Grammar Workshop: Just Among us Editors…

by Jennie Ruby

A question I keep getting from a friend of mine who works as an academic editor is: "What is the difference between among and between?"

Among is for more than two items and between is for only two items. Here are some examples:

• Among the bills I received today was one from the cable company. (More than two bills)
• Just between you and me, I think cable is just too expensive. (Only 2 people)

The common error writers make is to use between for more than two items, like this:

• *Between the three of them, I like the Toyota the best.*
• *We had to decide between the many options we had available.*

Sometimes between is correct when there are multiple items involved, but they are being compared one at a time:

• There are only small differences between this car and each of the others we were shown.

I’d be happy to hear from anyone who has examples of sentences where the distinction is more difficult to make. The thing to watch for is that more than two items requires among.

About the Author: Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.

Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we’ll turn Jennie loose!