I remember the first time someone told me that the word Internet should be capitalized.

“Really?” I asked. I was shocked.

“Yeah, Web should be capitalized too. And on-line should be hyphenated.”

Weird, I thought.

Then, just as I was settling into using those forms, the rules about two of them began to change. Such is the wacky world of Web words.

It’s not really surprising that some Web terms would have stability issues. Most are relatively new and haven’t had a chance to settle into standard, agreed-upon forms. And words have a tendency to morph over time anyway, making the English language a bit unstable in some areas. Actually, unstable is probably an unfair characterization; flexible is probably a better way to put it. Language has to be flexible because it’s ultimately a user-determined art. Even initially reviled word forms can become accepted over the long haul if enough people use them.

But how are you supposed to know which word forms are au courant? I did some research and found that The Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition (TCMS) — the editors bible — considers the explanations below to be the latest word on Web words:

* Commands, icons, file names, keys and other technology-related terms
When writing about features in software or blogs, or on Web sites or keyboards, match the capitalization of the feature you’re mentioning. For example, Enter is capitalized on keyboards, so it should be capitalized when used in a sentence: “Hit Enter to access the page.”

To further differentiate any of these terms, you may use italics, bold or a different font. If you’re writing about two term types in one post or document, you might want to use italics for one and bold for another: For example, use italics for commands and bold for file names. If using different styles doesn’t provide enough differentiation, use quotation marks, either instead of or in addition to other formatting. No matter which style(s) you choose, be consistent throughout.

* dot-com
This term should hyphenated, not written dot.com. (That would read dot dot com.) If used in a headline, capitalize both the D and the C: “Her Dot-Com Empire Made Her Millions Before She Decided to Chuck it All and Live on the International Space Station.”

* e-mail, e-business, e-commerce, e-solutions, etc.
The e words should be lowercase and hyphenated. If an e word falls at the beginning of the sentence, the E would be capitalized: “E-commerce provided a good living for him, but he preferred to dress like a homeless person anyway.”

Even though eBay is the appropriate capitalization for the name of the auction site, TCMS suggests capitalizing it at the beginning of a sentence: “EBay had a record year, due in part to someone paying five million dollars to buy his own kidney.” Personally, I’d rewrite that sentence to avoid the strange capitalization (and probably any mention of a kidney), but it wouldn’t be wrong if you left the capital E at the beginning of the sentence.

* Internet
If you’re referring to the worldwide collection of servers and Web sites, Internet should be capitalized. If you’re only referring to a network of computers, it should be lowercase.

* log in and its many variations
When you’re referring to logging into a site, the appropriate form is log on or log in (not logon or login). The same obviously applies to log off (not logoff). When you’re using the term as an adjective, however, it should be hyphenated: “She logged in on the Adopt-a-Clown log-in page.”

* online
This started as on-line, but has now morphed into online. It’s a perfect example of how language changes over time.

* pop-up
It’s appropriate to hyphenate the name for those annoying pages that get in your way while Web surfing.

* Web, web, Web site and website
For the time being, Web is still treated as a proper noun, therefore both Web and Web site are capitalized — if the usage is somewhat formal. If you’re writing a blog post, which in most cases would be considered informal, web and website are fine. If you’re writing informally and prefer to stick with Web and Web site (as I do), that’s okay too. There’s a transition going on, so there’s extra flexibility about these words.

* WWW
If a Web address appears at the beginning of a sentence, you have two choices: You can leave off the www (for example, mysite.com) or you can rewrite the sentence to move the URL elsewhere. You would never use www at the beginning of the sentence and capitalize the first W.

* Video game names
Following the same rule used for movie and book titles, video game titles should be italicized: “He sat in his chair and played Tomb Raider until his head fell off.”

Carla Chadwick

Hello, if you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Filed under: Guest Blogging, Writing