In 2000, I wrote an article about Internet and tech terms for Webreference and followed up with others. I revisited the capitalization of Internet, email vs. e-mail, and e-words. Reading WebMarketCentral Blog’s entry (including this one that’s mentioned) motivated me to visit the topic again.
The No. 1 rule remains: consistency. No one will get cursed writing email vs. e-mail, internet vs. Internet, web site vs. website vs Website vs. Web site. AP Style users need to check with the guide under its entry for Internet, which contains about five pages of terms and how to write them.
Email vs. e-mail
I did a comparison of email and e-mail. It looks like email is finally catching up as the gap gets closer. I think email has been around long enough to earn its own word without a reference to “E” for electronic. I use email without the dash. AP Style uses e-mail with a lower case and a dash as does Webster’s. However, when writing for a source that relies on AP Style, I use e-mail as I follow the source’s style guide, not mine.
Internet vs. internet
Wired News online switched to internet, but it doesn’t look like it’s caught on. Wired made it part of its style guide to keep its articles consistent in the writing of internet and I respect that. For me, I can’t bring myself to do it. Internet still rules in my book. AP Style also capitalizes Internet.
In reading a handful of Wired articles, it looks like the magazine uses web, website, and online.
All things web
Capitalize web or not? When should a word with web in it be one word not two? Wired uses web and website. Neither capitalized and website as one word. AP Style says Web is capitalized as in Web site and Web page. However, webmaster and webcast are single words and not capitalized.
Meryl-style: I’ve been using Web site for a long time, but starting to change to web site. Like AP Style, I use webmaster and webcast as one lower-cased word. Webster’s references webmaster and noted that it’s often capitalized.
Other natterings
AP Style says: Login, logon, logoff, plug-in, and online. That’s what I use, too. Although on occasion, I’ll debate whether to use login or logon. I like login better. I’m sure I’ve gotten lazy with plugin, but it looks more like you’re misspelling plugging thus the need for the dash.
Emoticons in sentences 🙂
I’ll put a smiley at the end of a sentence and then take too much time debating what to do with the period :). (It makes the smiley look like it has a dimple or worse, a pimple). Or I’ll put a smiley in () and then delete it because the smiley gets lost (Like this sentence :)).
Someone wrote asking about this and I replied there’s no standard. But if you need a standard, this is what I do:
- Treat a smiley at the end of a sentence as the closing punctuation mark. In other words, the smiley behaves like a period 🙂 Then I start a new sentence.
- Avoid having a smiley at the end of a () by leaving it out, rewriting the sentence, or putting it elsewhere in the note.
URLs in sentences
I’ve got a bone to pick with Microsoft Publisher. It hyphenates every article unless you tell it not to. Unfortunately, it’s on an article basis, so I can’t turn off hyphenating for the entire newsletter or document. Can we please have this option, Microsoft?
I work with newsletter editors who use Microsoft Publisher. They’re volunteers, so I don’t like to nitpick. But it can be problematic when the hyphen appears in an email address or URL. Hey, email addresses and URLs CAN have a dash in them. So the reader wonders if the dash is a hyphen or for real. Some readers aren’t tech-savvy and won’t consider trying it with or without the dash.
In writing a URL in an article, I’ll let it break and go to the next line rather than split it. It’s harder to read a URL that’s split up even without hyphens. The drawback is the break could leave too much whitespace in the sentence prior to the URL. For example:
You can read more at
https://www.meryl.net/blog/story/folder/too_long.html
The above may not look weird, but it can in the middle of a paragraph like this one. See
https://www.meryl.net/blog/story/folder/too_long.html to learn about writing long sentences that bore the reader.
AP Style works around this by recommending that if an address breaks because it reaches the end of a line, break it before a slash or a dot and don’t use a dash or hyphen. Two examples:
- https://www.meryl.net
/blog/ - http://www.meryl
.net/blog/
AP Style also says to use a period when a URL appears at the end of a sentence. For example:
Check out https://www.meryl.net/.
You can read more at https://www.meryl.net/story.html.
Again, it all goes back to picking one way and sticking with it. Use your best judgment when dealing with URLs, emoticons, and hyphens.