There has been debate since the first e-book debuted about the grammatically correct way to spell it and other ‘cyber-age’ words. Even revered sources such as Oxford’s Dictionary, the AP Style Guide or the Chicago Manual of Style haven’t always agreed on the correct way to spell these newly added idioms in our vernacular.
The just released style-guide from the New York Times should clarify some, though not all of the grammar, at least when writing for their newspaper. The NY Times Style Guide however, usually impacts nearly all major news services. For those of us who write online news, here is the New York Times Style Guide on how to cite many of these cyber words.
“e-book” will remain hyphenated
“e-mail” should be spelled “email”
“Web site” is a single uncapitalized word – “website.”
“Internet” is capitalized
“to tweet” will be allowed as a verb
They do discourage using “tweet,” “google,” or “friend” referring to their use as “too informal”.
