In March, the Associated Press announced its major changes in word styles, including IT words. This is a “big deal” for IT words that have remained unchanged for decades in a field where technology changes frequently and fast. (Some words, like “e-mail”, have remained unchanged for 20+ years.)
New IT word styles include:
- cellphone (formerly “cell phone” as two words)
- email (formerly “e-mail” with a hyphen)
- smartphone (formerly “smart phone” as two words)
- website (formerly “web site” as two words)
AP style is used by media entities around the world, including the Kansas State Collegian and other K-State communications channels. “On any given day, more than half the world’s population sees news from the AP,” says the About AP webpage.
According to the Associated Press Stylebook site (apstylebook.com): “The entries on cell phone, e-mail and smart phone have been changed to cellphone, email and smartphone to reflect increasingly common usage.”
These and other changes are expected to be in the spiral-bound 2011 AP Stylebook slated to be released in May. On apstylebook.com, it’s noted the AP Stylebook Online version has additional content beyond what is included in the paper AP Stylebook.
K-State’s InfoTech Tuesday newsletter has been using the above “new” styles for years, with the exception of “email” (which was not an obvious transition conclusion).
