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GSA / data.gov-styleguide

A style guide for Data.gov
http://gsa.github.io/data.gov-styleguide/
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Use "data" as a collective noun rather than the plural form of "datum" #4

Open philipashlock opened 9 years ago

philipashlock commented 9 years ago

In other words, we don't say "the data are" instead we say "the data is"

It's 2014, language evolves.

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2012/07/05/is-data-is-or-is-data-aint-a-plural/ http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/jul/16/data-plural-singular

gbinal commented 9 years ago

:+1:

OpenGlobe commented 9 years ago

Hmmm - I guess I'd be on the other side of this. I'd have to admit I use both singular and plural, but "these data are" still sounds correct when referencing data in research briefs and the like.

philipashlock commented 9 years ago

@OpenGlobe Perhaps the style guide should be explicit that it leans more toward a mainstream audience and uses the vernacular. This should be true for all language from government that's meant to communicate with the public at large so as to be more inclusive and accessible than what you'd otherwise find in government-centric or academic environments, but I think it's also important to recognize when terminology like this has evolved in the vernacular as we support the broader effort of advancing data literacy ;)