News-Record.com

Last week we published a letter to the editor in which the writer bemoaned some grammatical misdemeanors we and other media commit. I am going to use some of the examples the letter cites because they illustrate some common misunderstandings about style rules newspapers follow.

There is not one and only one correct and unchanging set of grammar rules. English is a living language, and as such it evolves. Rules you learned in school change. And many language practices aren’t taught in school at all; they are picked up along the way by listening to others.

This is why we and most newspapers use the Associated Press Stylebook. Its primary purpose isn't grammar so much as it is style. Is it Osama bin Laden or Usama bin Laden? Both are used, but AP prefers Osama. Is it teenager or teen-ager? (AP uses teenager, no hyphen.) In the previous sentence, does the period go inside or outside the parentheses? It goes inside when it ends a full sentence and outside when the parentheses surround a sentence fragment.

Does that seem trivial? To some, probably, but proper usage of the language promotes clear understanding of a story.

We use the AP guide because most of our national and international stories come from the AP. Its guidelines help make word usage consistent in the newspaper.

For instance, the letter writer said that "president of the United States" should be capitalized out of respect for the office. Perhaps, but that is a preference, not a grammatical rule. The AP Stylebook says we should capitalize "president" only when it comes before a name.

Language doesn't always follow popular usage. Take email, for example. I spelled it the way just about everyone does. I also violated both AP's and the dictionary's spelling, which is e-mail. In the same way, everyone I know writes website; AP and the dictionary write Web site.

Will the popular usage soon cause the AP to change? I don't know, but I'll point to the passage on the commonly used but improper word "ain't," which says: "A dialectical or nonstandard contraction. Use it only in quoted matter or special contexts."

The AP stylebook is a guide, not a Bible bible.** In fact, it instructs us not to capitalize the pronoun "he" when referring to God, a rule that irritates some readers every time we follow it.

My point is that we take language as seriously as many of our readers and that there is a method to our seeming madness.

As I was writing this column last week, one of our editors sent a message to the newsroom that captured our sentiment toward proper usage.

It was a reminder. It read: "Yes, those holiday flickery candles in bags of sand are beautiful. And fire hazards.

"They're also called luminarias. Not luminaries.

"Remember, friends don't let friends use poor grammar."

** Update: After this column was edited by our copy desk I received this message from editor Holly Lux-Sullivan:

"At the end you say the AP stylebook is a guide, not a Bible. And the stylebook says, 'Lowercase bible as a nonreligious term: My dictionary is my bible.'

"This crackerjack copyeditor fixed it for ya. (:'"