Dealing with synonyms

How should I deal with synonyms for jargon?

Richie Cotton avatar
Written by Richie Cotton
Updated over a week ago

Question:

There are often several different pieces of terminology for the same thing. For example, the rows in a data frame (or other rectangular datasets) are sometimes called observations or records. Likewise, the columns can be called features or fields or variables.

How should I deal with synonyms for jargon?

Answer:

It is good to make students aware that multiple terms mean the same thing. You can mention this in videos or the text of a multiple choice or coding exercise.

After that, try to stick to a single term for consistency.

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