Mignon Fogarty's Blog: Mignon Fogarty's Blog, page 3
February 28, 2012
"Data" as Plural? This Sentence Made Me Cringe
A recent article in the Huffington Post included a sentence that used "data" as a plural noun and sounded so awkward that I thought it was a good example of why sometimes you should either make "data" singular or use a different word:
Although the author was valiantly trying to follow the sometimes-rule that "data" is plural because in Latin it's plural ("datum" is the Latin singular), I was cringing—not a response you want from your readers.
It's easy to come up with better options:
* scientists had few results that allowed correlation
* there was little information that allowed correlation
And, of course, if you're OK with "data" being singular when it's a mass noun (a point I've addressed on my site and in 101 Troublesome Words), you could write "there was little data that allowed correlation."
Scientists are more adamant than nonscientists about keeping "data" plural, so making "data" singular may not have been a good choice for this particular sentence, but since the article was on the Huffington Post, and therefore written for the general public, rewriting the sentence to sound more natural would have been a good choice.
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
"Drought was also considered a possibility, but until about 10 years ago there were few data that allowed correlation of dry periods with the archaeological evidence." (emphasis added)
Although the author was valiantly trying to follow the sometimes-rule that "data" is plural because in Latin it's plural ("datum" is the Latin singular), I was cringing—not a response you want from your readers.
It's easy to come up with better options:
* scientists had few results that allowed correlation
* there was little information that allowed correlation
And, of course, if you're OK with "data" being singular when it's a mass noun (a point I've addressed on my site and in 101 Troublesome Words), you could write "there was little data that allowed correlation."
Scientists are more adamant than nonscientists about keeping "data" plural, so making "data" singular may not have been a good choice for this particular sentence, but since the article was on the Huffington Post, and therefore written for the general public, rewriting the sentence to sound more natural would have been a good choice.
Mignon Fogarty is better known online as Grammar Girl.
February 18, 2012
Verisimilitude
I'm always on the lookout for books or articles that nicely use words I covered in Grammar Girl's 101 Words to Sound Smart. Today I came across one in Robert McKee's book Story:
If you aren't familiar with the word, I'm sure you get the meaning from the context; it describes something that seems real even though it isn't. It comes from Latin that means "like the truth."
The illustrative quotation I used in 101 Words praised the TV series Mad Men for its verisimilitude.
I don't often have the opportunity to use "verisimilitude" in life or in my writing, but when it fits, it's not a pretentious ten-dollar word—it economically conveys a specific meaning.
"Over the years I've observed two typical and persistent kinds of failed screenplay. The first is the 'personal story' bad script . . . The 'personal story' is understructured, slice-of-life portraiture that mistakes verisimilitude for truth."
If you aren't familiar with the word, I'm sure you get the meaning from the context; it describes something that seems real even though it isn't. It comes from Latin that means "like the truth."
The illustrative quotation I used in 101 Words praised the TV series Mad Men for its verisimilitude.
I don't often have the opportunity to use "verisimilitude" in life or in my writing, but when it fits, it's not a pretentious ten-dollar word—it economically conveys a specific meaning.
