no more "e-mail"

[TheParser]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****


Like many learners, I also like definite rules. They give me a sense of

comfort and confidence.

One minute ago, I read that the Associated Press has made an important

decision. (Dear Learners: Some of you may not know that the Associated

Press is an organization of reporters that supplies news articles to

newspapers and television stations in the United States and in other

countries.)

The AP has just made this decision: its reporters must write

email. (No more "e-mail" with a hyphen.)

If it is good enough for the AP, then it must be good enough for me

-- and perhaps you, too?

 

[The Dude]

:up:

It's lucky for them they can make a rule that doesn't have 21 exceptions...

 

[AlexAD]

They've just stick to the new rule and there wasn't a strict rule before it?
I might notice that I've encountred a number of ways to spell the word like email, e-mail, Email or whatever else when developing program applications ;-)
Thanks for information.

 

[5jj]

What AP decides has no effect on what I write. As it happens, I moved from e-mail to email some time in the last two years, probably because it seemed to be becoming more common. In anything to do with computers, the internet, mobile phones and all these Ipod and Blackberry thingies, I am a follower, but a follower of what I see, not of what somebody dictates.

 

[allenman]

As a techie, I *never* use "e-mail". I rarely ever see it. "email" has been in my jargon for 20+ years.

Not a teacher, AmE native

 

[Tdol]

It strikes me as a sensible decision as the hyphen war had been lost years ago. Usage will be decided by the users and style guides generally have minimal impact outside their restricted circles.

I am also pleased to see that those who were pushing for email to be an uncountable noun a few years ago seem to have gone quiet. There was an argument for the hyphen, but claiming that email must behave like mail struck me as crass.

 

[birdeen's call]

Since "email" is used in the meaning of "electronic letter", it would be impossible to make it uncountable. Letters are countable. That "mail" doesn't mean the same as "letter" is a different thing.

 

[Tdol]

They were suggesting rather cumbersome phrases like item/piece of email, or e-mail probably. I wonder if they still do it themselves?

It would be interesting to survey such pedants twenty years after they make a stand on a form everybody is ignoring to see whether they have maintained their position. I bet that very few, if any, of the people who said we should say lays-by rather than lay-bys have stuck to their own prescription. ;-)

 

[5jj]

lays-by[/I] rather than lay-bys have stuck to their own prescription. ;-)

Ditto those who advocated lie-bay/lie-bays.