I’ll let you in on a little secret.

Yesterday, I went back to some of my old posts and started editing. I wasn’t just hunting for run of the mill errors; I was looking for something specific that — if not corrected — could ruin me. We could call it the Holy Grail of the Written Word.

I was looking for “i.e.” and replacing it with “e.g.”.

As a young student, I was taught early on that both “i.e.” and “e.g.” are used prior to giving examples. The only difference is that “i.e.” is used to give examples in sentence form, while “e.g.” is used when you enumerate.

I want my money back, school. That’s not how “i.e.” and “e.g.” are used.

One problem that most writers face is the Latin Predicament. Some of the terms in writing are based on Latin, hence the difficulties writers face when using them. The real issue, though, is that a lot of writers (like me), use these terms erroneously. Latin may be a dead language, but its legacy lives on, and writers have no choice but to deal with it.

Here are a few Latin terms that could come in handy:

id est (i.e.) - a very good translation is “in other words”. Used when writer wishes to elaborate on the earlier statement, as in “I am fond of baseball and basketball, i.e., active sports”.

exempli gratia (e.g.) - “for example”. Used simply to list examples, such as in “I am fond of active sports, e.g., baseball and basketball”.

ibidem (ibid.) - “in the same place”. Used in bibliographical citation, particularly the Turabian method. Used when the current footnote’s source is similar to the one immediately preceding it.

opere citato (op. cit.) - “from the cited work”. A term used in citations, op. cit. is used when the current footnote’s source had been cited in earlier footnotes of the document, but not the one immediately preceding it.

loco citato (loc. cit.) - “in the place cited”. Used in lieu of ibid. when the current footnote’s source is not only similar to the one immediately preceding it, but also has the same page number. The same principle applies when loc. cit. replaces op. cit.

deus ex machina - “god out of a machine”. A literary term, it refers to the introduction of a quite improbable plot device that suddenly resolves all issues in a story. Comes from the practice of ancient Greek writers who would often end their plays with the appearance of a god/goddess to resolve all conflicts.

Hope that helps. It’s difficult working with these terms, especially since they seem a little nitpicky (seriously, all that loc. cit., op. cit. stuff drove me crazy in college), but writers can’t really avoid them since they’re pretty much here to stay. It might be useful to do a bit of research before you use them, though, just to be sure.

Otherwise you’ll be backtracking and editing like me.

XOXO,