When I first saw this particular monstrosity of a word, it was used in the following context:
“Mr. X would like to see more granularity in this report.”
What the writer meant to say was: “Mr. X. would like to see more a more detailed breakdown of the performance measurement results for each program type”.
Meanwhile, back at the cubicle farm…
Granularity is the wrong word—period. I appeal to Webster’s definition for assistance: "consisting of or appearing to consist of granules : grainy."
Well, now we have a problem… according to this definition, if something consists of granules, it is called “grainy”, but if something consists of grains, it is also called “grainy”. However, it is a well-known fact that a “grain” is a relatively large particle of something, a “granule” is smaller than a grain, and a “chondrule” is smaller yet.
Perhaps Webster had an oversight. What about this:
Comprised of grains = grainy.
Comprised of granules = granular.
Comprised of chondrules = chondrular. (Say that one 5 times fast).
Now that we’re all clear, how does one go about making a report “granular”? Strictly speaking, we must take the grains and split them into granules: thus we have to assume that the grains are defined. If the grains are defined, the report is already “grainy” and then we have the question of what constitutes a “grain” vs. a “granule” in terms of the level of detail required. This is difficult due to the fact that public policy work generally does not follow the rules of physical science in the figurative.
Heaven forbid we overshoot by mistake and break down the data into chondrules.
But all this is moot unless we are able to logically make something “more” granular. If a substance is “granular”, it is comprised of a certain volume of granules. We cannot make an entity “more granular” by adding granules, because then we change its form and characteristics; we are limited to the volume of matter already present. As previously outlined, if we decide to split the granules further into chondrules, we are making something chondrular (not “more” chondrular or “more” granular”). Grammatically, the correct way to say this incorrect sentence would be:
“Mr. X would like to see the grain of this report granulated.”
