Writing Pluringular

One for All or All for One – Does It Matter?

I penned these thoughts thirty years ago, inspired by an article in the 5/19/96 San Jose Mercury News (by Rob Kyff).

Sunday we found in the paper
word of a singular caper.
According to Mercury News,
we now have the freedom to choose
to make one out of many,
a unit of plenty,
when it comes to the data we use.

The issue is not a mere trivium
but spreads like a speeding bacterium. 
When setting the writer's agendum,
we can follow the modernist trendum: 
data’s a single elective
when data are datums collective --
with nary a dread corrigendum.

For us old folks set and persistent, 
it's hopeless remaining resistant,
but on one thing we must be insistent, 
for readers both nearby and distant,
when data are easy to find
and data is hard on the mind,
we always must write it consistent.