I can hardly contain myself! Last week the Associated Press—the final authority on journalistic style, grammar and rules—saw the light! Finally, “website” was added as an acceptable spelling in addition to “Web site.”
Having been in the web industry for over ten years now, I can finally shed the guilt about bucking AP Style on that single, archaic, horrible rule!
AP has the final say in all journalistic debates. I was always quick to throw the AP Stylebook in colleagues’ faces when debating writing rules. When I decided to abandon AP’s call on “website,” I received much flack. Having to write “Web site” in the middle of a sentence just looked bizarre. I finally protested. It was a hard move for me to deliberately break the rule. It was like flipping off the Queen or mooning the Pope.
Way to get with the times, AP. I may seriously send you flowers.
More Changes to Come
The big “website” news may only be the beginning of AP’s efforts to update their New Media and Social Media rules. It seems that the Associated Press will dedicate an entire section to these much-needed rules. Excellent! Even more shocking…they’re taking suggestions! Okay, I may now send candy with those flowers!
Among suggestions already submitted by writing geeks worldwide:
- Change “e-mail” to “email.”
- How to treat blog titles – quotes, italics or nothing?
- Definition for Tweet (v) – to set a status update on Twitter
- Change “E-book” to “ebook.”
- Add “texting” and “texted” as verbs.
Question! –> Do you use AP Style religiously in your online writing? What AP Style updates would you like to see?
