I have a book that discusses Catholicism. I would like to know if there are any established resources that advise on listing religious names in indexes, where the norm is reversal of surnames and forenames. For example Christ, should it be: Christ Jesus Jesus Christ Christ, Jesus (THINKING DEFINITELY NOT THIS) Also Popes: Pope John … Read more
All of the above tends to be used to refer to options that have been described in previous lines in a bulleted list, and I’m wondering how to do the same in a sentence. For example, would the following sentence be correct, and would there be a better way that merely saying “all three”: They … Read more
I recently read the following sentence: He helped normalize relations between the US and Vietnam and Laos. Assuming Vietnam and Laos already had normal relations with each other (which they might not have, but that’s another question), how would one write this sentence less awkwardly, or is this the best way to write it briefly? … Read more
For example, Is “Design, Operation, and Management,” as equally good of a list as “Management, Operation, and Design?” My colleagues and I are having a tough time reasoning why one sounds better than the other, but we agree that there is a best-sounding list. Answer While there is no rule for ordering general lists, we … Read more
Is “niece and nephew” preferred over “nephew and niece”, or vice versa? I tried using Google NGrams, but it gave inconclusive results: one was more common before 1980, then the other form became more common. Answer I searched for the plural equivalent of niece and nephew: Google Ngram shows that nephews and nieces used to … Read more
I am writing a thesis and want to emphasis the second point I make when presenting two arguments. Second, importantly technology induced employment falls are not the result of an industry declining. So importantly refers to the point I am making. The sentence seems weird to me. Shall I put the comma before or after … Read more
TL;DR – Silly OCD question looking for better words. I have a list of event labels in a computer program similar to: renderer_before renderer_after before_notify after_notify This is all well and good…those names convey the context of each event succinctly and accurately. BUT! It bugs me that "before" comes after "after" when sorted alphabetically. Same … Read more
Is there a specific reason for this? After all, it is “boys and girls”, rather than “girls and boys”. If the boy (male) comes first here, why doesn’t it come first in “ladies and gentlemen”? Answer It probably has to do with the phonetic and metrical properties of “ladies and gentlemen” versus “gentlemen and ladies.” … Read more
Siamese twins or binomials are pairs of expressions which are often conjoined. For example: back and forth ebb and flow near and far better or worse do or die Is there is a name for the rhetorical device of swapping their order? For example: forth and back flow and ebb far and near worse or … Read more
I want to say that a list is in chronological order. Does this implies that the most recent event comes first? Or do I have to mention that explicitly? This the list of papers in chronological order: 1) … 2019 2) … 2018 Answer In technical and common parlance, the phrase “chronological order” indicates that … Read more
