alphabetization

     Alphabetization means arranging words by order of their place in the alphabet. An alphabetized list begins with all of the words or names that start with the letter "A".  Then all of the words beginning with the letter "A" are arranged by the order of the second letter in each word--then the third letter, and so on, until each word in the entire list, no matter how long the list is, is arranged by order of the alphabet. This makes it easy to find any item on a long list. A computer can find something on a list for you, but if you need to search a list yourself, for any reason--taking attendance, checking off assignments turned in--alphabetizing the list will make the task much easier. Still wishing for an "app", or application that would alphabetize the items in a list for me.

Note--an old alphabetization "glitch" you may still run into--once upon a time, people were taught to put all of the names beginning with "Mc" at the beginning of the "M" list--ahead of the "Ma's". This made little sense, as the letter "C" would already go in between the "Ma" and the "Me". Anyone searching a list of names would need to look in both places, not knowing which "system" of alphabetization was being used. Most people now put names beginning with "Mc" in between "Ma" and "Me". There wasn't any need for the exception in the first place, and it makes it easier for someone else to find a file, or a name on a list.

Note #2--names beginning with "Mc" or "Mac" used to be so commonly confused that a type of scam was named after them--a "micmac" .
 

how to keep your ducks in a row

     Consider the alphabet. Its 26 characters are always arrayed in precisely the same order. Which is very useful for organizing information, even when a computer is handy. When a list of items is arranged in alphabetical order, any number of things can be easy to search through--you can find whatever you're looking for in matter of seconds, assuming you know what it was called, or under what name or title it was filed.  A list of thousands, or even millions of names, can be checked for one particular name--in seconds--perhaps even if you're not sure of the spelling. Everything beginning with the letter "A" comes first. Next we look at the second letter--"A" comes before "B", and so on through the alphabet, according to the number of letters in each word. People managed to keep track of files by the hundreds of thousands in this way, long before computers were invented, and alphabetization is still useful to people who need to look through a list, as opposed to entering a name in a search box.