It seems backwards that the first kind of writing (where readability isn’t the main goal) is called “clarification”, since Google defines it as “the action of making a statement or situation less confused and more comprehensible” and gives “explanation” as a synonym.
After spending some time with a dictionary/thesaurus, I think “description”, “delineation”, or “sketch” might be a better term for it?
I was also hesitant to use “clarification”, but do kind of think about it as one “clarifying” their messy thoughts on paper, and clarifying them with a few people. I feel like “sketch” implies incompleteness, which is not exactly the case, and description and delineation are not descriptive enough.
Some other related terms.
Blueprint, survey, first pass, embryonic, pioneering, preliminary, germinal, prosaic.
I was also hesitant to use “clarification”, but do kind of think about it as one “clarifying” their messy thoughts on paper, and clarifying them with a few people.
Ok, that makes some sense, but the usage still conflicts strongly with the everyday usage of “clarification”, in a way that’s likely to cause a lot of confusion. Consider if someone says “Please read this clarification of my idea.” Wouldn’t the listener naturally (if they didn’t know the speaker was using “clarification” in your sense) think that the document was written with readability as a main goal?
description and delineation are not descriptive enough
I think in contrast, the downsides of “description” and “delineation” are not nearly as high as that of “clarification”. That is, if the listener didn’t know the specific intended meaning of “description” or “delineation” at least they won’t end up confused.
I finally got around to changing this. I came back to this article, also was confused by “clarification” when I first skimmed it. I agree more now that it was a pretty poor word to use originally, apologies!
It seems backwards that the first kind of writing (where readability isn’t the main goal) is called “clarification”, since Google defines it as “the action of making a statement or situation less confused and more comprehensible” and gives “explanation” as a synonym.
After spending some time with a dictionary/thesaurus, I think “description”, “delineation”, or “sketch” might be a better term for it?
Yeah this through me quite a bit
Thanks for the ideas!
I was also hesitant to use “clarification”, but do kind of think about it as one “clarifying” their messy thoughts on paper, and clarifying them with a few people. I feel like “sketch” implies incompleteness, which is not exactly the case, and description and delineation are not descriptive enough.
Some other related terms. Blueprint, survey, first pass, embryonic, pioneering, preliminary, germinal, prosaic.
Ok, that makes some sense, but the usage still conflicts strongly with the everyday usage of “clarification”, in a way that’s likely to cause a lot of confusion. Consider if someone says “Please read this clarification of my idea.” Wouldn’t the listener naturally (if they didn’t know the speaker was using “clarification” in your sense) think that the document was written with readability as a main goal?
I think in contrast, the downsides of “description” and “delineation” are not nearly as high as that of “clarification”. That is, if the listener didn’t know the specific intended meaning of “description” or “delineation” at least they won’t end up confused.
Agreed that “clarification” is confusing. What about “exploration”?
I like exploration. Could also see synonyms of exploration. “discovery”, “disclosure”, “origination”, “introduction”
I finally got around to changing this. I came back to this article, also was confused by “clarification” when I first skimmed it. I agree more now that it was a pretty poor word to use originally, apologies!