Is the following an accurate use of the word "culminate?"

The committee has written a position paper, culminating in 2 years of work.

Shouldn't it be something more like, "a culmination of 2 years of work?" Isn't the paper the completion, rather than the work? I think the sentence sounds wrong, or at least awkward, but others disagree with me.

What do you think?

It sounds to me like the committee wrote a paper, which then had someone do two years of work. It's all backwards, and just sounds awful.

How about: "Two years of committee work culminated in a position paper." ?

The Oxford Advanced Learners dic defines culminate as 'having the specified final conclusion or result.'
Examples are: "a long struggle that culminated in success."
"Her career culminated in her appointment as director."

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
Is the following an accurate use of the word "culminate?"

The committee has written a position paper, culminating in 2 years of work.

No. "Culminate" is used here in the sense of "end" or "bring to completion." Substitute "ending" or "bringing to completion" to that sentence gives The committee has written a position paper, ending (bringing to completion) in 2 years of work, which makes no sense. Dropping the "in" would help: The committee has written a position paper, culminating 2 years of work. It still sounds awkward to me. I would prefer something like "The committee culminated two years of work with a position paper on ... ." Actually, I would probably use "ended," instead of "culminated."

Tinman

All this is is the all too common situation where someone uses a complex word to try to appear clever and, by getting its use wrong, appears stupid instead.

Why don't you deliberately take the meaning literally and ask, in apparent innocence, who will be undertaking this additional two years of work? Then the author can try to explain his or her solecism.

quote:

Actually, I would probably use "ended," instead of "culminated."

Yes, I agree, Tinman. I wanted to say "after two years of work," and she wouldn't have it.
It had to be "culmination," in her mind, and I just didn't think she was using it right. If it were her article, I wouldn't care, but it was going out with my name on it! I still am not sure what she did with it.

Aha...they listened to me. I have the galley (is it "galley" or "galleys"?) before me, and here is how it now reads:

"The group approved this position paper after two years of work..."

Quote: "The group approved this position paper after two years of work"

It took them two years to approve it?

(I suspect you mean two years spent preparing the paper and doing the underlying work. But it sounds as if the committee dithered for two years before issuing its approval.)

Oh...heck!

I took out some of the wording that was specific to our organization, so I think the actual sentence does work. Still...it could be better, I agree. Believe me, after my stomping around about the "culminating" sentence, I really had better leave this alone!

Enough fulminating about culminating!