Styling the net

[khaosworks]

I've actually been doing this for a while now. And, yes, it's e-mail, not email.

It's Just the 'internet' Now
By Tony Long
08:14 AM Aug. 16, 2004 PT

Effective with this sentence, Wired News will no longer capitalize the "I" in internet.

At the same time, Web becomes web and Net becomes net.

Why? The simple answer is because there is no earthly reason to capitalize any of these words. Actually, there never was.

True believers are fond of capitalizing words, whether they be marketers or political junkies or, in this case, techies. If It's Capitalized, It Must Be Important. In German, where all nouns are capitalized, it makes sense. It makes no sense in English. So until we become Die Wired Nachrichten, we'll just follow customary English-language usage. (Web will continue to be capitalized when part of the more official entity, World Wide Web.)

Still, the decision wasn't made lightly. Style changes are rarely capricious, since change plays havoc with the editor's sacred cow, consistency.

But in the case of internet, web and net, a change in our house style was necessary to put into perspective what the internet is: another medium for delivering and receiving information. That it transformed human communication is beyond dispute. But no more so than moveable type did in its day. Or the radio. Or television.

This should not be interpreted as some kind of symbolic demotion. Think of it more as a stylistic reality check.

Naturally, as part of a company name or organization -- the Internet Movie Database, for example -- the "I" remains capitalized. It also remains capped in headlines, where Wired News style decrees that all principal words are capitalized.

But now, by lowercasing internet, web and net, Wired News is simply giving the medium its proper due.

Comments

[oxlahun.livejournal.com]

I'm curious why you prefer the hyphen in e-mail. I never have; it's an extra keystroke that doesn't add anything other than a mark of specialness, and email hasn't been special to me since around the time I first connected to TIM in 1992.

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you want to be *really* pedantic about it, it should be e'mail. :)

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Because it's "electronic" mail. "Ee"-mail, not "Uhmail." iMacs, etc. are different because they're brand names.

[cfred.livejournal.com]

"Ee"-mail can still be captured by the spelling; conmpare to the primary pronunciation of egret.

Myself, I generally say email, since it's reached that level of commonality with me.

[khaosworks.livejournal.com]

Not really comparable, since egret is one word and e-mail is not a single word, but a contraction of electronic mail.

Not that I'm trying to change your use of it, of course.

[cfred.livejournal.com]

Although, actually. Merriam-Webster recognizes e-mail as an entry.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

But now, by lowercasing internet, web and net, Wired News is simply giving the medium its proper due.

Ha. They missed the ENTIRE point. The English language tends to simplify usage, run words together, and decapitalize them with familiarity, and they are neither special nor original in doing this.

And yes, while in the long run it's almost certain that usage will prove out to be "email", I still check my e-mail each day. So I'm a fogie; what else is new? :-)

[cfred.livejournal.com]

They are slightly special in doing it. They've got name recognition in publishing about the Iinternet. As such, there are people who would look at their usage as a barometer for what the "correct" usage is.

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

Only in the sense that they have more influence on the timing of the progression. But the fact that they're doing it at all isn't really special, nor any different from the way usage has progressed for the last couple of centuries, at least. Say, since printed materials became common.

[aunty_marion]

I've never, as far as I can remember, capitalised any of those words. But I do use e-mail, since (being a linguist), email is French for enamel, and so confuses me (only a little .... I'm an *intelligent* linguist (I hope!)).

As Terence points out, it's a contraction of two words, therefore it makes more sense to use the hyphen.

[(Anonymous)]

I think they're dead wrong in dropping the caps, since all of Internet, Web, and Net when capitalized refer to a specific instance of the more generic uncapitalized term (Web admittedly is a bit more iffy on this). There are many internetworks, which just means connections between separate computer networks. But there's only one Internet, which Net is an abbreviation for.

Tom Galloway