Body of Work or Work?

[nongfuspring]

It's a matter of context. I probably frequently use the term body of work in academic writing because it is the most exact way of referring to an exact series/project/dead guy's work. Using the term in an everyday setting is usually a bit excessive because that level of precision isn't really required when people more or less already know what you're talking about. The difference between academic/specialist writing and more colloquial sort of stuff is that when someone is in the normal world, things happen more as an ongoing conversation - terms don't really need to be defined so specifically because there is a lot of contextual information at hand already, but in a more academic/specialist context we have to be a lot more didactic. Check out philosophy or political theory - sometimes centuries of misunderstandings and bickering over the inappropriate use of a capital letter.

 

[Monochrom]

I think body of work, doesn´t matter if it´s been used too much.

BOW means you have your concepts and obsessions clear.

humbles and snobs can be very pretentious, works either way😀

 

[Richard G]

Body of work is when you're referring to a specific project or as a way of book-ending someone's practice. The emphasis on work is as something that is ongoing.

Also agree with this.

 

[Sparrow]

... it was that idea that made me think it a pretence ... because the convention is to use 'period' for that

 

[Roger Hicks]

For a moderately thoughtful piece on the subject, try http://www.rogerandfrances.com/bodyofwork.html

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

For a moderately thoughtful piece on the subject, try http://www.rogerandfrances.com/bodyofwork.html

Cheers,

R.

... yes, I'd come to that conclusion

oeuvre or opuscula (if that's the noun by some fluke) ... for the Life's' Work although, that's even more pretentious

 

[Roger Hicks]

... yes, I'd come to that conclusion

oeuvre or opuscula (if that's the noun by some fluke) ... for the Life's' Work although, that's even more pretentious

Dear Stewart,

I'd have thought that oeuvre was only applied by other people, usually after you have have died (as I am glad to see you avoided) or achieved Grand Old status. As I say in the piece, [A] body of work is not (usually) the same as an "oeuvre". The latter usually refers to an artist's lifetime output, or at least to the whole output in his or her life so far, though the two terms are sometimes (understandably) used interchangeably.

Oeuvre is surely quite a handy word, as most reasonably well-read people have at least some idea of what it means and it saves a good deal of unnecessary explanation and verbiage. Only those who have no need of it or do not understand it are likely to object to it, but then, they'll often do the same with grammar.

An opuscule or opusculum is normally a small piece of work (diminutive of "opus", after all) and therefore something different again. Opuscula are often sold as pamphlets, such as Orwell's essay Politics and the English Language, or bound together like short stories.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Sparrow]

I was trying for the nominative of opus, with it seems about the same success I had at school 🙂 ... I just looked it up and I got a diminutive it seems

 

[willie_901]

body of work = a life time of work?

Yup.

It's not pretentious if you have a reasonably long, consistent track record of works.