Avoid Spelling I.e and E.g Wrong I.e, Here’s How
Well we all know the correct usage of (e.g.) and (i.e.), … right?
Well here it is courtesy of Wikipedia:
Exempli gratia (e.g.) and id est (i.e.) are commonly confused and misused in colloquial English. The former, exempli gratia, means “for example”, and is used before giving examples of something (“I have lots of favorite colors, e.g., blue, green, and hot pink”). The latter, id est, means “that is”, and is used before clarifying the meaning of something, when elaborating, specifying, or explaining rather than when giving examples (“I have lots of favorite colors, i.e., I can’t decide on just one”).
So armed with that knowledge I’d like to start using them in real sentences everywhere e.g., class papers, blog posts, etc. But my frakin Open Office thingy tells me it’s mispelled:
—-
—-
So I went on a journey to find an answer i.e., a 5 minute internet search.
While I didn’t find anything addressing this topic i.e., I may well be the first! Wikipedia does offer this confusing guideline:
American style guides tend to recommend that “e.g.” and “i.e.” should generally be followed by a comma, just as “for example” and “that is” would be; U.K. style tends to omit the comma. See Dictionary.com and their discussion of commas for more information. Google for “comma after i.e.” for other opinions.
So in conclusion here is your answer to the best of my ability i.e., an educated guess (see disclaimer):
- Put a period after each letter since they are abbreviations for latin things.
- Capitalize as you would any other word e.g., Upper case at begining of sentence or in titles, and lower case otherwise.
- Put a comma after it e.g., “e.g.,” <- Funny! ;-) unless you live in the UK.
Disclaimer: I may be completely wrong on this whole i.e. and e.g. thing. In which case please let me know and I’ll rewrite this.