that is, for example...

[jrtom]

from The Oregonian's "The Grammar Geek", who quoted The Chicago Sun-Times' Zay N. Smith, responding to a reader who asked, "Have you ever commented on 'e.g.' being used where 'i.e.' is correct?":

You are referring to to a common confusion between two Latin abbreviations, i.e., "e.g.", i.e., "exempli gratia", i.e., "for example", and "i.e.", i.e., "id est", i.e., "that is", e.g., saying "there are two commonly confused Latin abbreviations, e.g., 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'", when it should be "two commonly confused Latin abbreviations, i.e., 'i.e.' and 'e.g.'"

It is hard to say why this confusion exists.

*does little language geeky happy dance*

Incidentally, for the benefit of other language geeks in the audience: the fact that my commas appear outside quoted phrases in the above is intentional. I tend towards the opinion that quotes should not go around things that aren't being quoted.

Comments

[mrlogic.livejournal.com]

Re: commas: me too. I have been called on this by professors. Fortunately I don't have to write things for professors any more.