OK, I Was Annoyed by This Last Year...

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And I'm annoyed again! It's the phrase "body of work", or, worse, "overall body of work", as used in talking NCAA basketball, that I'm talking about. Here's an example from Andy katz: "If the Boilermakers keep winning without Hummel, then why wouldn't Purdue get judged on its overall body of work?"

The reason it annoys me is that we had a perfectly good word to use in place of this longer, more pretentious phrase: "season". What Katz is saying could be re-written as, "why wouldn't Purdue get judged on its entire season?" I believe in every use I have ever seen "season" could be used in place of "body of work". Hey, but everyone is saying body of work, so maybe I'd better say it as well.

Comments

  1. Wabulon4:08 PM

    Or how about: "Despite much controversy as to the place in philosophy of the late Prof. Glitz's last work, Der Rectus Mundi des Glockenspiels, there can be no denying the gravamen of his season"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eamon8:58 PM

    Ah, the straight world of glockenspiels!

    ReplyDelete

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