Word Wise

Updates to AP Style, Part I

While the Associated Press Stylebook is published annually, apstylebook.com sends out regular e-mail updates to subscribers. They’re not only a useful way to maintain standards but a reminder of both how the English language and the world in which it's spoken continue to change, as well. Here are some recent updates (and accompanying AP commentary) that you may find useful and will, no doubt, at least find interesting. Marseille: Preferred spelling for the French city. Q-and-A format: Use Q-and-A within the body of a story. Waitlist: (n.), wait-list (v.) Wal-Mart Stores Inc.: This is the official name of the company, which has headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. Use Walmart when referring to the retail stores. CEO: Acceptable in all references for chief executive officer. Use chief financial officer and chief operating officer on first reference, and CFO and COO thereafter. Always spell out lesser-known "C-level" positions like chief administrative officer or chief risk officer. G-20: Use a hyphen in the abbreviated form for the Group of Twenty, made up of representatives of industrial and emerging-market nations. A general description rather than the full name is preferred on first reference: Leading rich and developing nations. New entries to the AP Stylebook: Abu Sayyaf, Al-Aqsa, Ashoura, hajj, Hamas, Haram al-Sharif, Hezbollah, hijab, iftar, intifada, Jemaah Islamiyah, kaffiyeh, niqab, Somali, Temple Mount and Wahhabi. Abu Sayyaf: Muslim separatist group based in the southern islands of the Philippines. The name is Arabic for father of the sword. AP announced updates on the words and phrases minimally conscious state, vegetative state, and coma, as well. Should you need this information, please let me or your family physician know.

Today's read & other stuff - Anna Wintour, Fashion Victim?

Last night at a Q&A at the 92nd Street Y in NY, Vogue's editor Anna Wintour spoke in public (that alone is news), but the poor woman was interrupted by PETA members shouting "This woman skins animals alive!" As New York Magazine put it, "the editor's expression was a mix of polite restraint and Is there no security in this place?" Not surprisingly, once the brouhaha died down, her insights into fashion, fashion journalism, and journalism in general had the edge you'd expect. "Our job is to really dig through all that and help our readers make choices and explain what we're seeing," she said. "Right now, there's almost too much information on fashion — I'm confused!" Check out the magazine's tweets from the event here.

Time reports on an internal Wall Street Journal memo regarding staff's use of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Most of it, writes Time's James Poniewozik, "boils down to the classic old-media problem with new media: fear of the loss of control." He writes: "The guidelines Dow Jones put out basically instruct their staffers to be the most boring social-networkers online, to be withholding from their readers, and generally, to guarantee themselves a tiny online following. If the editors and managers at the WSJ and other Dow Jones properties have any sense, they will instruct their staff to break these rules as much as possible." Touche.