Re: Data a collective noun?

[Rahel Bailie <rbailie -at- CASTLETON -dot- COM>]

>However, I imagine that this idea of data being a collective noun is a
>sort of rationalisation that allows us writers, who are supposedly "in
>the know" about things like grammar (and let's not even THINK about
>whether this is, or should be, true!), to use language like the teeming
>millions and still be on the windy side of the grammatical law.

As a tech writer, I worry about similar wording issues, but as an end
user, all I want is to read the instructions and install whatever
hardware/software I've bought. I don't want to be distracted by what
appears to be odd use of language. I hear "data is" continually; if
someone were to say or write "data are", it would be a distraction. That
means I'll be thinking about why the writers used that word combination
instead of what's in the next couple of sentences. Right or wrong, "data
is" sounds more natural to my [North American] ear.

As an aside, I just installed a 56K modem by US Robotics and absolutely
loved the fold-out instructions. (Can't get the dang thing to actually
_work_, but that's a different sort of problem.) My engineer
cube-buddies had a chuckle when I waved the instructions around the
office, saying, "They've got GOOD tech writers there!"

-------------------------------------------------
Rahel A. Bailie, Senior Technical Writer
Castleton Network Systems Corporation
Burnaby, BC, Canada
Tel 604-293-0039 (5432) / Fax 604-293-0047
http://www.castleton.com