which is correct?
It seems that what was “gaining popularity” in 1979 is the accepted norm in 2001. Is this just me? What is the logic behind this?
The Elements of Style was first written just by Strunk in, I believe, 1919 and E.B. White updated it every so often starting in the 1950s. It may very well be that this line from the book was simply not updated either from Strunk’s original manuscript or from one of White’s earlier editions.
On the other hand, language is an extremely fluid thing and I would not be too surprised to find out that this is such a new concept.
I would suggest that, like with most fuzzy language issues, the confusion lies in the intent.
Who uses the word data as a singular? People like mathmaticians and statisticians. Others, like laypeople, use it more often as a plural.
In terms of scientific use, “data” is a set of specific things. When I look at the results of a research study and try to draw conclusions, I say things like, “The data are suggestive of two major trends.”
I use this form becase the “data” I refer to is specific: for example, the mean variable in a certain population.
But, when others speak more generally, saying things like, “The data proves that seatbelts save lives,” they are referring to a large collection of many types of data. They refer not to specific pieces of information, but a grab-bag of collected data that, in total, leads to a conclusion.
Does that make sense?
[sub]by the way, the EoS is one of my “Take to the Desert Island Books”! :)[/sub]
Isn’t it a collective noun? Like baseball team or government. If so, it would be “the data is” at least in the US.
Unfortunately, while the index of Style by Joseph Williams has a notation for “data,” there’s no mention of the word on the page it gives. The Usage panel for The American Heritage Dictionary is evenly divided on the is/are issue…
I was always under the impression that “datum” is the singular version, and “data” is the plural. So, you have one datum, two data, a bucket of data. I’ve always used plural verbs with “data” - “the data show…” as opposed to “the data shows…”.
Although I wouldn’t call it logic per se, the rationalization for using ‘data’ with a singular verb clearly comes from repeated (mis)usage–due to practical applications. In the sentence given by Strunk/White, “The data is misleading,” the implied subject is ‘collection of datum’. Since the rules of grammar tell us to isolate the subject from its qualifiers when conjugating the corresponding verb, many attibute a singular verb to the ‘collection’ part of the subject. At this point, I must reiterate that it is not necessarily “correct”, but is my best attempt at an explanation of a commonly-accepted deviation.
It’s kinda’ like saying “A six-pack of beer is the answer to your problems.” Even though there are six separate elements involved in the subject, ‘six-pack’ is the collective that determines the verb tense. Maybe this is a poor example, but I think you get the point.
Hope this helps!
Al
Now let’s do “criteria”.
My Physics teacher actually used “Criterion” on an assignment we did… and says “Orientated” every 3 seconds. Especially during magnetic fields…
There was a very comprehensive and enlightening thread on the correct usage of collective nouns a couple of months back, but for the life of me I can’t find it.
I subscribe to the view that language is a matter of consensus, and if enough people make the same error, that error becomes accepted practice (watch for “definately” in dictionaries within twenty years -you heard it here first, folks). And yes, it’s been said before, if change didn’t happen, we’d all be speaking Latin. The debate usually arises over words or grammatical structures in the process of change. A personal example: I tend to use the newer form “media” as a singular when refering to the press or television, but would use “medium” if it were in another field. I can’t back up my (probably irrational) position, but that’s the whole point of a changing language. I say “forums” too -bite me. 
Anyway, in the other thread I submitted a supposedly true telephone conversation which I like enough to bore you with again here (as related by my father):
PEDANTIC EDITOR: ARE there any news?
ROOKIE REPORTER: No sir. Not a single new.
“Data” is currently considered plural in academic and scientific writing, and singular in general writing. Figure out which audience you want and pick one.
Personally, I see no problem with “data” as singular. People who think otherwise are merely pushing an agenda.
Oh, wait. How could I say “an agenda”? Agenda is a Latin plural! It should be . . . hmm . . . what should it be?
I guess my mistake is that I speak English, not Latin. How Cicero used it 2000 years ago doesn’t seem all that relevant.
Here’s what I found:
So it’s acceptable in informal English, just not in formal written English. Sounds to me like it’s pretty much accepted but nobody wants to be the first to say so.
Since words like “data” are used in statistical articles and in applied research using numbers, and prominent journals in those fields (business, statistics, mathematics, medicine, etc.) require manuscripts to follow the APA Style (American Psychological Association), I consulted the APA Publication Manual. In section 2.07 Agreement of Subjuct and Verb on page 34 of the 4th edition (1997) it states.
The manual further states, in the same section:
I think this is pretty clear.
- “data” is not a collective noun
- “data” is the plural form of a noun and an example of correct usage is given.
Popular usage does not make something correct; it just makes it popular.
Singularly,
Spritle
My crumudgeonly old-school profs have drummed into me that “data” is plural, so that’s how I use it, and I tend to notice when it’s used as singular. I’ll correct it if it’s in a paper I’ve been asked to proof-read, but let it slide otherwise.
Given that the singular “datum” is almost never used, it would be no great tragedy if “data” became–or perhaps I should say, has become–singular. There’s no significant loss of information, IMHO, so I shall not rail against it.
discusses the use of data as plural and singular, yet frequently (and correctly) taking singular non-verb modifiers.
The term for such a word is “collective noun”. Other examples are criteria and agenda. All three are in states of transition to singularity.
Almost always, data’s meaning is singular, i.e., a specific collection of datums. The grammatical latinate artifact of pluralizing a verb for a noun that is otherwise modified singularly and is indeed conceptually singular is difficult for many, including myself, to cope with.
Both Science and Nature accept either plural or singular forms of “data”. And that settles it form me.
Also:
http://www.quinion.com/words/usagenotes/un-data.htm
e.g. of the difficulty:
The phrase “There is very little data…” is incorrect, but
common. “There are four data…” is ambiguous, but
correct. I have never seen this usage.
In computer circles, data is almost always singular, which is why I might have problem with my plurality.
According to the [url="http://www.bartleby.com/64/C003/088.html"American Heritage Book of English Usage:
The entry also says that 60% of the Usage Panel accept data as singular.
It doesn’t seem clear to me that data isn’t a collective noun, regardless of what the APA Publication Manual says. And when it comes to language, popular usage often does make something correct.
Not that I necessarily disagree, but if “data” is a collective noun, what is it a collection of?
This has always confused me a bit. Is a “datum” a datapoint? A single measurement?
For example, is a spectrum data, or a datum? A spectrum is composed of many data points, no? “The data are a spectrum?”
A spectrum is a continuum, and is not data until you sample it. How many samples do you take? If you take just one, it’s a datum. If you take many, it’s data.
This is one of the few grammatical areas in which I’m a purist. The use of “data” as singular arises, I believe, due to the fact that it has been corrupted as a synonym for “information”, and that word’s usage forms have been grafted on.
I personally think the corruption happened because the word “data” sounds more impressive than “information” and academics and proto-yuppies wanted to sound important.
Then again, I’m a bitter young man.
[[My crumudgeonly old-school profs have drummed into me that “data” is plural, so that’s how I use it, and I tend to notice when it’s used as singular. I’ll correct it if it’s in a paper I’ve been asked to proof-read, but let it slide otherwise.]]
You mean “‘data’ are plural,” right? The word ‘data’ is singular. Heh, I’m just giving you sh**. As an epidemiologist, I constantly use that word and every single time I have to correct myself to make “data” plural. Epidemiologists do it to show off, mostly. …Keeps people off balance with how above it all and out of touch we are. - Jill