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Subject:Re: Setting up acronyms From:cupton -at- syclone -dot- net To:jopakent -at- comcast -dot- net Date:Mon, 21 Jul 2008 13:52:01 -0400 (EDT)
I used to tell people that they were using ayran capitalization, and I
thought I was referring to German, since they capitalize nouns. It did not
occur to me that ayran has a very different meaning. I do think some
people enjoy promoting common nouns, and would rather captialize all of
them rather than miss one. It's the same people who used to use all caps
until we told them to stop shouting.
Carolyn
> Silly one here..
>
> It seems to me that it is incorrect to capitalize acronym set-ups just
> because they are acronyms.
>
>
> For instance: general arrangement (GA) seems correct, while General
> Arrangement (GA) does not.
>
> I see engineers using capitalization to designate things as significant
> all the time (for instance, the Control System operates the yada-yada). To
> me, the desire to cap acronym set-ups is just more of the same.
>
> On the other hand, if the set-up is for a proper noun, Geographic
> Information Service (GIS) I can see the propriety of capitalizing it.
>
> Can I get a reality check here? I don't have a style guide handy so I
> checked Chicago Online and it seems to support my point of view:
>
>
>
> Q. When you have an initialism, do you cap the first letter of each word
> when the phrase is completely spelled out?
>
> A. In the spelled-out version, simply cap as you would if an initialism
> did not exist: standard operating procedures (SOPs), Rhode Island (RI),
> American Journal of Education ( AJE ), Mothers against Preschoolers (MAP).
>
> Any pointers on how I can persuade folks to adopt the usage I'm favoring?
>
> Thanks in advance,
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