Our organization hosted a conference, and our keynote speaker was a well-recognized speaker in nursing. We were lucky to have gotten him. He was excellent and really stretched the thinking of the group. The participants wanted the PowerPoints, so I asked him to send them to me. However, a colleague asked me to edit them before sending them out. She said particularly to change the "data is" part to "data are."

At first I thought, okay, I'll do that. Then when I looked at that particular slide, I wondered. Here is what it said:

 Supply data is just being uniformly collected in nursing

 Supply data in the health disciplines is marginally available and does not account for overlap

 Demand data is institutionally based – but does it reflect the population needs?

So, I had two conundrums. First of all, I hate to change the PowerPoints without getting his permission. Secondly, while I could have changed the first and second bullet, the third one was more complicated. Here is how it would presumably read: "Demand data are institutionally based - but do they reflect the population needs?" "They?" Will everyone understand that.

I also thought that the attendees would know they are the speaker's PowerPoints anyway, so if someone was irritated by the "error," they'd know it was the speaker's fault, and not ours.

But mostly I am wondering about your thoughts on this. Is this a major error? Should I have changed them?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

This is another of those things pedants often pick on.
Data, they say, is a plural and the plural verb should be used.
If you wish to use a singular verb then the word should be "datum".

It is of course nonsense. "Data", in its English usage is an uncountable noun. You don't have one datum but two data. And uncountable nouns usually take singular verbs - "traffic is", "water is", "bullshit is" and so on.

It's one of those "well it's like this in Latin" rules that people try to enforce without any real justification.

Almost nobody would say "data are". so, no I wouldn't have changed them.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BobHale,

Being a pedant, I would place (sic) after "data is."

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage on data:

quote:

data has never been the plural of a count noun in English. It is used in two constructions - plural, with plural appartaus, and singular, as a mass [countable] noun, with singular apparatus. Both constructions are fully standard at any level of formality.

So there is no reason to change it.

Did you ask permission of the author before making changes? If someone complains about the changes (believing they were the author's original words), how will you explain the change?

English is not Latin. Not even a pedant would say: "The opera are good." (Opus, singular, opera, plural.)

You may be surprised to hear that I have come across the inaccurate and illogical pedantry that the plural of "opera" should be "opera" not "operas".

You know it's wrong for all sorts of reasons. I know it's wrong. But I have met people who insist that it's right.


A little learning is a dangerous thing.

This is all great information. Goofy, thanks for that citation, and z, what a great example! I just have to figure out how to finesse this one. Bob (we just chatted on gmail) suggests that I send her the citation from MW and say that I've done some research and found that either construction is acceptable. I think I'll do that.

I agree. While pedants might get their underpinnings in an uproar about this, to most people it's a non-issue.

More importantly, you should not edit his slides. If your pedant colleague wants them changed, suggest she writes to him for permission.