The word ‘data’ is plural

The word “data” is plural, because its singular is “datum,” meaning a tiny bit of information, so small it’s no use dividing it further. Datum is one of the -um nouns in Latin that changes its ending into -a in order to form its plural. Thus, other -um nouns like maximum, minimum, and optimum have the plural forms maxima, minima, and optima, respectively. Likewise, medium and media.

For Social Weather Stations (SWS), a research institute that constantly needs to use the word “data,” it is always correct to write, “the data say” and “the data are,” and always wrong to write, “the data says” and “the data is.”

SWS is itself another peculiar phrase, which ends in “s” and yet is singular rather than plural: we always write “SWS is” and “SWS was.” There is no Social Weather “Station,” no matter how many times it has been mistakenly written that way. Also, there is no “the” before SWS—unless one’s intention is to say, “the one and only.” SWS is like Loyola Heights or White Plains or Beverly Hills, which are all singular and never prefaced by “the.”

English word usage gets fuzzy, of course. When “statistics” refers to a field of science, then it is singular, and one writes “statistics is my profession.” Yet the field has individual concepts like “mean,” “median,” “mode,” “range,” and “variance,” each of which is called a statistic, and they may be counted as five different statistics. I know there are different types or subfields of statistics—are they called “statistics-es”?

Mathematics and physics are also singular words: One always writes “mathematics is” and “physics is.” Archaic words “mathematic” and “physic” do exist, but they are not the singular forms of these sciences. Are different types of mathematics and physics called “mathematics-es” and “physics-es”? It is up to statisticians, mathematicians, and physicists to set the rules about their words.

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I got caught up in singulars and plurals because my original plan was to discuss the importance of multiple sources of data. It was due to a question raised at a recent webinar, on whether opinion polls can be gamed, in this time of pandemic.

I replied that regular surveying is almost back to normal. Public transportation is sufficient, though reduced. Communities are not totally blockaded. Prospective respondents are as hospitable as ever, and unafraid of meeting interviewers face-to-face. Our field workers do only five interviews per barangay, without kibitzers; that may take only half a day per barangay. And the fewer the interviews per sample spot, the more the spots, and the better the quality of the survey.

It takes several dozen interviewers to accomplish a sample, by visiting hundreds of barangays, over a few days. They never telegraph where they will go; they aren’t even told where to go until the last minute, by the office-based person who does the geographical sampling. It’s a courtesy, but not a real requirement, to pre-inform a barangay captain about one’s intention to conduct a survey in the area.

SWS has a strict one-strike policy: One dishonesty, and an interviewer is out (and then put on the survey industry’s blacklist). If a single fake interview is discovered, then ALL interviews done by the errant interviewer are trashed, and must be redone. Faking, in our profession, is equivalent to pilfering the company’s product or stealing from the cash register. Try it, and see how long you last.

Sabotaging a few surveys won’t do a saboteur much good, when more can be independently done. The basic strength of scientific research lies in its capacity for replication. Competition in surveys helps all the doers, and all the users. Users will come back with new projects as they see the quality of previous work done.

What does “95 percent significance” mean in statistical testing? Essentially, it means that, if 20 independent surveys on the same topic were simultaneously done, then 19 of the 20 surveys would have the same findings. No one can monopolize opinion research technology, which is good. The more widespread surveys are, the better for democracy.

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Contact: mahar.mangahas@sws.org.ph