The other day I received an article back from an editor with “e.g.” replaced with “for example” and “i.e.” replaced with “that is”. I find it sad that we can no longer assume people know what those abbreviations mean (even if they are abbreviations of Latin words). Our society is acronym and abbreviation crazy. I mean, for crying out loud, we even mock ourselves for it (e.g., TLA).
Most of what I write is for technical professionals. Is it unreasonable to expect educated professionals to understand the two most common abbreviations in written English?
In case you don’t know the origins:
“i.e.” is short for “id est”, which is Latin for “that is”.
“e.g.” is short for “exempli gratia”, which translates as “for the sake of example”. A lot of people remember “e.g.” as “example given”.
(See also: e.g. vs. i.e. on Wikipedia)
Oh, and BTW, if u can txt msg, u can read anything, IMHO. š