Internet Terms

Albert W. Starkweather, Philatelic Communicator

I was recently queried about handling internet terms and references in print, specifically spelling and capitalization of common terms and how to treat web and e-mail addresses. While researching this article, I revised the way I handle some terms and implemented those revisions in The Philatelic Communicator.

Although I take a laissez-faire approach to editing and avoid saddling authors with rules that generate cramped, stilted writing that often muffles their voices, I recognize the need for some standardization in styles. I handled many contributor books at CRC Press in Boca Raton, FL, where the rule was to have the general style of each chapter in harmony of the overall book vis-à-vis spelling and usage without ending up where you could not detect a change in authors without checking the chapter byline.

I encourage writers not to style their copy. For copy editing everything is converted to plain text to make reading easier. When I flow the text into Adobe InDesign, it is displayed as body copy. Paragraph and text styles that allow me to quickly format an article. The bottom line is that the final style should be consistent throughout an article or publication and from issue to issue.

The terms internet and world wide web (www) do not need to be capitalized, as both have become a generic. Internet originally referred to a worldwide-oriented research network. The world wide web organizes internet resources in a hypertext and graphical environment. It may simply referred to as the web on first reference. The two terms may be used interchangeably, with web being preferred.

An internet site and a screen within a site within sites should be called a web site and a web page, although some prefer website and webpage. The latter appear a bit unwieldy in print.

Electronic mail should be called e-mail rather than email, which slows word recognition, or combinations with a capital E. The term may be used as a noun or adjective — “send me an e-mail” or “send me an e-mail message” — but never as a verb. It is redundant to preface an address, such as astarkweather@wu30.org, with e-mail as it is self evident as would be a telephone number or snail mail address. The same also applies to internet addresses, which need not be prefaced by web site.

Both e-mail and web addresses can be set in body text, such as ggriffenhagen@alphanet.org and www.nystampclubs.org. Underlines should be reserved for online usage as hyperlinks and should be avoided there as well since they obliterate descenders, hampering legibility — ggriffenhagen@alphanet.org and
www.nystampclubs.org. Greater than and less than signs are also undesirable. Setting addresses in small caps emphasizes them — ggriffenhagen@alphanet.org and www.nystampclubs.org. Avoid splitting e-mail addresses over two lines.

Web site addresses (urls — uniform resource locators), particularly long ones, often require careful handling. Like e-mail addresses they should not be split over two lines if all possible. In both instances, the problem can be resolved by rewriting the paragraph, or tightening the character tracking moderately, or setting the address on a line by itself. URL references can be streamlined by eliminating the redundant http:// (hypertext transfer protocol), hence www.wu30.org instead of http://www.wu30.org. In cases where www is unnecessary, include http:// for emphasis — http://stamps.delcampe.net. Since neither e-mail nor internet addresses are case specific, there is no excuse for setting them in upper and lower case characters.

In the case of long urls that must be split across two lines, care should be taken not to introduce a a hyphen at the end of the first line. This can be done by inserting a soft return — shift + return in most word processing and page layout programs. In the case of www.owasu.org/gallery_pics/france02.jpg, the url could be split www.owasu.org/(soft return)gallery_pics/(soft return)france02.(soft return)jpg.

Note: It is very important for editors and proofreaders to test e-mail and URLs by copying them into their mail program and web browser to see if they work.

Capitalization of computer and web acronyms and terms are also in transition. However, to avoid getting a letter from the suits, it still is eBay and PayPal. While www and url are set in capitals or small capitals, ftp (file transfer protocol), gif (graphical image format), jpg — rather than jpeg — (Joint Photographic Experts Group), pdf (portable document format), and similar acronyms typically are set in lower case.

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