MOMENTOUS AP STYLE CHANGES
When the word went out today that the editors of The Associated Press Stylebook would announce changes in AP style at the national conference of the American Copy Editors Society, the nation ground to a halt.
Factories suspended production. Police and fire departments called in employees on overtime. Members of the Cabinet were summoned to the White House. Knots of anxious civilians gathered in the streets to speculate worriedly on the decisions about to be handed down. Some ducked into bars for fortification.
And then the tweets began scattering across the Twitterverse:
E-mail will become email as of 3 a.m. EDT on March 19, 2011.
The sensation that this announcement sparked cannot be described.
But there was more.
Cell phone and smart phone fuse into single words.
Gasps go up from the crowd in Times Square.
And in Britain, where they are apparently able to take these things with less commotion, @guardianstyle comments: “Early reaction to that #apstyle about-turn on email: ‘I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.’ "
No doubt other earth-shattering changes will appear this spring when the 2011 edition of the stylebook comes out. Until then, brown paper bags will be distributed to those hyperventilating over the initial announcement.
Hopefully, the next post here will be able to return to issues that matter.
Comments
Sing it, John!
Posted by: Erin Brenner | March 18, 2011 2:52 PM
I'm proud to confirm that we at The (London) Times still persist with "e-mail". Proud, I tell you!
Posted by: Sid Smith | March 18, 2011 5:06 PM
They can fiddle with the small stuff, as long as we know that when the sun comes up the next morning prices will still skyrocket, hitting us in the pocketbook. Rifles (always high-powered) will still be brandished, and shots will ring out. That's the true core of journalism.
Posted by: Tim Hicks | March 18, 2011 5:59 PM
The emotional impact this "email" announcement is having on me makes me realize I need to re-evaluate my entire perspective. We're talking about a /word/, for crying out loud, now officially -- AP-wise, at least -- without a hyphen. News regarding "-" changed my life instantly. It's been the highlight of my day. Something is not right.
Posted by: Deborah Wood | March 18, 2011 8:10 PM
Meanwhile, the AP retains the hyphen in e-reader and e-book. And for the next 18 months, every reference to "Kolkata" will have to be accompanied by "previously known as ..."
Paper bag, please! And not for hyperventilation.
Posted by: Peter Sibley | March 18, 2011 9:28 PM
I've been using "email" for years now, and have been leaning toward "ebook" (rather than e-book) for some time now. Anything else you'd like me to settle?
Posted by: Dahlink | March 19, 2011 7:37 AM
Yes, please, Dahlink ... A-bomb, C-section, D-Day, e-coli, g-string, H-bomb, K-rations, O-level, Q-car, S-bend, T-Rex, U-bend, V-sign, X-ray, what's so special about e-mail?
Posted by: Picky | March 19, 2011 10:01 AM
Oh, Picky--that list gave me vertigo! I will state emphatically, however, that it should be T. (full stop, no hyphen) Rex.
Posted by: Dahlink | March 19, 2011 11:55 AM
I think you're right.
Posted by: Picky | March 19, 2011 1:23 PM
I'm with Dahlink on T. Rex. That's how I'm teaching it to the GrandBoys!
Posted by: Eve | March 19, 2011 1:30 PM
Y-fronts, then.
Posted by: Picky | March 19, 2011 1:38 PM
I think "briefs" is AP style for "Y-fronts."
Posted by: JD Considine | March 19, 2011 2:07 PM
T. rex, E.coli - they're both genus/species names.
And email began that way and acquired a spurious hyphen later in life. Glad to see it's gone; I never used it.
Posted by: The Ridger | March 19, 2011 3:42 PM
Nothing spurious about it. G-spot.
Posted by: Picky | March 19, 2011 5:10 PM
L-driver on the M-way, not the A-road.
Posted by: Picky | March 19, 2011 5:18 PM
G-whiz, Picky.
Posted by: Laura Lee | March 19, 2011 6:41 PM
I'm still curious where they got e-mail. I've been on the Internet, professionally, since 1989 and have never seen anyone use a hyphen other than noobs.
Posted by: Dave Saunders | March 19, 2011 7:45 PM
F-word, B-test, J-cloth, T-shirt, U-boat. Where they got it from is simple, Mr Saunders. The most common ways to form this sort of expression are E noun, E-noun and e-noun. If you prefer enoun, well fine, but there's really no need to get in a tizzy about the perfectly regular form e-mail.
I suggest you say three times before breakfast: "The Associated Press is just a news agency. There are hundreds of them. AP style is just a news agency stylebook." Stop moaning about it. If you don't like it, don't use it.
There's something rather cheapskate about using someone else's stylebook secondhand, anyway.
Posted by: Picky | March 20, 2011 4:22 AM
D-ring. (You prefer dring? No? There's a reason for that.) C-clamp. F-clamp. G-clamp. n-gram. Is a pattern beginning to form? Are you in favour of fclamp? And you pronounce it ... ? And ngram? Bantu, is it? Oh heck, I give up.
Posted by: Picky | March 20, 2011 8:27 AM
You know, I'd kind of like to see "dring" acquire a definition; I rather like the sound of it. Not as a substitute for D-ring, certainly, but perhaps some enterprising individual will adopt the word and give it a semantic home.
Posted by: Dan | March 21, 2011 11:58 AM
Oh, Kolkata!
Posted by: Chris | March 21, 2011 7:41 PM
Most of my students here at UNC like the change to email. A few like the hyphen, and several have no preference.
Posted by: Andy Bechtel | March 22, 2011 1:16 PM
Consistency overrules "correctness." How many readers will now have to re-read "ecommerce" before they recognize it as the more understandable "e-commerce"?
Posted by: Don Lee | March 24, 2011 10:59 AM
When AP comes to its senses and decides to join the civilized world by using the serial comma, please call me.
Posted by: tanarg | March 24, 2011 12:39 PM