parsing issues

Victor aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Sat Jul 11 02:47:13 UTC 2009


It took me a few seconds and a couple of readings to parse the following
headline. (I was only looking at the link with the headline, with no
context.)

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10283858-93.html

 >>Flat panel revenue forecast as anemic

It helped to pin "forecast" as a verb, but the problem really was in
"flat panel", as well as the attraction of "revenue forecast" that was
interfering with correct parsing. Either a dash or an addition of the
word "display" would have helped tremendously. Of course, "flat panel"
has become TOA in electronics marketing, so it might have made more
sense to those for whom this piece was directly intended.

    VS-)

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