Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2008 May 18

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May 18

...increase the sensitivity of MSP to around one alelle in 50 000

"...increase the sensitivity of MSP to around one alelle in 50 000"'. Should the word 'one' be a figure '1'? I prefer to use figures if above the value of nine or if immediately succeeded by a unit of measurement, unless at the beginning of a sentence in which case I use the word with the unit also spelt-out and not abbreviated. ----Seans Potato Business 20:09, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Another good rule is that one passage has numbers in related contexts you shouldn't mix styles, but it can sometimes look awkward if some of the numbers are very small. Here I suggest recasting the sentence to put the numbers closer together (and fixing the spelling): "...to around 1 in 50 000 alleles." --Anonymous, 07:00 UTC, May 19, 2008.

Memoirs

Are memoirs always plural, or can you have a single memoir? In the article James Cobban it says "In his memoir..." which reads oddly to me. I don't want to chnage it without advise though. -- SGBailey (talk) 20:31, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

According to WordWeb 5.0 dictionary, it is a word. ----Seans Potato Business 21:07, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

And Wikipedia's article memoir also suggests validity. ----Seans Potato Business 21:08, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

To move it out of the abstract, I just completed a university class titled "contemporary memoir." — Ƶ§œš¹ _{[aɪm ˈfɻɛ̃ⁿdˡi]} 22:37, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

a word that describes a pictogram

Moved question from talk page, Gwinva (talk) 23:45, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

I need a word that describes an illustration. Such as a picture of a shark playing pool, is a Pool Shark. Not a rebus, an ideogram or a pictogram. Any suggestions. MaMaxMaMax (talk) 23:24, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

A cartoon? Or are you looking for a word for a cartoon of a concept? Julia Rossi (talk) 00:13, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

How about just going with "an illustration" as you used first? I'd find that quite acceptable if I seen it used in that situation. Fribbler (talk) 01:01, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

I call it a literal representation. Steewi (talk) 04:59, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

A visual pun? Confusing Manifestation(Say hi!) 06:42, 19 May 2008 (UTC)

There's even an article on visual pun. I remember Paul Coker's Horrifying Clichés (e.g. "milking a tired concept") ---Sluzzelin talk 06:52, 19 May 2008 (UTC)