Note from a cranky editor

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

^We had this very discussion with my paper's copy editor. According to her, it's because people want to ascribe a weight and importance to words; hence they needlessly capitalize. She showed a group of us this excerpt from some forgotten Victorian novel where every other word was capitalized for emphasis.

Now let's talk about apostrophes.

 

[Sakrysta]

My former boss felt the need to captialize "fax" (that one often in all caps - FAX), "internet", and "website" on a regular basis. He also would split the latter into "Web Site", making it even more ridiculous-looking. I think it was a product of his age. He was in his retirement years when all these things were invented, and I think their newness made them seem to him to need capitalization.

In his defense, however, aside from an occasional over-use of the comma, he had an exceptional grasp of grammar and needed very little editing. I miss his ability to write a newsletter that was both concise and informative. My new boss is too terse, forgetting that news needs to be explained, not just stated bluntly. I have given up re-writing him and just let his work speak for itself.

Back to capitalization, though, I got the impression that the overindulgence in capital letters in older works was a bit of German influence. In addition, there was less standardization to the rules of the English language in that era. As long as the text was understandable in context, elements like spelling and capitalization were left up to the author to determine. Am I wrong?

 

[JustKate]

I am familiar, alas, with the Important Words Are Capped, Right? school of thought. But...Phone Call?

And as far as I'm concerned, we can always talk about apostrophes, not to mention multiple exclamation marks.

 

[Christopher]

I thought "Internet" was a proper name and should be capitalized. But apparently that's a matter of contention:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_capitalization_conventions

 

[JustKate]

I cap Internet (for publication - I don't in casual writing) because last I checked, the Associated Press Stylebook still requires that it be capped. But it also wants website written Web site, two words, "Web" capped but "site" lowercase.

Internet doesn't bother me capped, but I have to say that there is something quaint, and not in a good way, about Web site.

 

[kitsune]

My former boss felt the need to captialize "fax" (that one often in all caps - FAX), "internet", and "website" on a regular basis.

There is only one Internet (no-one speaks of internets, except in LOL-speak), therefore it is a proper noun and should be capitalized. C.f. intranet.

 

[Trent Roman]

I sat through a three-hour meeting yesterday (thanks to all of you for your condolences) during which we went through several written reports, and every single one, including from people I would have thought knew better, had all this weird capping. Some actual examples, none of which, I swear, were part of a proper name: Member, Group, Staff, Issue, Kit (kit?), Activity (no, please, nooo), Successful (you are kidding me, right?) and, last but certainly not least, Phone Call.

Might be because CorpSpeak is related to legalese, which tends to capitalize common words to designate one or more specific entities of that type rather than in the general sense. I see this often in contracts, for instance; a publication deal will refer to "the Author", "the Publisher" and "the Work".

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[JustKate]

I sat through a three-hour meeting yesterday (thanks to all of you for your condolences) during which we went through several written reports, and every single one, including from people I would have thought knew better, had all this weird capping. Some actual examples, none of which, I swear, were part of a proper name: Member, Group, Staff, Issue, Kit (kit?), Activity (no, please, nooo), Successful (you are kidding me, right?) and, last but certainly not least, Phone Call.

Might be because CorpSpeak is related to legalese, which tends to capitalize common words to designate one or more specific entities of that type rather than in the general sense. I see this often in contracts, for instance; a publication deal will refer to "the Author", "the Publisher" and "the Work".

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

Annoying as "the Author" is as well as CorpSpeak examples such as "the Company" or whatever, I respectifully submit that they aren't anywhere near as silly nor as inexplicable as Activity, Successful and, of course Phone Call, which are, I swear, actual real-life examples from documents sitting on my desk right this very minute. I mean, jeeeeeeeeeeeez.

 

[Trent Roman]

Oh, I agree that it's a silly affectation. Just trying to figure out where it comes from. Capitalizing to lend importance, as middyseafort suggested, is certainly a possibility, but you'd think that people would have been told not to do that in school, whereas CorpSpeak is something one usually learns after formal education.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Christopher]

There is only one Internet (no-one speaks of internets, except in LOL-speak), therefore it is a proper noun and should be capitalized. C.f. intranet.

Actually there are multiple internets; see the article I linked to above. An intranet is a private computer network; an internet is a group of two or more separate computer networks connected by hardware gateways and software protocols. "The Internet" is an internet that links thousands of networks around the world with a common protocol called the Internet Protocol Suite -- by far the largest example of its category, but not the only one.

 

[Tulin]

I am learning quite a bit from all of you.

Thank you.

 

[Sakrysta]

I have a few mistakes I stubbornly cling to. I think refusing to captialize "internet" is going to be one of them.

 

[Myasishchev]

May I whine a bit to my fellow grammaristas? Ah, thanks - I don't know how I'd manage without you.

What is the Deal with People who capitalize Things that don't Need to be Capped? It's bad enough when they cap Titles and Ranks for no real reason - OK, at least those are capped sometimes, and different style guides have different rules for capping them.

But for some people, it's as though their keyboards have some sort of Random Word capping Feature and they can't figure out how to turn it Off.

I sat through a three-hour meeting yesterday (thanks to all of you for your condolences) during which we went through several written reports, and every single one, including from people I would have thought knew better, had all this weird capping. Some actual examples, none of which, I swear, were part of a proper name: Member, Group, Staff, Issue, Kit (kit?), Activity (no, please, nooo), Successful (you are kidding me, right?) and, last but certainly not least, Phone Call.

What with one thing and another, it was a very long meeting. Or should I say Long Meeting?

Ever read the Constitution with the capitalization preserved? Apparently every noun is capitalized.

Then with the Amendments, it gets weird (at least in the copy in my con law Book), where it appears the capitalization Duties were undertaken by the Retarded and done with complete Randomness:

Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security [sic] of a free State, the right of the people [sic] to bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

Amendment IV
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects [all nouns], against searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants [wtf] shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation...

I guess Oaths aren't as good as puny affirmations, but are equal in importance and dignity to Arms.

Not, to mention, all the, redundant, Commas.

 

[Gryffindorian]

Capitalization rules can be arbitrary, especially considering the fact that businesses often have their own internal style manuals. For example, when I do the monthly report in my department, some technical words and phrases, acronyms (all caps), and titles obviously need to be in initial-cap. One thing that isn't is punctuation, and it bothers me when people pepper their sentences with unnecessary commas (among other things).

 

[Ptrope]

Just out of curiosity, why are "security" and "people" editorially and incorrectly noted with [sic]? Just because they aren't capitalized doesn't mean they are misspelled or misused. BTW, it may be that the capitalized words were done so because they refer to tangible things - security, rights and even 'the people' are conceptual nouns, whereas a Militia is a tangible thing, as is a State (that could actually go either way), and as are Arms.

Just a thought ...

 

[Level 2 Diagnostic]

I'll take a passage with a lot of unnecessary commas any day over a passage with no commas. I'm constantly editing the work of other writers who refuse to use commas, which makes every sentence read like a run-on sentence. Too many commas can be slightly annoying, but no commas at all is damn near incomprehensible.

And I refuse to capitalize "internet". I don't talk about Television or Radio or Telephones, so I don't see any need to say "Internet". And if you write "internet" it's not like anyone's going to think, "Huh? Which internet is this person talking about??"

 

[Gryffindorian]

But it's the Internet.

 

[Greg Cox]

Specialized issues:

On my first day at Tor, it was carefully explained to me that it's Tor, not TOR. Because it's not an acronym.

And Krypton is capitalized, but "kryptonite" is not.

 

[BrotherBenny]

With thanks to my muse and editor, I've found that I'm self-correcting the errors I made when starting to write my novel, and even rewriting sentences where I mess around with tenses (I think that's still my biggest problem though). There were fewer errors for her to correct in the last couple of chapters, so I'm hoping that when the latest one is typed up and sent to her, she'll have nothing to do.

 

[T'Bonz]

I don't see why your upset over this. Their is no big deal about the occasional mistake.

When referring to the part played by an actor, the word is "role," not "roll."

This is not aimed at anyone at particular. I've just been seeing this error popping up more and more frequently lately, including twice today!

Just had to get that off my chest. You may now return to your regularly scheduled threads . . .