Can authority be sustained while balancing accessibility and formality?
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(Published version)
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2017
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Hashimzade, N.
Myles, G.
Myles, G.
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Journal article
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Hermes (Denmark), 2017; 27(52):11-24
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Nigar Hashimzade, Georgina A. Myles and Gareth D. Myles
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Abstract
Economics has developed into a quantitative discipline that makes extensive use of mathematical and statistical concepts. When writing a dictionary for economics undergraduates it has to be recognised that many users will not have suffi cient training in mathematics to benefi t from formal defi nitions of mathematical and statistical concepts. In fact, it is more than likely that the user will want the dictionary to provide an accessible version of a defi nition that avoids mathematical notation. Providing a verbal description of a mathematical concept has the risk that the outcome is both verbose (compared to a defi nition using appropriate mathematical symbols) and imprecise. For the author of a dictionary this raises the question of how to resolve this confl ict between accessibility and formal correctness. We use a range of examples from the Oxford Dictionary of Economics to illustrate this confl ict and to assess the extent to which a non-formal defi nition can be viewed as authoritative.
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This journal provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.