Use of Either, or, and or in English.
If “A test comprises an equal number of items concerned with either prospective or retrospective, long-term or short-term and self-cued or environmentally-cued memory subscales”, should it be repeated every time?
What is your view on my interview with Qi Gong on Facebook?
Is the statement by You in Technically Correct is technically incorrect? A Test comprises (something) with Either B1
or B2, C1 or C2 and D1 or D2 Which I interpret to mean that the
test comprises something with: options from B and D OR options
- from C and D Not with
- options from B, C and
D, which is what I think you mean.
A test comprises (something) with one of the following
options/parameters: (B1 or B2), (C1 or C2) and (D1 or D2).
OR
A test comprises (something) with one of the following factors or parameters:
- B1 or B2
- C1 or C2
- D1 or D2
If in the context of the options present, I think you could slightly improve the clarity of what is meant in this sentence by inserting additional copies of
“either”: A test comprises an equal number of items concerned with either prospective or retrospective, either long-term or short-term, and either self-cued or environmentally-cued memory subscales.
I don’t think a sentences are better than bullet lists. In a tests, for example, I
understand correctly: A test comprises items concerned with various characteristics of memory subscales. These items should be equally split across:
- prospective and retrospective
- long-term and short-term
- self-cued and environmentally-cued.
These items should be equally split across: prospective and retrospective long-term and environmentally-cued and environmentally-cued.
