| 词组 | conferencing |
| 释义 | conferencing Harper 1975, under the heading edu-cationese, reports receiving a letter asking about the propriety of the word conferencing, used in the phrase "from much conferencing experience" by a junior high school principal in a letter to a parent. The Harper editors conclude by recommending the use of conferring, which would sound very strange indeed in the construction the principal used. Thomas H. Middleton encountered the word in 1978: • One of my prime candidates for quick death is conferencing—Saturday Rev., 7 Jan. 1978 He too found it in an educational context, but the reference—"Clearly, conferencing is a booming business"—is not to parent-teacher conferences, but to large-scale meetings. In both cases, however, the meaning is "the holding of conferences." Our files have citations from educational sources from about the same period that use conferencing as a word for a technique for teaching writing, one apparently employing discussions between the writer and the teacher and sometimes involving the whole class too. These citations and the ones that came to the attention of Harper and Middleton suggest that conferencing exists as a somewhat technical term in educational jargon. It has not yet sufficiently emerged from its technical domain to warrant entry in a general dictionary. "Conferencing may be getting entrenched, though," says Middleton in conclusion. He may be right, but for reasons he did not suspect. A somewhat later use of conferencing has developed—probably independently—in the world of computers. Our first inkling was from a publication of the New Jersey Institute of Technology: • Computerized conferencing systems under development at NJIT advanced dramatically during the year —Paul H. Newell, Jr., Nexus, October 1976 It has appeared at least once to our knowledge in a publication intended for the general public: • ... the latest in "computer conferencing" ... which eventually will substitute communication by computer terminal for old-fashioned speeches and panel discussions —Ada Louise Huxtable, N. Y. Times, 12 Oct. 1980 But so far it has appeared mostly in trade and technical sources: • Communications actually got under way last July, but were suspended briefly in October while the DOC decided whether computer conferencing—the exchange of electronic messages—comes within the purview of export regulations —Clifford Barney, Electronics, 11 Nov. 1985 This conferencing may burst into general use before the educational one does. We have but one citation for the word in a context that is neither of teaching nor of electronics: • It took over two years and many hours of conferencing to reach agreement on the selection of works to be included —Mortimer J. Adler, Know, Fall 1972/ Winter 1973 |
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