All Mail, All the Time

Readers around the world ask questions in Word Wise’s comment section and my colleagues around the world e-mail me with questions, as well. Here’s a smattering of some recent ones and their answers. Re: And Your Point Is? From JP: Which side are you on regarding the writing of the famous search engine as "Yahoo!" or "Yahoo" in journalistic stories? Me: I prefer it without the exclamation point, which is also how AP does it (though The New York Times disagrees, since a quick search shows it uses the exclamation point sometimes, though not in any consistent way as far as I can tell). Re: And Your Point Is? From Nicole: We call [exclamation points] exclamation marks in Australia - why the difference? Me: Not the answer you’re looking for, Nicole: I don’t know and I couldn’t find anything (at least online) that explains it. Re: R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find Out What it Means to Me From Bbebop: Where's Hispanic? It would be nice to know if it's out of favor. Me: AP only capitalizes those words in its AP Stylebook that are supposed to be uppercase all the time, so it goes from “black” to “Black Muslims” to “blackout, brownout.” Also, that AP didn’t update the entry for “Hispanic” this year doesn’t mean it’s out of favor at all. Currently, the entry for “Hispanic” is as follows: “A person from – or whose ancestors were from – a Spanish-speaking land or culture. Latino and Latina are sometimes preferred. Follow the person's preference. Use a more specific identification when possible, such as Cuban, Puerto Rican or Mexican-American. See Latino, nationalities and races, and race entries.” Re: Punctuation Situation From Ragdoll: What is the rule when it comes to names that end in "s"? Me: If the word is a proper noun and ends in an s, just add the apostrophe. Charles’ book, Biff  Harris’ lake house, Dickens’ novel. AP says Jesus is no different than Charles when it comes to grammar (the great leveler); one exception, which may not impact you much unless you're a serious monarchist: when referring to the London palace commissioned by Henry VIII known as St. James’s Palace. Re: Commasutra From Patricia: What's the last word on serial commas? Me: Two schools of thought on the serial comma: AP, which says to use it only if by not using it confusion would follow, all hell would break loose, the end of civilization as we know it would ensue,  or if the items in the series are “a complex series of phases” (2007 AP Style, page 325). That all sounds pretty subjective to me. Then there’s the University of Chicago Manual of Style, with which I agree: “A comma … should appear before the conjunction. Chicago strongly recommends this widely practiced usage … since it prevents ambiguity.” That said, is it "the last word" on the serial comma? I fear not. Re: Ten to One From JP: Here's the classic consistency conundrum to these number-and-numeral rules: If you have a phrase such as "the guys brought home six trout, 11 bass and 14 catfish," do you go with the egregiously inconsistent "six" or the more proximity-related-consistent "6"? Any thoughts? Me: I can’t agree with your supposition that to write “six trout, 11 bass and 14 catfish” is “egregiously inconsistent” (“egregious” means “conspicuously and outrageously bad or reprehensible”). You can disagree with the AP rules on numbers and style, but to follow them isn’t egregious or even inconsistent. Re: Ten to One From Bob: In writing: percent or per cent? Certainly in British English, we were encouraged to use the latter, i.e., use the symbol "%" or spell it out as it was designed. Me: In American-style English we use percent, though when it came into being, around 1568, it was per cent, an abbreviation of the Latin per centum (“by the hundred”). In the early 1880s Americans decided per cent was too fussy (that’s my interpretation, at least) and started writing it as one word. Differences between American and British English abound and I'm wary when it comes to writing about them since everyone in the UK (ok, maybe not everyone) seems so gosh darn touchy. Re: Composed, Comprised, Confused! From Ethan: I’m confused by what comprise means. Your two examples seems inconsistent. OPEC comprises 13 countries. Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Sergio Rossi, Boucheron, Bottega Veneta, Bédat & Co, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Balenciaga comprise the Gucci Group. In the first example, the  larger organization “comprises” the smaller ones. In the second example, the smaller organizations “comprise” the larger. However you have stated that “a whole comprises parts.” I would think the second example should therefore state “the Gucci Group is comprised of Gucci, YSL, etc etc” Me: My headline that week was pretty apt – it is confusing. Your initial comment is right, the examples are inconsistent. But your correction is off, as well. That sentence (beginning with Gucci) should have read “The Gucci Group comprises Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, blah-blah-blah” OR “Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Sergio Rossi, Boucheron, Bottega Veneta, Bédat & Co, Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and Balenciaga compose the Gucci Group." Re: Composed, Comprised, Confused! From Shona: Wouldn't you say "comprised of," as in X is comprised of a, b, c? Me: No, you’d say “composed of.” Saying “comprised of” would be the equivalent of saying “contained of,” which we wouldn’t do. As the excellent blog Mighty Red Pen noted last December, “At times like these, I like to end with the gentle wisdom of H.W. Fowler, who says sweetly, ‘This lamentably common use of comprise as a synonym for compose or constitute is a wanton and indefensible weakening of our vocabulary.’” Me: Keep those questions coming.

Note: Here are two questions I should have asked last week before I posted. First, what's the difference between "stationary" and "stationery"? And second, how does the author of Emma and Pride and Prejudice spell her name? In that post, about exclamation points, I mixed up the difference between standing still and the paper on which people used to write thank you notes and letters home from sleepaway camp (stationary being the former, stationery the latter) and I misspelled Jane Austen's name. Lots of you pointed out one or both these errors (which have since been amended) and like any writer, I appreciate your careful reading and gentle corrections.

Comments

[mighty red pen]

Hi Dan -- Your post brings to mind a joke George Lopez likes to make about not wanting to be called Hispanic because it has the word "panic" in it and he doesn't want to be associated with anything that causes fear.

Thanks for pointing out that people would really prefer to be known by their nationality than such a broad categories as Latino/Hispanic. I may be Latina but I'm not Mexican, so please don't ask me how to make a taco or wish me a happy Cinco de Mayo!

Thanks for the link love. Your blog is great.