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Enumeration Ron Graham |
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Enumeration refers to counting and listing. Counting
is something we do with discrete variables.
Continuous and Discrete A very rough representation of the difference between continuous and discrete variables: if it's discrete, you can count it. You can count cookies; you can't count milk. You can count glasses of milk. You can count cookie crumbs, but as they get small they get close enough to uncountable that you can call crumbs continuous. If we have to count something that's continuous (or close to it), we first have to parcel that variable out into countable quantities, such as "acres of land" instead of "land." That's important because it tells you when to use "much" and when to use "many." It's "much" when modifying a continuous variable, "many" for discrete. To say "a lot" is less formal, but it seems to match both continuous and discrete variables in most cases. Distributive Property of Writing Words often follow a "distributive property," just like addition and multiplication: if you see a clause (such as a prepositional phrase) repeated as part of a list, the clause has been "distributed." Bring it outside of the list. Example: instead of
Consider part A of figure 1, part B of figure 1, and part C of figure 1... use Consider parts A, B, and C of figure 1... Series is another term for an embedded list. You can introduce a series with a colon or a full-length dash, or by using parentheses with indicator letters or numbers. Lists Lists are easier to read in list format than embedded in text whenever there are more than, say, three elements. Creating either ordered lists or bulleted lists is simple in Microsoft Word. The figures below demonstrate that you have a wide variety of formats to work with, in the event that you need different levels of precedence within your lists. Ordered lists work best if the order of the list items is critical (e.g. in terms of priority or sequence of events); bulleted lists are suitable otherwise. Other list notes:
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