User:Polar Apposite
My new rule of thumb for good writing: "Avoid plurals when you can."
[edit]TLDR: Link to talk page version is at the end. Also at the end are links to my actual edits based on this rule of thumb that have so far been accepted by other editors with very few being rejected.
I came up with this a few months or possibly a few years ago, and that has informed my editing at Wikipedia for at least several months.
Here is the rule of thumb:
Avoid the use of a plural whenever reasonably possible, and thus have greater clarity. I mainly have general statements in mind. Thus one would avoid the first sentence, and write instead the second or third, depending on what precisely your intended meaning was. 1. "When men and women get married they usually produce children." 2. "When a man and a woman get married they usually produce a child." 3. "When a man and a woman get married they usually produce children." Whether or not this is a good rule of thumb, I seem to be the only person to have said anything about this, so maybe I have come up with an original idea. About half a day of my best googlefu turned up nothing relevant. I even looked at every instance of the word "plural", using control F in the entire text of Pinker's awesome Sense of Style, and that of the Chicago Style Manual, and that Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.
When I see a sentence like #1, I usually start wonder whether I can change it to be more like #2 or #3.
Here are some more examples of sentences with plurals and some possible "singularized" versions, for comparison.
"Atoms are made of nuclei and electrons." "An atom is made of a nucleus and at least one electron."
"Trees usually have leaves." "A tree usually has leaves."
"Methane molecules contain hydrogen atoms and carbon atoms." "A methane molecule contains hydrogen atoms and a carbon atom."
"Hydogen cyanide molecules contain hydrogen atoms, carbon atoms, and nitrogen atoms." "A hydrogen cyanide molecule contains a hydrogen atom, a carbon atom, and a nitrogen atom."
"Fish have brains, heads, tails, scales, and gills, " "A fish has a brain, a head, a tail, scales, and gills."
"Dogs have noses that give them senses of smell that are usually very good, pairs of eyes that work well enough to let them know what is going on far away from them (though not as well as eagles' eyes do)."
"A dog has a nose that gives it a sense of smell that is usually very good, a pair of eyes that let it know what is going on far away (though not as well as an eagle's eyes do)."
"A dog has eyebrows (a wolf does not)." "Dogs have eyebrows (wolves do not)."
"They have circulatory systems. They have hearts, arteries, veins, blood, skin, and (usually) fur."
"It has a circulatory system. It has a heart, arteries, veins, blood, skin, and (usually) fur."
They have various foods in their stomachs and guts, including all amino acids.
"It has various foods in its stomach and guts, including every amino acid."
"They have very good senses of hearing." "It has a very good sense of hearing."
"They want to be loved by human beings." "It wants to be loved by a human being."
"They sometimes want to mate with members of the opposite sex." "It sometimes wants to mate with a member of the opposite sex."
Below's (can I say that?) an example or two of an actual edit that I did, that got accepted (so far, so good, at least), where I substituted a singular for a plural in one or more places in a sentence, usually for the sake of clarity.
https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=1182591957
https://wiki.riteme.site/w/index.php?diff=prev&oldid=1183051017
For more examples of such edits of mine (mostly accepted by other editors), check out this list of edits of mine generated by a search of my edit summaries using the string "plural":
https://sigma.toolforge.org/summary.py?name=Polar+Apposite&search=plural&server=enwiki&max=500&ns=
P.S. I would appreciate it if you would take the time to share your thoughts about this with me on my talk page at the Nov 8th 2023 posting. Here's a link to it: https://wiki.riteme.site/wiki/User_talk:Polar_Apposite#My_new_rule_of_thumb_for_good_writing:_%22Avoid_plurals_when_you_can.%22_(Copypasted_from_my_user_page)_Please_share_your_thoughts.