Date:    Fri, 19 Jun 1998 11:41:18 -0500
<br>From:    Mark Mandel <Mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]DRAGONSYS.COM>
<br>Subject: seeking a verb for what a consultant does
<br>
<br>In my work, I frequently serve as a short-term consultant to people in
<br>various parts of the company: answering short questions, attending a
<br>meeting to give input on a single issue, etc. In my biweekly reports I have
<br>been describing this kind of activity in terms like
<br>
<br>         I consulted for Hugh on the XYZ issue
<br>
<br>which I find unsatisfactory. The problem is that while I dislike the passive
<br>voice, and I certainly don't want to fill my reports with it, "consult" takes
<br>the consultant (the person who provides expertise) as direct object, and
<br>I can't think of any construction or expression, EXCEPT the passive, that
<br>fits into the pattern:
<br>
<br>        I attended meeting X
<br>        I collected data of type Y
<br>        I ran experiment Z
<br>
<br>Suggestions, anyone? They don't have to use the root "consult". I've tried
<br>"advise", but it doesn't always fit semantically.
<br>
<br>       Mark A. Mandel : Senior Linguist : mark[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]dragonsys.com
<br>    Dragon Systems, Inc. : speech recognition : +1 617 796-0267
<br> 320 Nevada St., Newton, MA 02160, USA : http://www.dragonsys.com/
<br>           Personal home page: http://world.std.com/~mam/
<br>