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Cyberwords Style

Way back in 1994 when I first started composing email newsletters, the words associated with online communication were just beginning to acquire a set "style." My first encounter with bona fide guidance to cyberterms came in 1996 with WIRED STYLE: PRINCIPLES OF ENGLISH USAGE IN THE DIGITAL AGE FROM "WIRED." I adopted their style for the most commonly used cyberwords and have tried to adhere to it (with the one exception noted below) since.

*"Internet" is always capitalized as is its abbreviation "Net"; preceded by "the" unless being used as a modifier. (You find something on _the_ Internet, but you connect through an Internet service provider.)

*"Web" is a shortened form of the proper name "World Wide Web" and is always capitalized. "Web site" is two separate words with the word "Web" capped. (Compound words like "webzine," webmaster," webcam," webcast," etc. are lowercase.)

* "online" (no capital, no hyphen)

* "email" (no capital, no hyphen)

I have seesawed back and forth between "no hyphen" and "hyphen" on "email/email," but then, so has "Wired" (See: A Matter of (Wired News) Style)

Now the Internet and its vocabulary are commonplace and enough time has passed that some consensus has been reached by the most reputable (some might say "stodgy") style guides. "Internet," "Web," and "online" have been standardized (at least for now). The proper style for the common term for "electronic mail" is, according to the new 11th edition of MERRIAM-WEBSTER'S COLLEGIATE DICTIONARY, "email." (M-W dropped its previous recommendation of the capital "e" but retained the hyphen.) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STYLEBOOK adapted "email" earlier and the new 15th edition of the CHICAGO MANUAL OF STYLE uses "email" as well.

Among the general public "email," at least in casual usage, seems to predominate. There's a reason, albeit a lazy one, we prefer "email": the hyphen is hard to reach when touch-typing or even hunt-and-pecking. But many of us, in casual email to friends and family, also abandon the standard capitalization rules for the same reason while never thinking of not using proper capitalization in all other writing. Besides, deciding on proper style is not always a democratic process

Bill Walsh, a WASHINGTON POST copy editor and author of LAPSING INTO A COMMA, considers the unhyphenated version an "abomination." He makes a valid point: "...no initial-based term in the history of the English language has ever evolved to form a solid word."

All thing considered, these are now the currently acceptable forms:
email
Internet
online
Web site

As always, the important thing about style is picking one and being consistent.

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