Comments for Arrant Pedantry

Comment on Logography by patrick

patrick — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 22:22:45 +0000

Wall-E seems to appeal more to the internet generation

Comment on Logography by Brinestone

Brinestone — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:35:36 +0000

I totally don’t agree with the AP on that, then. I think it’s important to know that each letter in NASA stands for something when you look at it—more important, anyway, than pointing out that you should pronounce it as a word instead of each individual letter. In my experience, people rarely mix up acronyms and initialisms (i.e., say “oo-sah” for USA or “ess-see-you-bee-ay” for SCUBA). But acronyms are spelled like actual words often enough that I can see confusion resulting from following that rule to the letter (couldn’t resist the pun, sorry).

Comment on Logography by Jonathon

Jonathon — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 14:56:00 +0000

If I understand correctly, the AP style guide says that acronyms should be lowercased (or just initial capped) while plain old initialisms get all caps. My gut reaction is that I don’t agree with that rule, but that may be material for another post.

Comment on Logography by rivka

rivka — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 06:09:39 +0000

But it’s an abbreviation, Bill.

Comment on Logography by Bill Walsh

Bill Walsh — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 04:41:39 +0000

And then there’s the capitalization issue. Unless it’s pronounced dubya-dubya-ay-el-el-ee, it’s Wall-E.

Comment on Numbers and Hyphens by Jonathon

Jonathon — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:52:42 +0000

Thanks for the comment. Unfortunately, it looks like I have no control over that part—that text comes from Spreadshirt and isn’t editable. Sorry about the jaw.

Comment on Numbers and Hyphens by Fritinancy

Fritinancy — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 02:08:17 +0000

Thank you for saying what needed to be said! Now, if you could just add a possessive apostrophe to “Ladies T-shirts” in your delightful store, this former copy editor would unclench her jaw once and for all.

Comment on Numbers and Hyphens by Neutros

Neutros — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 14:54:46 +0000

Right on, Bro!

Comment on Numbers and Hyphens by rivka

rivka — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 04:23:54 +0000

Hear, hear!

Comment on In the Order It Was Received by mollymooly

mollymooly — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:23:59 +0000

One “in” is doing the job of two. Gower calls this phenomenon preposition cannibalism.