Old MacDonald Knew Some Latin...e.g.-i.e.-o

FROM JENNIE

RESPONSE

If you’ve already looked it up, you probably know that both are abbreviations for Latin words: e.g. is short for “exempli gratia”, meaning “for example”, and i.e. is short for “id est”, meaning “that is”, or “in other words”.

If you’re like most, the fuzziness lies with “i.e”, not “e.g.” When citing a few examples, use e.g. – no real difficulty understanding that, right? But when is i.e. appropriate? Look at these two sentences:

I like breakfast food, e.g., green eggs and ham.

I like breakfast food, i.e., green eggs and ham.

Here’s a common explanation you might see for these sentences: Sentence #1 gives two examples of the many breakfast foods I like. Sentence #2 specifies the two breakfast foods I like, and I like no others. That’s ridiculous, in my opinion, and nobody on earth would ever remember that distinction.

Others think that i.e. introduces an “elaboration” of a previous statement, but to me, an example is a kind of elaboration, so what the heck...are they interchangeable or what?

Others say that i.e. introduces a clarification or rephrasing, which I mostly agree with, but again, isn’t an example a kind of clarification? And typically, you’ll see a pathetic sample sentence where no clarification is really needed, like #2. You could take or leave that clarification (or elaboration), and usually, leaving it is better.

So what do I think?

First, I view both of these abbreviations as primarily tools for academic or technical writing. To me, they usually seem out of place or pretentious in any other kind of writing. As a general rule, I wouldn’t use either in fiction.

That being said, I will now provide a fiction example, lol. As I said, I think i.e. is best used to clarify or rephrase a previous statement. There are two rules I would follow if using i.e. in fiction. The first deals with practicality, and the second, with style:

1. Be certain the statement you’re clarifying actually NEEDS clarification.

2. Make the clarification much shorter and to the point than the statement you’re clarifying.

Here’s my fiction example:

For several months, Marci Drake ran her business in the neighboring county, slowly siphoning customers from the Biggs brothers. Nathan Biggs thought there was business enough for everyone, but his brother Mickey thought it was time to expand their territory and introduce Miss Drake to economic realities, i.e., kill her.

Now for academic or technical writing, I typically see i.e. used not for clarification, but for definition of terms probably unfamiliar to the average reader:

While he appeared to harbor great affection for his wife, most agreed that she was probably Mr. Fenster's beard, i.e., a wife married only to cloak a homosexual lifestyle.

At any rate, for myself, I honestly cannot recall ever using either of the terms in my life, and I'm a technical writer by trade. I just use "like" or "such as" for e.g., and I just write the definition of a word or phrase without i.e., because it's more efficient and smooth:

While he appeared to harbor great affection for his wife, most agreed Mr. Fenster probably married her only to cloak a homosexual lifestyle.

That’s my take.