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If you commonly experience an internal struggle over whether "website" should be one or two words or whether "friend" can really be used as a verb in professional writing, today you can finally breathe a sigh of relief (and rest assured that "website" is officially one word).
The Associated Press (AP) today released its 2010 AP Stylebook, which includes a new section that spells out new guidelines relating to social media. The new social media section includes 42 individual entries on terms like app, blogs, click-throughs, friend and unfriend, metadata, RSS, search engine optimization, smart phone, trending, widget and wiki. The guidelines also provide information and policies on how to use tools like Facebook and Twitter, how journalists can apply these policies and how to verify the sources found through them.
To compile the social media guidelines, the AP revealed they considered suggestions from staff, readers and users of the Stylebook, receiving over 230 responses from readers.
Some Noteworthy AP Guidelines
- Bloggers and journalists rejoice! "Website" is officially one word.
- "Web," as a standalone, shortened form of World Wide Web, is capitalized.
- "E-mail" (as well as similar phrases like e-reader, e-book, etc.) are still hyphenated.
- "Smart phone" is separated into two words.
- Other terms with individual entries include "trending," "retweet, and "defriend," as relating to Twitter and Facebook.
- Various acronyms used in instant messaging and texting (e.g. ROFL, BRB, G2G, etc.) are recognized and defined.
As a blogger who is a proponent of both proper grammar and social media engagement, I'm happy to see the AP is recognizing new language coined in honor of social media and creating guidelines for its correct usage. This should also be great news for other business bloggers who struggle with how to use these new terms in their writing. Being able to fall back on specific guidelines from a trusted source just might make life a little easier.
Will you adhere to the AP's new social media guidelines in your writing? Do you agree/disagree with them? Whether you choose to follow the AP's rules or not, it's important to stay consistent.
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