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Significant

Fowler

(Modern English Usage, second edition)

The dictionaries give important as one of the definitions of significant, but to use it merely as a synonym for that word is to waste it. The primary sense of s. is conveying a meaning or suggesting an inference. A division in the House of Commons may be important without being significant; the failure of some members to vote in it may be significant without being important. There is no important change in the patient's condition means that he is neither markedly better nor markedly worse. There is no significant change in the patient's condition means that there is no change which either confirms or throws doubt on the previous prognosis.

Gowers

(The Complete Plain Words, third edition)

This is a good and useful word, but it has a special flavour of its own and it should not be thoughtlessly used as a mere variant of important, considerable, appreciable, or quite large when one is dealing with numbers or quantities or other mathematical concepts. For one thing it has a special and precise meaning for mathematicians and statisticians which they are entitled to keep inviolate. For another, it ought to be used only where there is a ready answer to the reader's unspoken question 'Significant, is it? And what does it signify?' In 'A significant number of Government supporters abstained', 'There was no significant loss of power when the engine was tested with lower-octane fuel', this question can clearly be answered; but the writers of the following had no such significance in mind:

Even after this ... reduction the size of our labour force in (a particular factory) will remain significantly larger than it was a year ago. (Appreciably)

A significantly higher level of expenditure must be expected on libraries etc. (Considerably)

After the low proportion of commitments in respect of new dwellings during the fourth quarter there was a significant upturn in January. (Marked)

In the last example the upturn (or increase) might, it is true, have been significant; but the context shows that it was not, and no one is going to give the benefit of the doubt to anyone who writes of a low proportion of commitments in respect of new dwellings.

While

Gowers

It is safest to use this conjunction only in its temporal sense ('Your letter came while I was away on leave). That does not mean that it is wrong to use it also as a conjunction without any temporal sense, equivalent to although ('While I do not agree with you. I accept your ruling'). But in this sense it can sometimes be ambiguous, as in:

While he is short of experience, he will do the job quite adequately.

And it should certainly not be used in both senses in the same sentence. as in :

While appreciating your difficulties while your mother is seriously ill…

Moreover, once we leave the shelter of the temporal sense, we are on the road to treating while as a synonym for and:

Nothing will be available for some time for the desired improvement, while the general supply of linoleum to new offices may have to cease when existing stocks have run out.

There is no point in saying while when you mean and, and it is much better not to use it for although either.* If you are too free with while you are sure sooner or later to land yourself in the absurdity of seeming to say that two events occurred simultaneously which could not possibly have done so.

The first part of the concert was conducted by Sir August Manns while Sir Arthur Sullivan conducted his then recently composed Absent Minded Beggar.

Careful screening by appraisal interviews would help to ... while later interviews would provide a means ...

*Some people make a distinction between while and whilst, using while only in its temporal sense and whilst for and or although. I see little harm in this; but whilst is an unnecessary word and many people pass blamelessly from cradle to grave without ever using it. (Gowers, p. 174)

Restrictive and non-restrictive relative clauses

Not distinguishing between (i) restrictive and (ii) non-restrictive relative clauses (or, if you prefer, defining and describing clauses) can turn a truism into a gratuitous and insulting generalisation:

(i) Wikipedia editors who write bad prose are useless

(ii) Wikipedia editors, who write bad prose, are useless.

Owing to -v- due to

In AmE "due to" is accepted as a compound preposition on a par with "owing to", but in BrE it is not universally so regarded. "Owing to" or, better, "because of" is safer.

"Because of" is much better in AmE too. -- Ssilvers (talk) 17:46, 15 August 2020 (UTC)

Fowler: eschewing AmE-type commas after 'whens', durings' etc

1st edition

1926

• During the war many persons less conversant with the art of writing … (p. 304)
• In the last of these the point is purely one of spelling … (p. 599)

2nd edition

1965

• Thirty years later the dust had still not settled. (p. 218)
• When the first word of the compound is an adverb no hyphen is ordinarily needed. (p. 256)

3rd edition

1996

• In the 1960s and 1970s university campuses reverberated with the cries of students … (p. 665)
• At the beginning of the 19th century the word was formed in English … (p. 834)

4th edition

2015

• When the verb has only two syllables the ending has to be retained (p. 4)
• In the 1960s the extended form self-destruct appeared. (p. 732)

Plain Words on the same subject

1st edition, 1954

• After long and vigilant watch I have still to find a case in which a single preposition would not be clearer as well as shorter. p. 93
• After six years of war almost every building in this country needs work doing to it. p. 103

2nd edition, 1973

• During the war women left an area where there were no jobs, p. 75
• Yet during the reign of pedantry attempts were constantly made to force idiom into the mould of logic, p. 112

3rd edition, 1986

• After the publication of the letter the bishop wrote again to The Times p. 160

4th edition, 2014

• In 1914 most members of the loan collection were reassigned. p. viii
• The use of commas with adverbs and adverbial phrases:

(a) At the beginning of sentences

In their absence, it will be desirable ...

Nevertheless, there is need for special care ...

In practice, it has been found advisable ...

Some writers put a comma here as a matter of course. But others do it only if a comma is needed to emphasise a contrast or to prevent the reader from going off on the wrong scent, as in:

A few days after, the Minister of Labour promised that a dossier of the strike would be published

Two miles on, the road is worse

On the principle that stops should not be used unless they are needed, this discrimination is to be commended. p. 249

Actresses' (and actors') ages

From John Parker's introduction to the fifth edition of Who's Who in the Theatre (1925):

I should like to take this opportunity of again drawing attention to the extraordinary difficulty which I experience in persuading a great many members of the Profession to give anything like accurate details of their early theatrical careers. Players of both sexes seem to have an inordinate dislike of revealing facts and dates, and quite a number appear to have no compunction in striking years off the date of a production in which they have appeared, ignoring the fact that I am able to trace these incorrect statements quite easily, from my files. Others, quite calmly, inform me that I must have mixed them up with someone else of the same name, but somehow these other persons always seem to disappear. A good actor or actress is like a good vintage of wine. The public adores it, but likes to know the year of the vintage all the same. The difference is that usually the player puts the date forward, the vintner does not.

pages iii and iv of Parker, John (1925). Who's Who in the Theatre (fifth ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons. OCLC 10013159.

Long runs in London and Paris in the 19th century

"Any play that ever managed to run for well over one hundred consecutive performances in Paris was considered a great hit."

• Esteban, Manuel (1983). Georges Feydeau. Boston: Twain. ISBN 978-0-8057-6551-9. page 7

Commence, start and begin

From Noël Coward's novel Pomp and Circumstance, p. 25: "I just can’t abide the word testicles. It's smug and refined like 'commence' and 'serviette' and 'haemorrhoids'. When in doubt always turn to the good old Anglo-Saxon words. If you have piles, say so!"

From Fowler (2015, p. 166): "It is a sound rule to use begin in all ordinary contexts unless start is customary (the engine started straight away; he starts work at 9 a.m.; the game started on time). Commence has more formal associations with law (to commence an action) and procedures, combat (hostilities commenced on 4 August), divine service, and ceremonial ... As a general rule it should be reserved for such contexts."

Ess-apostrophe-ess

Fowler (2015), p. 58:
Names ending in -s: Use 's for the possessive case in names and surnames whenever possible; in other words, whenever you would tend to pronounce the possessive form of the name with an extra iz sound, e.g. Charles's brother, St James's Square, Thomas's niece, Zacharias's car. It is customary, however, to omit the 's when the last syllable of the name is pronounced iz (/-iz/), as in Bridges', Moses'. Jesus' is an acceptable liturgical archaism.