Amazing how some things just stick...
Aug. 12th, 2011 09:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpI probably owe my "apprenticeship" at Plenum more than I know.
It was there that I was introduced to the concept of "style," not in the commonly understood sense, but in the publishing sense, where it describes how to deal with the myriad little details that grammar does not care about.
Among the little "in house" rules that I learned during my first week on the job was:
1) "data" are plural (a position with which I do not currently agree);
2) a mention of a table is capitalized if it refers to a specific table (e.g., "The data are shown in Table 3.");
3) all references to specific figures take the form "Fig." (or "Figs." if more than one figure is intended); this word was only spelled out if it occurred at the start of a sentence.
4) mathematical expressions were not to be referred to (as the Russian original so often did) as "formulas"; all mathematical "formulas" were to be recast as "relations," "equations," "inequalities," "expressions," or what have you.
In the end, I think this unconscious hewing, over the years, to strive for a kind of stylistic consistency in my work has helped set it apart, in a good way.
Cheers...
P.S. Written while Word is "trying to recover" my information.
It was there that I was introduced to the concept of "style," not in the commonly understood sense, but in the publishing sense, where it describes how to deal with the myriad little details that grammar does not care about.
Among the little "in house" rules that I learned during my first week on the job was:
1) "data" are plural (a position with which I do not currently agree);
2) a mention of a table is capitalized if it refers to a specific table (e.g., "The data are shown in Table 3.");
3) all references to specific figures take the form "Fig." (or "Figs." if more than one figure is intended); this word was only spelled out if it occurred at the start of a sentence.
4) mathematical expressions were not to be referred to (as the Russian original so often did) as "formulas"; all mathematical "formulas" were to be recast as "relations," "equations," "inequalities," "expressions," or what have you.
In the end, I think this unconscious hewing, over the years, to strive for a kind of stylistic consistency in my work has helped set it apart, in a good way.
Cheers...
P.S. Written while Word is "trying to recover" my information.
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no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 01:06 am (UTC)Alex, it is sad, but it is true.
no subject
Date: 2011-08-13 02:27 am (UTC)Oxford dictionary:
data
Pronunciation: /ˈdeɪtə/
noun [mass noun]
facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis:
there is very little data available
the quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by a computer, which may be stored and transmitted in the form of electrical signals and recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media.
Philosophythings known or assumed as facts, making the basis of reasoning or calculation.
Origin:
mid 17th century (as a term in philosophy): from Latin, plural of datum
Usage
In Latin, data is the plural of datum and, historically and in specialized scientific fields , it is also treated as a plural in English, taking a plural verb, as in the data were collected and classified; . In modern non-scientific use, however , it is generally not treated as a plural. Instead, it is treated as a mass noun, similar to a word like information, which takes a singular verb. Sentences such asdata was collected over a number of years are now widely accepted in standard English.
Macquarie Dictionary (more important for me, but then the explanation is good):
data
// (say 'daytuh), // (say 'dahtuh)
plural noun 1. plural of datum.
2. (construed as singular or plural) figures, statistics, etc., known or available; information collected for analysis or reference: *These data show that on their assumptions, our debt to national income ratio rises from one-third to one-half –herald, 1990; *This data not only gives details for reading the map itself but also the date of the information and the sources from which it has been compiled. –west australian, 1992.
3. (construed as singular or plural) Computers digital information.
Usage: The connection between data the plural, and datum the singular has been almost completely broken, so that while datum survives in such compounds as datum point, it does not have the frequency of use that data has. Data is regularly used as a singular collective noun in contexts like the data has proved difficult to process.
Webster:
Usage Discussion of DATA
Data leads a life of its own quite independent of datum, of which it was originally the plural. It occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like earnings), taking a plural verb and plural modifiers (as these, many, a few) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (as they, them); and as an abstract mass noun (like information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (as this, much, little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (it). Both constructions are standard. The plural construction is more common in print, evidently because the house style of several publishers mandates it.