When I am in the middle of a project, and I want to emphasize the ongoing nature of it and the fact that it is not finished, I say that it is a work in progress. In the exact same context, an Australian acquaintance described a project as a working progress. I have never heard it said this way, and it sounds wrong to me. However, I realize that there are regional and generational variations in language, as well as pronunciation factors; so I wanted to confirm with the braintrust here at WR (that means you) that this is a valid expression. Is your ongoing project a working progress or is it a work in progress?
Oh it's definitely a work in progress for me, Fenix. I suspect working progress is just a linguistic 'tic', an error the chap isn't aware he makes.
I've never heard of "working progress". This sounds to me as if the user has got it wrong rather like "would of" instead of "would have".
"Working progress" is probably an error the creeped in from a spoken source. Working progress and work in progress would sound nearly identical as spoken.
"I haven't made much working progress this week" is a common use of "working progress". With a wry smile, I have to agree with stevea on "!work in progress". Why a smile? See the thread on "Across the piste".
Hello Profe Pollo, Sounds like idiom creep to me. Might your colleague have a manufacturing background, and be confused about work in process [inventory]?
