognosis." However, the document has nothing to do with a medical condition. I recognize that these words have some currency outside the medical world, but this will be a fairly major public document (I work for the Environmental Protection Agency, who will be publishing this beast in English and Spanish) and I think they'll just sound ridiculous to most people reading it.
In this context, diagnosis is used to mean a description of the situation today, probably going into a fair bit of detail. Prognosis is used to mean what's going to come down the pike and what actions will be needed to address that traffic.
Please help with some better words, so I can say something other than "These words sound silly here."
Thanks.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hiya, Sweet Hyla!  Possibles: problem development, problem outline, history and current status, situation development, state of affairs, for Section 1. For 2, possibly: plan of action, action plan, planned outcome, projected outcome, projected course of events, forecast, expected development. Zis any help?
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Pooh-Bah
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I agree that the conceit of using medical terms for the non-medical works sounds a bit silly. Perhaps "outlook" would be a good substitution for "prognosis." As for "diagnosis," I don't know.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Hey, Alex--beat ya by one second! <eg> (But I like outlook better!)
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What happened to past, present and future?
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I agree, Hyla, these sound wanky!  (Coming from me, working in a Bank... tee hee!) "Background and Diagnosis"
I would probably use something like "Background and Identification (of the issues)" or "Preliminary research".
"Prognosis."
I guess this depends on what kind of information is in the section thus entitled. In documents I've produced this would be called something like "Implementation" or "Projection".
Hope that helps!
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Background and Analysis?
Situation analysis?
Outlook is a great word for the future, but seems to suggest what will happen in the big wide world, rather than what you / your organisation can do about those events. From your original post I suspect you want to cover both. So maybe you need to add something - 'Outlook and Action Plan' 'Future scenarios and responses.'
(Totally BTW - Hyla, I assume you know what the collective noun for bankers is???)
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Hyla, I assume you know what the collective noun for bankers is???
Do you mean the term of venery for a group of bankers? I don't recall it exactly, but it's something like "an interest of bankers," but cleverer.
What is it?
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something like "an interest of bankers," but cleverer.
What is it?No, no, HoneyBunch, it's a wunch. (Thanks, manis. ) Yow, just realized what spoonerizing honeybunch would be! !)
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stranger
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So, in this case, a bunch of wankers might be a wunch of bankers? At least, that's been my experience with them (remember, I'm a student and I get shafted).
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term of venery for a group of bankers
So, when's the season open?
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Five English gentlemen and one American computer programmer are walking along the Thames, discussing terms of venery. They see three English prostitutes, and wonder what the term of venery is for them. The first English gentleman says, "A fanfare of strumpets." The second says, "No, it's a trey of tarts." The third says, "No, a volume of Trollope's." [Trollope was an essayist.] The fourth says, "Nope, a pride of loins." The fifth says, "No, I say it's an anthology of English prose." And the programmer says, "It's a string of cache misses." And a good link for a few choice terms: http://www.hgmp.mrc.ac.uk/Embnetut/Personal/venereal.html
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Carpal Tunnel
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So, when's the season open?Probably when interest rates rise ... How about a misconception of mondegreens? 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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a bunch of wankers might be a wunch of bankers? At least, that's been my experience with them (remember, I'm a student and I get shafted).
My sympathies are with you! I work with them and I couldn't agree more. Me? I'm a mere Operations Analyst - for want of a more appropriate title. We had an interesting (??) discussion in a meeting (yawn) this morning about the difference between the company values and the (perceived) customer values. One of the guys said "But I'm an employee AND a customer" to which I replied "well, you must be having quite a dilemma then, trying to figure out how to rip yourself off" ... oops!  Suspect that could have been career limiting (if I cared), but sometimes mouth engages before brain! Regularly - in fact!
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Yes indeed Jackie, I was thinking of wunch.
Mind you, a venery of bankers seems just about right too...
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Hyla: I came across the phrase "a jam of tarts" recently but can't remember the source.
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hyla, i actually like diagnosis and prognosis..
thinking wholisticly, polution is like a pimple.. a small surface infection.. can it spread and make thing worse? sure
if you think of the earth as a living organizism, they you are diagnosising problems, treating them, and talking about an expected prognosis.
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old hand
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Suspect that could have been career limiting (if I
cared), but sometimes mouth engages before brain! Regularly - in fact!
I refer to these moments as accidental yoga. That's the position wherein one places both feet in one's mouth simultaneously.
Now, how about an avarice of bankers? Bankers and strumpets in the same thread? Hmmm.... I think I'm seeing a connection. Now, if only there'd be a banker's convention here in Oregon, in the place called Wanker's Corners! I'll bet Fiberbabe's been there, as it's just a couple miles south of Lake Oswego.
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Carpal Tunnel
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Five English gentlemen and one American computer programmer are walking along the Thames, discussing terms of venery... See also "Collective nouns" a little further down in this very same forum... http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=words&Number=68295 ("All that is necessary for telepathy is that two people be thinking the same thing at the same time.")
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"All that is necessary for telepathy is that two people be thinking the same thing at the same time"We were pretty close to the same time (15:30 and 13:51), but on different days...  Does it still count? Anyway, I like your joke better.
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Just shows the hazards of cross-threading! Same joke; one version has a few more self-referential puns, that's all. Shades of Douglas Hofstadter again! (Just finished reading Le Ton Beau de Marot - all about translation, of poetry, jokes, puns, etc. That's another cross-thread, original thread findable by search, I'm sure.) Edit: It's is Strange Loops, not suprisingly, located at
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=64520]
and
http://wordsmith.org/board/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=wordplay&Number=64600]
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