Hi Sarah,

This past year I started a graduate program in social work, and I’m learning that there are certain social service-y buzzwords that get thrown around, like, a lot. Two of the most commonly heard words, among both students and professors, are competency and resiliency.

I know these are both real words, but why not just use the less cumbersome competence and resilience? Are there important differences in usage or semantics that I’m missing, or do people just like the sound of that extra syllable? Because I most certainly do not. Thank you for any help!

Unwieldy Word Wonderer

Dear Wonderer,

My instinct is to tell you that “competency” and “resiliency” indicate pretentioncy, but according to Garner, in the context of social work, “competency” is a distinction with a meaningful difference: “Competence usually bears the general sense ‘a basic or minimal ability to do something.’ … Today competency is unnecessary in all but its legal sense: ‘the ability to understand problems and make decisions; the ability to stand trial.'”

For a term like “resiliency,” which doesn’t have connotations of a legal proceeding, you can probably use Garner’s note on “complacence/complacency” as a guideline; he deems “complacency” a needless variant, and I agree.I’m not a social worker, so “resiliency” may have a contextual or field-specific meaning that makes it useful, but for everyday usage, “resilience” is preferred.

For the record, MS Word’s auto-spell-check does not flag either “competency” or “resiliency.”It does, however, underline “irregardless,” God bless it.And no I will not let that go.Ever.

Dear Sars,

I’ve apparently been making a blunder for quite some time — I’ve always used the word “evinced” thusly:

“The training of Molly’s new puppy was not going well, as evinced by the large gashes on her hands.”

When I came upon something I thought was a typo, however, I searched your archives for examples, and found that in the above situation, you would apparently use “evidenced,” reserving “evinced” for such as:

“Molly evidenced little desire to be used as a chew toy by her puppy.”

(By the way, these sentences did spring to my mind from recent personal experience. Why do you ask?)

Is this an either/or situation, or will this go down as another one of those embarrassing mental wire-crossings of mine? (How I got away with using “taunt” in the place of “taut” for so many years I’ll never know.)

Evidently wrong

Dear You Can Probably Get In Line,

That second sentence doesn’t sound like something I would write — not because I don’t have a puppy, but because I have to stop and think about whether I’m about to use “evince” correctly, which I fear I’m not, so I rephrase with something else.But I don’t know that I would use the verb “to evidence” that way.

I’m going to answer before looking it up, and see if I’m right, but I think I’d switch the verbs in your examples: “as evidenced by the large gashes on her hands” and “Molly evinced little desire.”I use “evince” to mean “reveal” or “demonstrate”; “as evidenced by” is similar, but not quite the same thing, although I have trouble explaining why.Let’s check Garner…

…who isn’t a fan of either word, it seems: “These words, which are lawyers’ favorites, are often inferior to show or express or indicate.Properly, to evidence something is to serve as proof of its truth, existence, or occurrence.Justifiable uses of this verb are typically in the PASSIVE VOICE.”Caps Garner’s.

As for “evince,” the word “properly means ‘to show, exhibit, make manifest,’ but has been objected to” as journalist-ese, and is often “misused for evoke, get, receive, or some other everyday term.”I see it used incorrectly for “elicit” from time to time, and I worry about mixing it up with “evoke” my own self.

The short form: if you don’t feel confident in your usage — as I don’t; see above — write around it with “as demonstrated by” or “showed.”

Hi Sars –

This one has been bugging me for a while….there is a national auto service/repair shop that advertises on my local radio station.For years, they have advertised “preventive maintenance.”Picture me screaming at my radio “preven-TA-tive” each time I hear it.

I went and looked up “preventive” and “preventative,” and found basically the same definition for both.So, while it still irritated the hell out of me, I figured they must know more than I did.Until yesterday.

I heard a commercial for the SAME chain, and the speaker clearly said “preven-TA-tive maintenance.”I was all…HA!But it still bugs…was I right?Did someone finally read their copy and correct them?What do you think?

TaTa

Dear Ta,

My mom and I used to scream “preven-TIVE” at various radio ads; the extra syllable in “preventative” serves no purpose.Per Garner, “The strictly correct form is preventive (as both noun and adjective), though the corrupt form with the extra internal syllable is unfortunately common[.]”He goes on to note that “preventive” is used five times more often than “preventative,” and I don’t think the majority should always rule in matters of usage, but in this case, I’m fine with it.

“Preventative” is an overcorrection.The auto-repair chain had it right the first time.

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