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Subtle Grammatical Usage Notes |
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- By Contrast / In Contrast
Use By contrast when the next word is a noun. Use In contrast when followed by a preposition such as "with" or "to". (REL)
- Complimentary / Complementary
Complimentary means praising or free of charge. Two things are complementary when they combine in a way that enhances each other's qualities or if they are nucleic acid bases that pair with each other. Thus, "complementary base", "complementary skills", "complimentary comments".
- This Data / These Data
Use this data when you can replace "data" with "information". Use these data when you can replace "data" with "facts". (source)
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- Gram-negative/Gram-positive bacteria
The Gram in Gram staining is a proper noun, so it is always capitalized.
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- Principle / Principal
Principle means the fundamental basis of a fact. A Principal is the main player or the person of most importance in a project. Thus, "proof of principle", "principal investigator", "in principle", "the principle reason", "school principal".
- Regardless / Irregardless
Regardless is correct. Irregardless is a commonly heard but incorrect term, probably originating due to similar word pairs like respective / irrespective.
- Where / Wherein
Use wherein when you can replace with "in which" or "in what".
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| Punctuation
- Generally the best way to use Greek letters, etc., is to use the "Insert symbol" command in a program (like Word or Illustrator), rather than symbol font. This generally causes fewer problems across programs or platforms.
- Hyphen, en dash, em dash
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- Prime symbol versus single quote: 5′ not 5' end of a DNA sequence.
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- Do not use a hyphen (-78) in mathematical expressions where a minus sign (–78) should be used.
- Prime symbol versus single quote or apostrophe: 5′ not 5' end of a DNA sequence.
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