
In the summer, the “Internet” will become the “internet,” at least according to the Associated Press’s widely-followed stylebook.
Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.washingtonpost.com
Now here’s an interesting dilemma with the “I” versus “i” for the use of the word “Internet”. It can be a little confusing. I’m not a big fan of the AP (long story), nor their style guide because I don’t think it’s accurate grammar. I am more of a Chicago Manual of Style gal, or even a Microsoft Style Guide (yes, it exists) gal. My thought is that if it’s referred to as “The Internet” as an entity, then it should be capitalized as a proper noun. Other situations like “internet connection” should remain lowercase as its a descriptive word. What kind of connection is it? It’s an internet connection. I can see this one being hotly contested in the writing world. What do you think? Include your comments below. –TechCommGeekMom
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Danielle M. Villegas is a technical communicator who currently employed at Cox Automotive, Inc., and freelances as her own technical communications consultancy, Dair Communications. She has worked at the International Refugee Committee, MetLife, Novo Nordisk, BASF North America, Merck, and Deloitte, with a background in content strategy, web content management, social media, project management, e-learning, and client services. Danielle is best known in the technical communications world for her blog, TechCommGeekMom.com, which has continued to flourish since it was launched during her graduate studies at NJIT in 2012. She has presented webinars and seminars for Adobe, the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the IEEE ProComm, TCUK (ISTC) and at Drexel University’s eLearning Conference. She has written articles for the STC Intercom, STC Notebook, the Content Rules blog, and The Content Wrangler as well. She is very active in the STC, as a former chapter president for the STC-Philadelphia Metro Chapter, and is currently serving on three STC Board committees. You can learn more about Danielle on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/daniellemvillegas, on Twitter @techcommgeekmom, or through her blog.
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I prefer an all-or-nothing approach. If we’re going to allow lowercase i when “internet” is used as an adjective, then it’ll just be confusing if we insist on capitalizing “the Internet.”
A few years ago “Web” became “web” and we managed to survive. It was uncomfortable for a little while and then it wasn’t. I suspect it’ll be the same for “internet.”
The best comment I’ve seen on the subject, by the way, had a Chaucerian flavor. It came from Tom Freeman: We should never have stopped writing it as “Ynter-Nette”. A nice reminder that language evolves.