Triumph for consistency: AP updates Stylebook to allow “email” unhyphenated
A year after announcing the that the more commonly used “website” could replace the stuffier “Web site” per their widely adopted guidelines, the Associated Press has now updated the AP Stylebook to allow “email” to replace the rather AOL-ish “e-mail” originally used.
AP style is a bit of a mild stressor for bloggers, because despite generally adopting a more casual tone than old media news sources, we like to adhere to some convention of propriety in tone overall. Consistency is also something most writers appreciate, and it’s a pain in the ass to know something like “e-mail” is officially correct when it looks so dated and passé. (When the AP issued a final edict on the “website” versus “Web site” issue last year, both Steven and I posted glowingly about the change.)
Reaction on the Twitters has been almost universally excited, with tweeters (in a totally non-ornithological context) re-tweeting the message above and thanking God. “Email” wasn’t the only streamlined term gifted to tech writers by the AP- “cellphone” and “smartphone” officially got their special dispensation to be real words, retiring the clumsier-yet-then-preferred “cell phone” and “smart phone.” “Calcutta” has also been updated to “Kolkata” (and I will admit at first I thought this could be a new social network of which I was not yet aware) but this particular change did not spark the same giddiness as the other terms.
Which tech terms would you like to see the AP add to their stable of updates? Have the style gods completely caught up with the latest set of changes?
