![]() ![]() Without the reference to the map, this sentence could be organized by any one of several schemes, including alphabetical order, geographical location, and relative size. “Take a look at the map, and you will see that Scandinavia consists of Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Sweden.” This list describes three degrees of tolerance for a certain policy, so the items should be listed in an ascending or descending order: “It is allowed in some countries, tolerated in others, and forbidden in a few.”ĥ. “It is allowed in some countries, forbidden in a few, and tolerated in others.” In this case, the somewhat amorphous descriptions don’t readily admit an alphabetical scheme, so perhaps, for euphony, the items should be arranged from simplest to most complex in terms of syllabication: “Among his favorite musical pastimes are yodeling, playing the harpsichord, and drumming in a world music ensemble.”Ĥ. “Among his favorite musical pastimes are drumming in a world music ensemble, yodeling, and playing the harpsichord.”Īgain, absent a contextual framework for a list, it’s best to impose order. If it specifically referred to the relative cost in human lives or in dollars, for example, then the sequence would follow that theme, but in the absence of an obvious context, reference to historical events should be chronological: “The major US wars of the nineteenth century were the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, and the Civil War.”ģ. The presentation of information in this sentence does not justify the order in which the list items are given. “The major US wars of the nineteenth century were the Mexican-American War, the Civil War, and the War of 1812.” In such ambiguous cases, alphabetical order is an appropriate default setting: “Our shop specializes in ebony, mahogany, and teak furniture.”Ģ. The store may stock more teak than ebony and more ebony than mahogany, or the order may reflect relative prices, but the sentence does not explicitly or implicitly express either idea. “Our shop specializes in teak, ebony, and mahogany furniture.” (Guess which context I chose for the preceding sentence.)ġ. (See an earlier post about in-line lists.) It’s all about the context: alphabetization, chronology, complexity, interrelationship, or sequence. At least five factors dictate how items in an in-line list - a series of items within a paragraph, as opposed to a vertical list - are organized. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |