It's the planet beneath our feet, and also the substance that covers much of the outer layer of that planet. And it can be a style problem for editors. It's Earth. Or the earth. Or sometimes just plain earth. In many cases, identifying whether the word should be treated as a proper or … [Read more...]
Appositive Thinking: When to Capitalize Titles
Today we offer the last of the free articles from our new premium articles, taking the place of Copyediting newsletter. Sarah Grey is not only our columnist, she’s our copyeditor and a popular instructor here on Copyediting. Her In Style columns explore different aspects of style, as well as big … [Read more...]
The Ups and Downs of Capitalization Terms
ne of the side effects of the growth of desktop publishing during the 1990s was that people absorbed much of the jargon of printing and typesetting, often without ever realizing its source. Today we can talk of fonts and typefaces, alignment, and even (for those who really got into it) leading and … [Read more...]
Can You “Like” a Facebook Post?
A subscriber wrote in to ask for our input on how to style Facebook’s Like. Should it be enclosed in quotes? Capped? Can it be used as a verb? If so, should the verb be capped? This confusion results when a company uses an everyday word prominently in its business. (We also get related questions … [Read more...]
Camel Case in Canada, Eh?
Initial case, Title Case, and Sentence case are all headline styles that editors are accustomed to using. Enter the digital age, the age of URLs, and we find ourselves dealing with a new creature of capitalization: CamelCase. Camel Case is the term given to those trade names that have mid-word … [Read more...]
Lost in transcription
Punctuation is for writing, not speaking. Although we might emphasize spoken sarcasm with finger-made air scare quotes, we probably wouldn’t mention commas or say, “I love you, period.” (Unless you’re singing along with Dan Bard and Homemade Sin). But a new dictation feature on Google Docs will … [Read more...]
Capital Headlines, Eh?
Capitalization rules are second only to hyphenation in their ability to drive an editor batty. There are only two universal rules I can find: Capitalize the first word. Don’t capitalize the unless it’s the first word. The title capitalization website provides a handy tool for automatically … [Read more...]
Canadian Acronym Styling, Eh?
Shortened forms of words are common and often more familiar than the fully spelled-out words. Other times, the shortened form is just easier to process after introducing the lengthy and complex full term. Other reasons to use shortened forms include voice, reading level / readability, and space. … [Read more...]