No need to capitalize "internet" anymore

[BuckyDuckman]

The newest AP style guide has removed the idea of capitalizing the word Internet. As of June 1st, 2016, it's okay to spell it as "internet."

I missed when email became an acceptable alternative to e-mail, although I've been writing website for a long time instead of "Web site," as was the custom prior to 2010 for the AP.

Here's an article for reference: http://www.poynter.org/2016/ap-style-change-alert-dont-capitalize-internet-and-web-any-more/404664/

 

[legerdemer]

Gosh, I remember well when it was still referred to routinely as the world-wide web and we used Gopher to get info from it. Thankfully that didn't last long.

 

[jezzilee]

The newest AP style guide has removed the idea of capitalizing the word Internet. As of June 1st, 2016, it's okay to spell it as "internet."

I missed when email became an acceptable alternative to e-mail, although I've been writing website for a long time instead of "Web site," as was the custom prior to 2010 for the AP.

Here's an article for reference: http://www.poynter.org/2016/ap-style-change-alert-dont-capitalize-internet-and-web-any-more/404664/

Just gotta say the av. Go Badgers!

 

[sr71plt]

AP is for newspaper journalism, not fiction. You might want to wait to see what Webster's Collegiate does. Fiction still caps both Internet and Web site (and separates Web site). That's how a fiction editor will mark it unless the specific publisher has made a change.

 

[49greg]

I guess I'm just an curmudgeon here, but I do try to stay up with times. At my wife's urging I have finally, well most of the time, stopped putting and apostrophe in front of "phone" and "till". Up until a year or two ago I always do it something like: "I won't let you use the 'phone 'till you ...."

Now I only do it when I don't catch myself.

I guess that really dates me.

edited: I hit the send instead of preview. I meant to add that for the OP subject, I didn't know what internet was supposed to be. By the time I started using that word I had a spell checker to fix it for me.

 

[sr71plt]

It's good to understand what times you are keeping up with. Fiction and nonfiction operate with different rules.

 

[R. Richard]

Am I then to go back and change most of my 236 published books?

 

[sr71plt]

Am I then to go back and change most of my 236 published books?

Not if they are fiction, not the least because the AP style has nothing to do with fiction.

Are people being dense about that here?

 

[Handley_Page]

AP is for newspaper journalism, not fiction.
.

Forgive my question, but I thought newspapers were, by & large, a source of fiction.

 

[sr71plt]

Forgive my question, but I thought newspapers were, by & large, a source of fiction.

Sans the smiley, I can't tell if you understand the difference between sourcing and executing.

 

[sr71plt]

Opps. Wrong thread.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

For those who are unaware, there are different style guides for different industries. Most fiction publishers use the Chicago Manual of Style, which is considered the oldest and most comprehensive of style guides. That said, many publishers have an in-house variant.

Here's a handy Wikipedia article which outlines the most common style guides: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Style_guide

For most amateur writers, don't sweat it too much. Strive for consistency. Once a big publishing house discovers your genius, they'll assign an editor to help.

Does any know if it's possible to force Microsoft Word (or the writing software of your choice) to follow one style guide over another?

 

[lovecraft68]

Not if they are fiction, not the least because the AP style has nothing to do with fiction.

Good thing fiction has looser rules, because I could never keep up with most of this stuff.

 

[FantasyXY]

I think the AP needs to to engineering school for a while so they can learn what the difference is between an internet and the Internet.

 

[Handley_Page]

The newest AP style guide has removed the idea of capitalizing the word Internet. As of June 1st, 2016, it's okay to spell it as "internet."

I missed when email became an acceptable alternative to e-mail, although I've been writing website for a long time instead of "Web site," as was the custom prior to 2010 for the AP.

Here's an article for reference: http://www.poynter.org/2016/ap-style-change-alert-dont-capitalize-internet-and-web-any-more/404664/

Here's another;
" Capitalize 'Internet'? AP says no – Vint Cerf says yes
The great grammatical argument of our age. "

see here

 

[FantasyXY]

Here's another;
" Capitalize 'Internet'? AP says no – Vint Cerf says yes
The great grammatical argument of our age. "

see here

I don't see anything to argue on this one. It's about way more than being grammatically correct. It's about being technically correct.

What's next? Is the AP going to decide that m=million? Wait, M=million because m=1/1000th.

Do the grammar weenies at AP get to dictate technology in their writing, or should the technology dictate... Yeah, I think technology dictates. The technology is real. The writing is just a description of what is real.

I suppose I can sort of see where they are coming from. After all, at one time electronic mail was once E-Mail, then Email, and now email. I was more than happy to see the complexity dropped from the term E-Mail because everyone still knew what it was. But this network name change thing is different. The Internet is a specific thing, while an internet can be many different things.

Let's have all the word weenies over at the AP; design, build, sell, secure and maintain all types of networks for a while, and then we will see how fast they are to try to change nomenclature that has actually valid meaning.