Last I checked, the Associated Press Stylebook requires capitalization for the words Internet, Net, and Web. Wired is bucking that trend. I agree with them, as the words are just another common medium — we don’t capitalize radio, television, or newspapers, do we? If I remember correctly (and I don’t have my stylebook in front of me), the AP stylebook also hyphenates “on-line” which I’ve always violently refused to do, because the hyphenation makes it sound like there’s one “line” that transports all of the ‘nets traffic — similar to “on-air” (which should be hyphenated).
Link via Waxy.
Update: Read the comments below for a differing opinion.
Update Again: Another media blog that supports the decision.
Comments
Buy Bill Walsh’s “Lapsing Into a Comma,” or his new one, “Elephants of Style.” I’ll letcha know what he thinks, but I think at the least this move by Weird, er, I mean Wired is a weee bit premature. I could be wrong. It’s been known to happen. It just seems dumb to me, and confusing.
And here’s Mr. Walsh’s take:
I disagree with Wired, of course. It’s an interesting argument, but Internet is a proper noun. It just is.
Like “White House.” The article “the” before it should be a clue — I may be speaking too soon, but I can’t think of any examples of such fanciful nouns that take a “the.” It’s not like “the airwaves” or “the phone system.”
The copy of Wired Style I have, which is the latest, says to capitalize Internet.
The problem I have is the work “email”. I prefer to close it. But the AP Stylebook says to use e-mail and the Wall Street Journal writes it like that.
I tend to use the stylebook which suits what I’m writing. For example, if I’m writing Web site content (yes, Wired says to write it like that) I use Wired Style. BTW, Google writes Web site as website.
Susanna
I’m a 12-year veteran jouranlist and I’ve disagreed with AP’s style rules regarding “Internet” terminology for quite some time.
Then again, I was actively using the “Internet” on a daily basis before most AP writers even knew what it was.
You capitalize TV because it’s an abbreviation (Just like AP).
You capitalize “T-shirt,” yet not “e-mail” — The “e” is an abbreviation for “electronic.” I’m not sure why it’s not capitalized unless it’s simply to be “Internetsy” with all the lowercase web addresses and e-mail addresses.
Personally, I think it should be “internet” “E-mail” “web” “worldwide web” and “website.” Needless to say, they didn’t ask me. *shrug*
It’s not a big deal, though — it just makes it as confusing as heck.
Does the AP stylebook require web addresses in text to be italicized?
I’d like email to be one word as well, but I don’t really care about the others.
at Denise– the AP stylebook doesn’t EVER italicize. Even book titles are in quotes. You don’t use italics in print publications.