Talk:Department secretary

Latest comment: 3 years ago by Buidhe in topic Requested move 9 September 2020

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External links modified edit

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Requested move 9 September 2020 edit

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: I am finding consensus to move because of ItsPugle's research. "It's better English" is not a very strong argument to make in terms of WP:AT. (non-admin closure) (t · c) buidhe 00:56, 4 October 2020 (UTC)Reply



Departmental secretaryDepartment secretary – As per WP:CONCISE. There's no reason to use the longer and awkward adjective over the cleaner noun. ItsPugle (please ping on reply) 12:00, 9 September 2020 (UTC) Relisting. User:Ceyockey (talk to me) 00:38, 18 September 2020 (UTC)Reply

  • Oppose. How on earth does an extra two letters make the current form "awkward"? It's better English. -- Necrothesp (talk) 13:27, 16 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
It's awkward in that it sounds like a generic secretary within a public department, rather than a department secretary. If there wasn't a distinction between the two, then how could it be better English? Anyways, it's two unnecessary characters regardless - the semantics are still conveyed without them. The role is also called "department secretary" in HQRS: doi:10.1111/j.1467-8500.2007.00524.x, the websites of shadow ministers, and even federal government department websites. ItsPugle (please ping on reply) 08:16, 17 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
  • Comment. The article title should be whatever they are most commonly called in Australia. Rreagan007 (talk) 18:51, 18 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
It looks like "department secretary" is the most common term on Google Ngrams, the same with Google Trends. A quick Google also shows that Australian government websites also use "department secretary":
  1. NSW Government job listing
  2. Department of Veterans' Affairs
  3. Parliamentary research paper from 1999
  4. Department of Infrastructure press release
  5. Department of Territories release from 1966
  6. Department of Education release from 2015
  7. Senate Committee hearing
I think this all pretty well covers WP:COMMONNAME too then! ItsPugle (please ping on reply) 01:21, 19 September 2020 (UTC)Reply
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.