June Insurance Marketing Grammar Goofs

24 June, 2013

Time to get technical

The introduction of the Internet has brought a bounty of new words and terms into the English language. Over time, some of these terms have changed and evolved as they became more familiar. For those of us who are grammar buffs, this is one area that has been fun to watch and see change. However, for those of you who may have better hobbies — such as playing golf, gardening, reading novels or volunteering for charity groups — it may be hard to stay on top of the changes.

We will try to clear up some of the more common terms that are misspelled or capitalized incorrectly. Please note, these are all according to the Associated Press Stylebook, one of the widest used grammar and language guides.

  • Internet – Because there is only one Internet, it gets to be capitalized — every time. If there was more than one or different versions, then it would not be capitalized.
  • Web – Web is short for the World Wide Web, which is a proper noun as it too is a singular thing. So, just like Coca-Cola often gets shortened to Coke, it is still capitalized.
  • website – Because there are many websites to be found on the Internet, this is lowercase when not at the start of a sentence. Website is one of the words that has evolved. When first introduced, grammarians agreed it should be two words with a capital “W”: Web site. Now, however, most style guides agree on website.
  • Log in – All the terms log in, log on, log out and log off are lowercase and two words. However, if the term is modifying a noun, then they get hyphenated. For example: To view the insurance marketing database, visit the log-in page.
  • online – This is always one word and lowercase except if it is at the start of a sentence.
  • email – This is another word that has seen a few changes. Short for electronic mail, the first abbreviation was e-mail. Though hotly contested in the grammar world, in the last couple of years, email became the accepted form of the word. However, just to keep everyone confused, other electronic combos are still hyphenated (e-commerce, e-book, e-reader).

Although technology changes quicker than our language does, don’t get too committed to these words as they are likely to continue to evolve. Who knew grammar could be so fun?

Stay tuned for more insurance marketing Grammar Goofs in June. If you haven’t yet subscribed to the Insurance Marketers’ Blog, do so now by entering your email in the top right corner of this screen.

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