Peeve

[magid]

I just hate it when people use "name" when they mean "list."

"Name the coefficients of the polynomial." is completely different from "List the coefficients of the polynomial."
The former makes me think of the Calvin and Hobbes strip where Calvin is asked to write something on a test "in his own words." Of course, his own words have a distinct lack of vowels and a greater tendency towards x's than is usual in English... Technically, a student could write "Jayne, Carolyn, and Michael" to answer the question. Of course, the student will end up with a reputation as a smart-aleck, but that's not quite the point. It's not unreasonable to expect well-written questions (or direction lines) in a text book.

Comments

[chanaleh.livejournal.com]

Well, I dunno... Far be it from me to try and rationalize away someone's pet peeve, of course, but -- there is a precedent in standard English usage for "name" = "specify" (Name your price!) in addition to "name" = "assign a name to".

[queue.livejournal.com]

Math textbooks need to be much more precise than what is normally acceptable in standard English usage. In this specific case, there are times when a question will ask someone to name something ("Name the angle." And the answer is "Angle ABC"). So a question that is asking for a list shouldn't say "name", since that is used elsewhere in the book to mean "assign a name to." Sometimes I think it can get a bit arbitrary, and it just goes by the conventions of the particular publisher. But most of the time it makes sense to be very precise.