Spelling and Capitalization of Electronic Terms
April 16, 2011 8:16 pm | No Comments
Web site or website? E-mail, e-mail or email?
Following the rules and guidelines of the sixteenth edition of the CMOS, we use the generic form “website.” Here’s a great example of how rules change according to usage. A few years ago, we used the formal form “Web site,” which has morphed into the compound word “website.”
Another change from years ago is “e-mail.” Not too long ago, electronic terms required the use of a capital “E,” thus “E-mail.” Now, many people informally, in e-mails and texts, omit the hyphen; but the correct usage includes the hyphen but omits the capital “e.” Who knows, though, what the proper usage will be when the next edition of the CMOS comes out, or when the next month rolls around?
Electronic terms are spelled and capitalized as follows: website, e-mail, the World Wide Web, the Internet, the intranet, the net, an e-book, the web and web page.
However, I can’t promise this will be so at the end of the year. Check this blog; I’ll keep you updated.