Copy editors, (not) all alike (original) (raw)

Routledge eBooks, 2023

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the variation in copy editors' treatment of the prescriptive rule against the singular use of data. Data has been reinterpreted as a mass noun in modern English, with the meaning of agglomeration of pieces of information. To test the extent to which this prescriptive rule is still applied, copy editors across the English-speaking world were solicited through an online survey to edit the same fragments of academic writing. The changes with respect to their treatment of data indicate that age, variety, intra-linguistic factors and prescriptive guidelines play a role in shaping the respondents’ copy-editing practices.

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