I'm helping a deeply religious friend with a letter she wrote to her church's leaders, critiquing what she hopes is its final version. (I hope it isn't.) I've had to look up a few terms, mostly for whether they're capitalized, but now I'm struggling with the word apologetics, a noun meaning reasoned arguments or writings that justify something, usually a religious doctrine. Okay, got it.
But the writer is using it with singular verbs, apologetics is, and while it reads wrong to me, I don't really know. Nor have I been able to find a source that makes it clear. Is it a collective noun, a group of writings or arguments treated as a singular thing?
Looking for the word in use online, I see both singular and plural uses.
My critique is nearly done except for this, and I'd like to finish it up today. Anybody got an inside track on this word?
But the writer is using it with singular verbs, apologetics is, and while it reads wrong to me, I don't really know. Nor have I been able to find a source that makes it clear. Is it a collective noun, a group of writings or arguments treated as a singular thing?
Looking for the word in use online, I see both singular and plural uses.
My critique is nearly done except for this, and I'd like to finish it up today. Anybody got an inside track on this word?