The AP announced today that it will drop the hyphen from the word formerly written, under AP style, as "e-mail." It is also changing "cell phone" to "cellphone." Nearly a year ago, the wire service switched from "Web site" to "website." ...In addition, "smart phone" is now smartphone, and Calcutta is Kolkata, and according to the Style Guide's website the preferred nickname for St. Patrick's Day is "St. Paddy's Day," not "St. Patty's Day."
Some people believe that the hyphen in "e-mail" is antithetical to the free and speedy spirit of the in4mationage. Some people believe that the unhyphenated "email" looks faddish and lazy. I find both sets of people irritating, and I have no desire to stage a debate between them when I am simply trying to mention, in passing, that the means by which someone wrote and delivered a particular piece of text was an electronic-mail program. It was an email. An e-mail. I don't care which.
What's the point of switching sides now? In 10 more years, for all we know, everyone's going to do the even more straightforward thing and call electronic mail "mail." Most people I talk to already call their cell phones "phones," because those are what they use to make all their phone calls. (That thing sticking out of the wall, which I got mostly for the sake of hearing people clearly during phone interviews, is a "landline." Or is it a "land line"? AP, so eager to keep up with the times, doesn't specify.)
Friday, March 18, 2011
ALOTT5MA FRIDAY GRAMMAR RODEO: Just when you thought we had dropped this feature, Tom Scocca notes some changes in the AP Style Guide:
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I've been using "email" for years, ever since Webster's adopted it. "Smartphone," "cellphone," and "landline" look wrong and like corporate speak to me. Sorry (not really sorry), like corporatespeak. Just because two words are frequently paired doesn't mean they are one word. I don't place phonecalls. I never relied on the expertise of wordprocessors. I engage in e-commerce and would engage in ecommerce but will never engage in electroniccommerce. The Internet is not the home of sportsblogs and onlineporn, of uncivildiscourse and the endless newscycle. I did not type this with my righthand and my lefthand.
ReplyDeleteThey can have my hyphen from "e-mail" when they pry it from my cold dead hands!
ReplyDeleteFWIW--"landline" and "website," but "cell phone."
Does it follow from "website" that we are all finished capitalizing "Web" when preceded by the definite article and when spelling out the initialism "www" into three distinct words?
ReplyDeleteI got the University of Chicago Law Review to switch from "e-mail" to "email."
ReplyDeleteI'm firmly in favor of spelling cities/towns as closely to the way natives would spell them as possible, so I'm glad about Kolkata. As for the hyphen, I think I dropped it a while ago but can we discuss whether it's okay to use email as a verb? I remember being taught that email is a noun and shouldn't be verbified.
ReplyDeleteSince I use facebook as a verb, I'm ok with using email as a verb. I'm pretty sure I never knew there was supposed to be a hypen in email, but then, I don't use capital letters in my email either, so maybe I'm not the best judge.
ReplyDeleteWhat I'd really love is for them to drop book titles must go in quotes rather than italics. Hope springs eternal!
ReplyDeleteAlso, the AP is wrong in referring to "St. Patrick's Day" as a formal name. There is no formal name for the feast day, especially since Patrick is one of nearly 20 saints whose feast day that is.
ReplyDeleteAND, my own pet peeve, they have not suddenly become nevermind or highschool. They are both STILL TWO WORDS. (unless the first one is being used as the title of an album, in which case, FINE. I GUESS.)
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have no real opinion on cellphone or landline.
Email is fine with me.
ReplyDeleteHow about people who still write Face Book or FaceBook instead of Facebook?
What's wrong with landline? Yes, it happens to be a compound word, but it's a technical term which actually is a single word.
ReplyDeleteSometimes, compound words are correct, Mr. SpaceMan.
Well finished, for my part.
ReplyDeleteThe Kolkata / Calcutta thing (along with Mumbai, etc.) to me is extremely Nihhhhhhaaaarrrrraghhuuuuuaa.
ReplyDeleteSorry. Can not bring myself to go with "email." Not sure why.
ReplyDeletegod, I hate the hyphen in email. and the caps in website. AP down, Chicago manual to go
ReplyDelete