plural of a essay

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Allison Bressmer is a professor of freshman composition and critical reading at a community college and a freelance writer. If she isn’t writing or teaching, you’ll likely find her reading a book or listening to a podcast while happily sipping a semi-sweet iced tea or happy-houring with friends. She lives in New York with her family. Connect at linkedin.com/in/allisonbressmer.

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Definition of essay noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

Join our community to access the latest language learning and assessment tips from Oxford University Press!

• 3 essay (in something) ( formal ) an attempt to do something His first essay in politics was a complete disaster.

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Nearby words.

Eseys or Essays – Which is Correct?

• by Sarah Thompson
• March 3, 2024

Let’s have a conversation about the common mistake people make when writing the word “Essays.” Many individuals seem to get confused between “Eseys” and “Essays” and find themselves wondering which spelling is correct. Today, we will debunk this confusion and establish the correct spelling once and for all.

To address this issue, it is pertinent to emphasize that “Essays” is the correct spelling of the word. The incorrect term “Eseys” is a common misspelling resulting from a typographical error or a lack of familiarity with the correct spelling.

Now, let’s learn the reasons why “Essays” is the right spelling. Firstly, “Essays” is the plural form of the singular noun “Essay.” When we want to refer to more than one essay, we simply add an “s” to the end of the word. This is the conventional English rule for forming plurals of nouns, and it applies to “Essay” as well. For example, “I have written multiple essays on various topics.” Here, the correct plural form of “Essay” is used to convey the idea that the speaker has written more than one essay.

Moreover, we can also look at past forms of verbs to further solidify the correct spelling. For instance, the verb form of “Essay” is “Essayed.” “Essayed” is the past tense form, and by examining the conjugation of the verb, we can recognize that “Essays” is indeed the accurate plural form. You might say, “He essayed his thoughts on the subject,” to convey that someone expressed their ideas in the form of an essay.

To illustrate the incorrect spelling, “Eseys,” it is crucial to emphasize that this word does not exist in Standard English. It is a mistake that has often emerged due to a lack of knowledge or inattentiveness during writing. Therefore, it is essential to be attentive and avoid this misspelling in formal writing, as it may weaken your language skills and leave a negative impression on the reader.

In conclusion, we have effectively established that the correct spelling of the word referring to multiple essays is “Essays.” “Eseys” is an erroneous form that should be avoided. Remember, using proper grammar and spelling not only enhances your communication skills, but it also showcases your proficiency in the English language. So, the next time you find yourself unsure about whether to write “Eseys” or “Essays,” confidently choose the latter for an accurate and grammatically correct sentence!

So, keep practicing your writing skills, pay attention to proper grammar, and remember the correct spelling of “Essays.” With dedication and practice, you will become an exceptional writer and expert in the English language.

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• What Is a Plural Noun? | Examples, Rules & Exceptions

What Is a Plural Noun? | Examples, Rules & Exceptions

Published on April 14, 2023 by Jack Caulfield .

A plural noun  is a noun that refers to more than one of something (as opposed to a singular noun, which refers to just one). Like singular nouns, they may refer to people, animals, things, concepts, or places.

Plural nouns are normally formed by adding -s to the singular noun (e.g., the singular “cat” becomes the plural “cats”). With certain nouns, you need to add or change some of the other letters. The rules are explained in the table below.

There are also some irregular plurals that don’t end in  -s at all. The following section explains them.

Table of contents

Irregular plurals, plurals of compound nouns, common mistake: adding an apostrophe, plural nouns with singular functions, nouns that are always plural, uncountable nouns, worksheet: plural nouns, other interesting language articles, frequently asked questions about plural nouns.

Some plural nouns don’t end in -s at all. These are generally called irregular plurals . They are typically either leftovers from older ways of forming plurals in English or foreign words that were imported into English.

Only a small proportion of nouns have irregular plurals, but some of them are very commonly used words, so it’s important to be aware of them. There are a few main groups of irregular plurals, which are explained in the table below.

If you’re unsure about how to pluralize a word that isn’t mentioned in the table, consult a dictionary.

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Compound nouns are nouns that are made up of multiple words. They may be open compounds (written with spaces; e.g., “head of state”); hyphenated compounds (written with hyphens ; e.g., “brother-in-law”); or closed compounds (no spaces or hyphens; e.g., “household”).

To create the plural of a compound noun, you often pluralize only the final word (e.g., “high schools “), but there are also cases where you pluralize an earlier word (e.g., “ heads of state”) or occasionally multiple words (e.g., “ men-children “).

To determine how to pluralize a compound noun, consider which word is the “head” of the noun—the thing being represented, which the other words modify. For example, “high schools” refers to multiple schools, not multiple “highs.”

When it’s still not obvious, consult a dictionary to find the correct plural.

A common mistake when forming plural nouns is to add an apostrophe before the “s.” In English, apostrophes are used to form possessive nouns and contractions , not plurals. You also don’t need an apostrophe to pluralize a number, acronym , or proper noun .

• Maya loves pop music from the 1980’s .
• Maya loves pop music from the 1980s .
• SUV’s are bad for the environment and for road safety.
• SUVs are bad for the environment and for road safety.
• The Jones’s have gone on vacation.
• The Joneses have gone on vacation.

There’s one context in which it’s standard to use an apostrophe to form the plural. This is when you’re pluralizing a single letter. The apostrophe is generally added in such cases to avoid confusion with other words (e.g., “a’s” vs. “as”).

Some nouns are said to be plural in form but singular in construction . These words originate as plural forms but are now primarily used in a singular sense.

This is most common in the names of fields of study: for example, “physics,” “mathematics,” “ethics,” and “aesthetics.” Other examples include “news,” “measles,” and “billiards.”

“Singular in construction” means that these words have singular subject-verb agreement . For example, you’d write “the news is …” rather than “the news are …”

Similarly, some nouns are always plural and have no singular form—typically because they refer to something that consists of a pair of something. For example, “scissors” consist of two blades, “pants” of two legs, and “glasses” of two lenses.

Even a single pair of scissors, for example, is referred to in the plural (e.g., “the scissors are over there”). These nouns are sometimes referred to by the Latin term plurale tantum (“plural only”).

Because it’s wrong to use an indefinite article with a plural noun (e.g., “a scissors”) and no singular form exists (e.g., there’s no such thing as “a scissor”), the phrase “a pair of” is used before the noun when an indefinite article is needed. “Pairs of” is also used to specify quantities of these nouns (e.g., “three pairs of pants,” not “three pants”).

Your new spectacles suit you very nicely.

How many pairs of shorts do you own?

Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or noncount nouns ) are nouns that don’t have a plural form and can’t be preceded by an indefinite article (“a” or “an”). They often refer to abstract ideas or processes (e.g., “research”), physical substances (e.g., “water”), or areas of study (e.g., “geography”).

Uncountable nouns are singular, not plural, in terms of subject-verb agreement, and the words themselves cannot be pluralized. An alternative phrasing or word choice must be used instead:

• Several researches have been performed on this subject.
• A substantial amount of research has been performed on this subject.
• Several studies have been performed on this subject.
• Several pieces of research have been performed on this subject.

If you need to refer to a specific quantity of an uncountable noun, you use a unit of measurement to do so, since the noun itself doesn’t represent a specific quantity:

• There are 70 waters in the glass.
• There are 70 ml of water in the glass.

Test your understanding of how plural nouns are formed with the worksheet below. In each sentence, add the correct plural form of the noun in brackets. Some of the plurals are regular, some irregular.

• Practice questions
• Answers and explanations
• I love visiting [church] _______ on my [travel] _______.
• The atmosphere is made up of several [gas] _______.
• I bought two [loaf] _______ of bread and some [tomato] _______ at the market.
• Many [species] _______ of [fish] _______ live in [river] _______.
• A lot of [game of chance] __________________ involve rolling [die] _______.
• The singular noun “church” ends in “-ch,” so “-es” is added to form the plural noun. “Travels” is pluralized in the normal way, by adding “-s.”
• “Gas” ends in “-s,” so “-es” is added to pluralize it.
• As with some other nouns ending in “-f,” the plural form of “loaf” ends in “-ves.” “Tomato” follows the rule for most nouns ending in “-o” by adding “-es.”
• Both “species” and “fish” have the same form in the singular and the plural, so nothing is added to them. “River” is pluralized normally.
• The open compound noun “game of chance” is pluralized by adding “-s” to the head of the phrase, “game.” “Chance” is not pluralized. The word “die” has the irregular plural “dice.”

If you want to know more about nouns , pronouns , verbs , and other parts of speech , make sure to check out some of our other language articles with explanations and examples.

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• Proper nouns
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The plural of “moose” is the same as the singular: “moose.” It’s one of a group of plural nouns in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns. So it’s wrong to write “mooses.”

For example, you might write “There are several moose in the forest.”

The correct plural of “octopus” is “octopuses.”

People often write “octopi” instead because they assume that the plural noun is formed in the same way as Latin loanwords such as “fungus/fungi.” But “octopus” actually comes from Greek, where its original plural is “octopodes.” In English, it instead has the regular plural form “octopuses.”

For example, you might write “There are four octopuses in the aquarium.”

Normally, the plural of “fish” is the same as the singular: “fish.” It’s one of a group of irregular plural nouns in English that are identical to the corresponding singular nouns (e.g., “moose,” “sheep”). For example, you might write “The fish scatter as the shark approaches.”

If you’re referring to several species of fish, though, the regular plural “fishes” is often used instead. For example, “The aquarium contains many different fishes , including trout and carp.”

The plural of “crisis” is “crises.” It’s a loanword from Latin and retains its original Latin plural noun form (similar to “analyses” and “bases”). It’s wrong to write “crisises.”

For example, you might write “Several crises destabilized the regime.”

Sources in this article

We strongly encourage students to use sources in their work. You can cite our article (APA Style) or take a deep dive into the articles below.

Caulfield, J. (2023, April 14). What Is a Plural Noun? | Examples, Rules & Exceptions. Scribbr. Retrieved June 24, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/nouns-and-pronouns/plural-noun/

Aarts, B. (2011). Oxford modern English grammar . Oxford University Press.

Butterfield, J. (Ed.). (2015). Fowler’s dictionary of modern English usage (4th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Garner, B. A. (2022). Garner’s modern English usage (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.

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To 'Essay' or 'Assay'?

You know what an essay is. It's that piece you had to write in school, hopefully not (but probably) the night before it was due, about a subject such as What Freedom Means to You—at least five pages, double-spaced, and don't even try to get away with anything larger than a 12-point font. (Kudos for thinking to tweak the margins, though.)

Remember the difference and get an 'A' for effort.

You might also know that essay can be a verb, with its most common meaning being "to try, attempt, or undertake":

A very close approach to the evil of Idi Amin is essayed in Giles Foden's 1998 novel The Last King of Scotland , whose narrator is the Scottish personal physician to the dictator. — Norman Rush, The New York Review of Books , 7 Oct. 2004 The principal accidents she remembers, before last summer's, involved chipping a couple of teeth while, as a fifth grader, she was essaying a back flip off a diving board,... — E. J. Kahn, Jr., The New Yorker , 17 Aug. 1987

The verb assay , meanwhile, is used to mean "to test or evaluate" and can be applied to anything from laboratory samples to contest entries:

He bounced from job to job, working on a shrimp boat and later for Pan American Laboratories assaying chemicals coming in from Mexico. — Steve Clark, The Brownville Herald , 21 Apr. 2017 "Each burger will be assayed by visitors and a panel of judges, including local chefs Jen Knox, Gina Sansonia, Judith Able, Bret Hauser, Camilo Cuartas and Peter Farrand." — Phillip Valys, SouthFlorida.com , 19 May 2017

While this distinction might seem clear-cut on the surface, there exists a great deal of historical overlap between essay and assay . The two words derive from the same root—the Middle French essai , which ultimately derives from a Late Latin noun, exagium , meaning "act of weighing."

At one time, assay and essay were synonyms, sharing the meaning "try" or "attempt." In the 17th century, an essay was an effort to test or prove something:

Edmond: I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue. — William Shakespeare, King Lear , 1606

For the modern noun use of essay to mean "a written exploration of a topic," we can almost certainly thank Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), a French writer noted for working in the form. Borrowing a word that emphasized their identity as literary "attempts," Montaigne devised Essais as a title for the vignette-typed pieces that he began publishing in 1580 and spanned over a thousand pages, covering subjects as varied and wide-ranging as solitude, cannibalism, and drunkenness.

Those last ones probably won't be in the final exam.

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Pronunciation [ change ]

• ( US ) ( UK ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈɛˌseɪ/

Noun [ change ]

• Writing that looks at an issue or subject . Each student had to write an essay on his favorite author.

Related words [ change ]

Verb [ change ].

• ( transitive ) To try .
• ( intransitive ) To move forth, as into battle .

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Meaning of essay in English

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• I want to finish off this essay before I go to bed .
• His essay was full of spelling errors .
• Have you given that essay in yet ?
• Have you handed in your history essay yet ?
• I'd like to discuss the first point in your essay.
• boilerplate
• composition
• corresponding author
• dissertation
• essay question
• peer review
• go after someone
• go all out idiom
• go down swinging/fighting idiom
• go for it idiom
• go for someone
• shoot for the moon idiom
• shoot the works idiom
• smarten (someone/something) up
• smarten up your act idiom
• square the circle idiom

essay | Intermediate English

Examples of essay, collocations with essay.

These are words often used in combination with essay .

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Translations of essay

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a very small company, especially a family-owned company employing only a few people

Fakes and forgeries (Things that are not what they seem to be)

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[ noun es -ey es -ey , e- sey verb e- sey ]

• a short literary composition on a particular theme or subject, usually in prose and generally analytic, speculative, or interpretative.

a picture essay.

• an effort to perform or accomplish something; attempt.
• Philately. a design for a proposed stamp differing in any way from the design of the stamp as issued.
• Obsolete. a tentative effort; trial; assay.

verb (used with object)

• to try; attempt.
• to put to the test; make trial of.
• a short literary composition dealing with a subject analytically or speculatively
• an attempt or endeavour; effort
• a test or trial
• to attempt or endeavour; try
• to test or try out
• A short piece of writing on one subject, usually presenting the author's own views. Michel de Montaigne , Francis Bacon (see also Bacon ), and Ralph Waldo Emerson are celebrated for their essays.

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Other words from.

• es·sayer noun
• prees·say verb (used without object)
• unes·sayed adjective
• well-es·sayed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of essay 1

Example Sentences

As several of my colleagues commented, the result is good enough that it could pass for an essay written by a first-year undergraduate, and even get a pretty decent grade.

GPT-3 also raises concerns about the future of essay writing in the education system.

This little essay helps focus on self-knowledge in what you’re best at, and how you should prioritize your time.

As Steven Feldstein argues in the opening essay, technonationalism plays a part in the strengthening of other autocracies too.

He’s written a collection of essays on civil engineering life titled Bridginess, and to this day he and Lauren go on “bridge dates,” where they enjoy a meal and admire the view of a nearby span.

I think a certain kind of compelling essay has a piece of that.

The current attack on the Jews,” he wrote in a 1937 essay, “targets not just this people of 15 million but mankind as such.

The impulse to interpret seems to me what makes personal essay writing compelling.

To be honest, I think a lot of good essay writing comes out of that.

Someone recently sent me an old Joan Didion essay on self-respect that appeared in Vogue.

There is more of the uplifted forefinger and the reiterated point than I should have allowed myself in an essay.

Consequently he was able to turn in a clear essay upon the subject, which, upon examination, the king found to be free from error.

It is no part of the present essay to attempt to detail the particulars of a code of social legislation.

But angels and ministers of grace defend us from ministers of religion who essay art criticism!

It is fit that the imagination, which is free to go through all things, should essay such excursions.

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What is the proper way to write the plural of a single letter? Or a word used as a word ('mention' usage)? (another apostrophe question)

When writing (a blog post, script, etc..) what is the proper way to indicate two or more instances of a single letter? For instance, in Monty Python's Bookshop Sketch :

C: I wonder if you might have a copy of "Rarnaby Budge"? P: No, as I say, we're right out of Edmund Wells! C: No, not Edmund Wells - Charles Dikkens. P: (pause - eagerly) Charles Dickens?? C: Yes. P: (excitedly) You mean "Barnaby Rudge"! C: No, "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens. That's Dikkens with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author. P: (slight pause) No, well we don't have "Rarnaby Budge" by Charles Dikkens with two Ks, the well-known Dutch author, and perhaps to save time I should add that we don't have "Karnaby Fudge" by Darles Chickens, or "Farmer of Sludge" by Marles Pickens, or even "Stickwick Stapers" by Farles Wickens with four M's and a silent Q!!!!! Why don't you try W. H. Smith's? C: Ah did, They sent me here.

I had always believed that plural never uses an apostrophe before the 's' (it's only used for possession), but I have rarely seen in written material the format "four Ms". (On a side note, whoever wrote this transcript also used "two Ks".)

On a side note, and perhaps this should be a separate question, if a Compact Disc is a CD, then two Compact Discs would be two CDs right? (I see "CD's" written everywhere )

• grammatical-number

• 3 for the second issue about the acronym CD, see english.stackexchange.com/questions/503/… –  Bogdan Lataianu Commented May 13, 2011 at 18:27
• 2 The Canadian Government's "style manual" also lists some other cases where the apostrophe can be used. btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/… –  Jedidja Commented Nov 29, 2012 at 14:04

4 Answers 4

The Chicago Manual of Style , one of the more widely used style guides in the United States, says:

Capital letters used as words, numerals used as nouns, and abbreviations usually form the plural by adding s . To aid comprehension, lowercase letters form the plural with an apostrophe and an s .

So: Dikkens with two Ks , but mind your p's and q's . (And always CDs , unless you're talking about something the CD owns.)

• 2 And my Chicago Manual of Style sits in the basement of my parent's house about 4000km away. Thanks! :) –  Jedidja Commented May 13, 2011 at 16:32
• 4 I like that this is purely a stylistic question, nobody is pretending it's the "correct way to do things". It does read a lot easier on the eyes if someone says "There are four i's in this sentence" than "There are four is in this sentence." –  Lou Commented Dec 5, 2016 at 13:07
• If someone starts the sentence by referring to multiples of the letter A or I, does the Chicago Manual of Style allow for an apostrophe to avoid confusion with the words "As" and "Is"? –  Christopher Bradshaw Commented Nov 8, 2021 at 23:06
• Could the letter ‘s’ to the right of the apostrophe (or the apostrophe itself) in p ’s be italicized in normal text? (The Penguin Guide to Punctuation recommends that the letter ‘p’ is italicized’.) –  AfterMath Commented May 3, 2023 at 8:11

Harbrace College Handbook 6th edition section 15d

Use the apostrophe and s to form the plural of letters, figures, symbols, and words referred to as words. Examples Congreve seldom crossed his t's, his 7's looked like 9's, and his and's were usually &'s. Note: This apostrophe is sometimes omitted when there is no danger of ambiguity: the 1930's, or the 1930s; two B's and three C's, or two Bs and three Cs.

This is one of those annoying exceptions to the general rule of never using an apostrophe to form plurals. It can be used when treating letters and numerals as nouns.

Personally, I only use it with lowercase letters where it is distinctly helpful ( mind your p's and q's ); for uppercase and numerals, adding a lowercase 's' should be clear enough.

To form plural of letters, figures, symbols and abbreviations put the concerned thing in single inverted comma and then add s.

• Like this: '123's ?! –  Solomon Ucko Commented Apr 28, 2019 at 18:01

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged grammatical-number alphabet or ask your own question .

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Singular and Plural Forms in Scientific Writing

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Although plurals can sometimes be relatively simple, there are situations that cause confusion, including mass nouns. Learn more about how to avoid mistakes in scientific writing.

Updated on June 19, 2012

In most cases, forming the plural in English is relatively simple (just add an 's'). However, authors frequently make a few mistakes when forming plurals, especially with mass nouns.

Count nouns are discrete, individual entities -- items that you can count. Mass nouns , sometimes called uncountable or non-count nouns, refer to an undifferentiated mass or collection of material. For example, you would not say, “I'm all out of a water.” It is correct to say “I need a little water” or “I need a few bottles of water.” In this example, water is a mass noun, and bottle is a count noun. Likewise, when describing an experiment, you would quantify a mass noun by adding a specific measurement (e.g., “2 ml of water”); in fact, whether you choose bottles or milliliters, the mass noun requires some unit of measurement to be quantified. Note that the unit is plural and the mass noun ('water') remains unchanged.

Data and research are two nouns that are frequently used in the sciences and are much more tricky than they appear.

It is often taught that data (like media or spectra) is a plural word (the singular is 'datum'). In most contexts, the word data refers to specific numerical results and should therefore be treated as a plural count noun, with a corresponding plural verb form.

• The patient data are sorted in Table 1.
• Data were collected retrospectively from patient medical records.

However, this rule is not strict; it depends on the scientific context. Data can sometimes be used in the singular as a mass noun. For example, in Ars Technica, Chris Foresman examines how securely “user data is stored” by Apple's iCloud service. Likewise, the following PLOS ONE article uses the singular form of data in its title: “ Clickstream Data Yields High-Resolution Maps of Science. ” In computer science, data is often used in the singular form as an mass noun; that is, computer scientists use the word data to describe a mass of information to be accessed, stored, or processed ( information is another great example of a mass noun).

Unlike data , research should always be used as a mass noun, and its verb must be singular. Some writers attempt to force research to take a plural form (researches); however, this usage is incredibly rare, and it will almost certainly trouble a reviewer. Because research is a mass noun, it can refer to a wide body of literature (e.g., “current research in the field”) or the work involved in a specific project (e.g., “our research focused on the following objectives”). If you need to quantify the research in question, try using study/studies (e.g., “In total, 28 studies were included in this review”). Consider the following examples, also from PLOS ONE :

• A Comparison of rpoB and 16S rRNA as Markers in Pyrosequencing Studies of Bacterial Diversity
• Aggregating, Tagging and Integrating Biodiversity Research (not researches)

We hope these tips and examples help avoid the grammatical confusion that often surrounds data and research . Are there other singular or plural forms that cause you trouble in your scientific writing? Write to [email protected] , and we will work with you to find the answer. Best of luck!

Brandon Jernigan, PhD

Strategic Communications Partner and Operations UX

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Essay Plural, What is the Plural of Essay?

Meaning: a short piece of writing on a particular subject.

Plural of Essay

• dissertation

Essay as a Singular Noun in Example Sentences:

• She submitted her essay before the deadline.
• The student received an A+ on his essay .
• The teacher assigned a persuasive essay for the assignment.
• He spent hours researching and writing the essay .
• The essay explored the theme of identity in literature.
• The scholarship required a well-written essay on a specific topic.
• The university professor provided feedback on the essay .
• The essay was published in a renowned academic journal.

Essay as a Plural Noun in Example Sentences:

• The students submitted their essays for grading.
• The conference received numerous essays from scholars around the world.
• The collection of essays covered a wide range of topics.
• The professor assigned weekly essays to encourage critical thinking.
• The finalists presented their essays in front of the audience.
• The anthology included essays from various renowned authors.
• The competition aimed to recognize outstanding essays on social issues.
• The workshop focused on refining students’ persuasive essays .

Singular Possessive of Essay:

The singular possessive form of “Essay” is “Essay’s”.

Examples of Singular Possessive Form of Essay:

• I need to read Essay’s conclusion.
• The topic of Essay’s first paragraph is intriguing.
• Have you seen Essay’s thesis statement?
• I appreciate Essay’s insightful analysis.
• The structure of Essay’s body paragraphs is clear.
• Essay’s introduction captures the reader’s attention.
• I admire Essay’s coherent argumentation.
• Essay’s conclusion summarizes the main points.
• Can you provide me with Essay’s bibliography?
• The evidence in Essay’s supporting paragraphs is compelling.

Plural Possessive of Essay:

The plural possessive form of “Essay” is “Essays'”.

Examples of Plural Possessive Form of Essay:

• I need to read the Essays’ conclusions.
• The topics of the Essays’ first paragraphs are diverse.
• Have you seen the Essays’ thesis statements?
• I appreciate the Essays’ insightful analyses.
• The structures of the Essays’ body paragraphs are well-organized.
• The Essays’ introductions engage the readers effectively.
• I admire the Essays’ coherent argumentations.
• The Essays’ conclusions summarize the main points eloquently.
• Can you provide me with the Essays’ bibliographies?
• The evidence in the Essays’ supporting paragraphs is substantial.

Explore Related Nouns:

• Complete List of Singular Plurals

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About the author.

Hi, I'm USMI, engdic.org's Author & Lifestyle Linguist. My decade-long journey in language and lifestyle curation fuels my passion for weaving words into everyday life. Join me in exploring the dynamic interplay between English and our diverse lifestyles. Dive into my latest insights, where language enriches every aspect of living.

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A subreddit for all who fall under the plurality umbrella and those interested in learning about plurality, and want to live a healthy, plural life. Whether you've got DID/OSDD, are a natural, have tulpas or soulbonds, or any combination of others in your head, you're welcome here. Tags: plurality, medianhood, healthy multiplicity, multiple systems, soulbonds, tulpamancy, dissociative identity disorder, multiple personality, neurodiversity, neurodivergent

Plural Essays by LB Lee

[P.] Hi, guys! LB Lee are the curators of Healthy Multiplicity , an index of plural self-help resources. They've written a lot of neat essays, but since they're only on Dreamwidth these days, a lot of people don't see them. Which is a shame! So I thought I'd share some of them here.

This isn't a comprehensive listing, by far - just their paid work. (Some of these have already been posted in this subreddit, but I thought I'd include them anyway!) They have a lot of other blog posts on plural history, system management, trauma recovery, and so on. Check them out! They also have a Patreon and LiberaPay , and even if you aren't a patron, you can vote for essays you want them to write on their monthly Dreamwidth polls.

And without further ado...

I ♥ My √x, x<0 Friend : An essay about in-system relationships, and why they freak people out. (Discussions of sex, mentions of sexual abuse.)

Your Princess is in Another Headspace : The pitfalls of plurals seeking bookend headmates in other plurals--for example, the Princess Peach to their Mario. (See also: Body-Hopping Headmates )

Trauma in Multi Identity : About traumagenic identity in plurals, and how it’s misguided.

Headspace Defense and Discovery : Dealing with a living, volatile, or aggressive headspace.

Memory Work : Dealing with lost memories, or lost aspects of memory, to process trauma and reintegrate them into the rest of the mental life story. (Discussion of trauma and abuse, including rape.)

Inner Mythos 101 : Once upon a time, there was a girl who fell in love with a Story. (Mentions of abuse.)

The Unbearable Whiteness of Being : "Like hysteria before it, multiple personality disorder remained primarily a white woman's affliction--and one particularly American." --Kevin Young (Mentions of abuse, including rape)

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The John Roberts Balancing Act Is Back, at Least for Guns

In United States v. Rahimi , an 8–1 decision, the Supreme Court decisively rejected the radical and ahistorical gun rights jurisprudence of Justice Clarence Thomas. Justice Antonin Scalia once remarked that although he was an originalist , he was not a nut —that is, that he was not willing to strike down every precedent he disagreed with that came before the court. The Rahimi decision only confirms that Thomas’ version of this controversial but ascendent theory of constitutional interpretation was, and remains, bonkers.

After oral argument, there was little doubt that the Supreme Court would overrule the extremism of the decision, by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5 th Circuit, that domestic abusers’ Second Amendment rights were violated by federal laws enacted to protect the victims of intimate-partner violence. (It’s worth noting that when the Second Amendment is discussed today by gun rights originalists, it is often written as a plural. The Founders’ Second Amendment was a singular unitary right, but modern originalists like Scalia have helped rewrite the text, turning it into a plural collection of Second Amendment rights.)

Chief Justice John Roberts’ slim opinion was hardly a surprise to those who have followed his remarks on the Second Amendment in oral arguments. In Heller , the court reversed nearly seven decades of established precedent treating the Second Amendment as a single right tied to the effectiveness of a well-regulated militia. Despite its many faults, Heller at least acknowledged the history of gun rights and gun regulation. This balanced approach was later endorsed by Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was a federal judge, and Roberts has been behind it as well. Essentially, Roberts and Kavanaugh argued that if the same analysis were applied to both sides of the rights-and-regulation equation, many popular commonsense gun regulations would likely survive constitutional challenge. Indeed, this approach was reiterated in their joint concurrence in Bruen , the controversial Thomas decision that wiped away a decade of federal jurisprudence on guns, abandoning the standard tools of modern constitutional analysis in favor of a more fraught and unwieldy approach to history, text, and tradition.

Two interpretations of Bruen ’s mode of analysis had emerged among federal courts. Some judges followed the maximalist version, a framework Thomas has now advanced in his Rahimi dissent. This approach relied almost exclusively on statutes, ignoring or misinterpreting the widespread use of common-law methods of protecting the peace and public safety. For these judges, answering the question of whether a law was constitutional involved compiling something akin to a spreadsheet of old laws and looking for something close to a historical twin for the modern law being litigated, an approach Bruen expressly disowned. The few laws that survived this artificial and ahistorical winnowing process were then read in a parsimonious fashion rendering nearly every type of modern gun regulation suspect. An alternative approach, more consistent with the method advocated by Roberts and Kavanaugh, also gained traction in the lower courts. This interpretation of Bruen was still highly solicitous of gun rights and hostile to modern legal tools that acknowledge that consequences matter. This reading of Bruen had the virtue of treating both sides of the rights-and-regulation equation in a consistent manner.

Now, with Rahimi , it’s clear that the Kavanaugh-Roberts school is markedly different from Thomas’ approach. Their method, not the dissent’s cramped vision, currently controls Second Amendment law. This correction is significant. Recent legal research has shown a shocking partisan pattern in the way lower courts have applied Bruen . Republican judges and virtually all Trump-appointed judges approach gun rights at a high level of generality but do not treat regulation in a similar fashion. Studies of the application of Heller in the lower courts, by contrast, found that the use of modern tools of constitutional analysis that take account of consequences was less prone to partisan bias, a fact that challenges the claims of the court’s originalists that their method is more objective. Turning Second Amendment law into a version of historical Where’s Waldo, rummaging around in old laws with no coherent historical method, is far more prone to manipulation of sources and unconscious forms of confirmation bias.

The asymmetrical approach to rights and regulation associated with Thomas and his followers acted as a one-way ratchet, expanding gun rights at the expense of the people’s right to regulate their own affairs (the most fundamental founding-era right.) By contrast, the Roberts approach acknowledged that one has to treat regulations at the same level of generality as rights. Thus, if the founders thought that it was constitutional to disarm dangerous persons, it did not matter if the mechanism and application of this principle today were accomplished in a manner different from the one used by Americans more than 200 years ago. If nothing else, this point alone renders Rahimi an important clarification and refinement of Bruen . Originalists following the Thomas approach are notoriously poor historians, so they have botched the application of Bruen ’s method time and again. Professional police forces were not a fixture of the founding era, and most criminal matters were handled by justices of the peace, not judges. Crucially, there was no interpersonal gun violence problem to regulate at the time of the Second Amendment’s ratification. Flintlock muzzle-loading weapons are ill suited to impulsive acts of violence. Thus, looking for comparable methods of enforcement between founding-era law and today was premised on a profound ignorance of early American legal history, firearm technology, and the social history of crime.

Correcting the asymmetrical approach taken by lower courts was central to Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar’s tour de force oral argument in Rahimi . Prelogar deserves enormous credit for the outcome in this case, and she has emerged as one of the finest Supreme Court advocates in recent memory. Her pivots and pirouettes in oral argument, deftly responding to hostile questions from the court’s originalists, were remarkable. Prelogar’s advocacy somehow combines the elegance and fluidity of Misty Copeland with the bone-crushing effectiveness of Jackie Chan. To be sure, Roberts did not accept all Prelogar’s arguments: He dismissed her claim that gun rights could be limited to those who are responsible and law-abiding citizens, a position well grounded in the founding era. This issue will certainly resurface in ongoing litigation and may well affect Hunter Biden’s conviction for lying on federal forms about his drug use when he purchased a handgun.

Although the majority opinion clarifies one of the most pernicious misinterpretations of Bruen , the decision did little to clarify the onerous task of applying history, text, and tradition. Indeed, the multiple concurrences written in the case make it clear that there is no consensus about how this test ought to be applied, even among those most wedded to originalism. Indeed, Rahimi will leave most judges scrambling to apply Bruen ’s novel approach to history, text, and tradition to current and future cases.

This is part of  Opinionpalooza , Slate’s coverage of the major decisions from the Supreme Court this June. Alongside  Amicus , we kicked things off this year by explaining  How Originalism Ate the Law . The best way to support our work is by joining  Slate Plus . (If you are already a member, consider a  donation  or  merch !)