Ranges and slashes
Range notation and slashes compress relationships that a reader must reconstruct. Clear wording identifies the range's boundaries and whether slash-separated terms mean alternatives, combined events, equivalent names or a numerator–denominator relationship.
Range words and endpoints
Between does not itself indicate direction, whereas to, or an en dash standing for it, indicates a destination or an endpoint, upper limit or lower limit. Nevertheless, a journey between place A and place B will usually be read as starting at A and ending at B.
Between pairs with and, and from pairs with to; between X to Y and between X–Y mix incompatible constructions. Examples are between heaven and hell, between 19:00 and 21:00, between 5 and 10 ml of blood, from me to you and from the cradle to the grave.
A range of values can use to or an en dash without between: blood samples (5 to 10 ml) or (5–10 ml), and a reference range of 11 to 19 mg/dl or 11–19 mg/dl.
Endpoint inclusion needs precise wording. In a 2010 usage exchange about pH between 5.0 and 7.0, colleagues read the endpoints as excluded, while the usage adviser read them as included and emphasised the need for precision.
A time window can also be ambiguous: within a week of baseline may mean before baseline, after baseline or both. In the week before baseline and in the 4 weeks before the first dose state the intended direction more simply than within a week prior to baseline or within 4 weeks prior to the first study drug administration.
Ambiguity in a slash
A slash can be interpreted as alternatives or a combination; investigators reading the same protocol instruction differently may consequently record different data. One usage adviser recommends nausea or vomiting or both rather than nausea/vomiting, and Grade 3 and Grade 4 events for a combined count rather than a slash or hyphen.
One research-editing approach prefers the protein occurs in the cytoplasm and/or the nucleus to the longer the protein occurs in the cytoplasm, the nucleus, or both. That approach identifies four potentially nondistracting uses, with the fourth only tentative:
- Per: a numerator-to-denominator relationship, the most explicit and conventional use.
- Semantic synonyms: equivalent terms, such as solidus/virgule; this use can acknowledge alternative names when nomenclature for a new entity is undecided.
- Alternatives: and/or, as in the protein example.
- Possibly, parts of a whole: 0.5 M NaOH/0.5 M NaCl, where the slash indicates the presence of NaCl in the solution and stands for and, containing or plus.
Slash replacements
The same editing approach distinguishes three distracting uses and their replacements:
| Use | Example | Clearer wording and reason |
|---|---|---|
| Contrasting abstractions | A venous/arterial concentration difference was observed for plasma free fatty acids. | A venous-to-arterial concentration difference was observed for plasma free fatty acids. The hyphenated to states the relation explicitly. |
| Coordinating and | At each physician appointment, blood/urine tests were performed. | At each physician appointment, a blood and a urine test were performed. And separates the tests, while repeated a makes one of each explicit. |
| Inclusive or | Freshman persistence/exit from two-year colleges. | Freshman persistence or exit from two-year colleges. Or distinguishes alternatives that are not synonyms. |
In cell/cell interaction, the slash can convey a tangible physical relation; that to meaning is less explicit with the contrasting abstractions venous/arterial. Inclusive or allows both, as when a meeting chair asks for questions or comments; exclusive either … or makes a choice between the alternatives explicit.