Posted on 12/05/2018 12:19:28 PM PST by RoosterRedux
Additional info.:
BizWritingTip response:
You are absolutely correct. Writers often ignore the necessary punctuation. The abbreviations “i.e.” and “e.g.” are considered interrupting words within a sentence and require punctuation on both sides to indicate this. You must put a comma or a bracket (parentheses) before the abbreviation and a comma after.
The abbreviation “i.e.” (from the Latin “id est” meaning “that is”) means everything that follows.
Examples (correct)
My business plans involve trips to several cities, i.e., Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Calgary.
My business plans involve trips to several cities (i.e., Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Calgary).
Me too. I've been lurking and hanging out on FR since shortly after 2001.
It's a gift. Freepers are a gift.
Thx, Jim.
Who do I know that can write?
If you use e.g. to provide some examples, but the examples you provide are all of the subset of the thing for which you are providing examples, should you use "e.g." or "i.e."?
For example, if you say big cities in Georgia (I live in Georgia), and you say "e.g., Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, Savannah, Athens," should you use "e.g." for examples or should you use "i.e." for "that is."
You have given examples but you have also listed all the big cities. I know the question hangs on the definition of "big" city.
But that's where the whole things gets blurry.
Examples would by definition be subsets ...
"Ergo" is often misused.
And then there's the matter of latin plurals, such as "media", "data", and even "stadia."
It doesn't pay to be too much of a purist.
Quod erat demonstrandum.
The point is that correct usage (yes, I know this is anal retentive) would require the user to know if his subset was complete or partial.
I was a math kid, but I loved English.
I told my English teacher (she taught my mother too...she was an institution) that English was like math.
I think she had a spasm.
Language is like math. It has rules that must be obeyed because of symmetry.
Math and language are like the building craft.
They must add up.
That is grammatically incorrect. It should read "It's important that US freepers use grammar GOODLY."
We (including you) don't do it because it pays.
I don't know why we do it...but perhaps Jordan Peterson can tell us why.
Precision in language is just an extension of the love of precision.
Carpenters love precision. Mathematicians love precision. Even accountants love precision.
Being precise is being a purist.
Humanity is build upon a foundation of "precision."
In writing reports, sometimes the client nit-picks at things.
The temperature and pressure data are modeled....
However, only the temperature data are used in the calculation of the....
“Hey - change that second “are” to “is”, as you are only talking about the one type of data.
It doesn’t matter that much to me - the meaning is the same.
Okay - I just looked it up. It seems that both the plural and non-plural wording can be okay in some instances.
(Now, if he wanted me to change my results like NASA does in order to prove some other conclusion....)
You r write, of coarse.
The thing “i.e.” has going for it is that it’s more compact than “for example” when written. I sometimes use it in parenthetical statements to keep them from sprawling.
Exactly!
Two of those sample sentences need an additional em dash to avoid possible confusion. You have to make sure the i.e. and the e.g. are stuck to the proper phrase, not the one preceding.
I have a thousand of these little devices. I can never remember the difference between abjure and adjure, so I remember that “renounce” and “warn” are in the same alphabetical order as “abjure” and “adjure.”
exempli gratia
I deplore the disappearance of loc. cit. from bibliographies. So convenient for something that’s exactly in the same spot— not just in the work cited, as in op. cit.
Also, et al. stands for either et alii, et aliae, or et alia when referring to masculine, feminine, or gender-neutral groups, so be careful not to use them the wrong way unless talking about certain congress critters. Crossword puzzles use these correctly, bless their pedantic souls.
Back in the days of galley proof, I invented one of these: gg., meaning galley proofs—as in gg. 24 thru 28. I was thrilled when people started using it. Alas, no more. The metal trays with the sides are long gone.
Hope I didn’t kill this thread. I get excited about this stuff.
No. That is why I used the word, ‘similar’.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.