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1. What is the significance of the name Gregg in the title?
John Robert Gregg was the inventor of Gregg
shorthand, which was considered a major improvement over other speedwriting
systems then in use. He was born in Ireland in 1867, and his ideas
on this subject first appeared in 1888 in a short pamphlet published
in Liverpool, when he was 21. In 1893 he came to Chicago, where
he founded the Gregg Publishing Company and released the first edition
of Gregg Shorthand that same year. Because Gregg shorthand
was relatively easy to learn, it soon was taught in schools around
the world, and in an age without electronic recording devices, it
became an essential skill for reporters, scholars, authors, and
even political figures. Mr. Gregg died in 1948 at the age of 81.
When McGraw-Hill acquired the Gregg Publishing Company in 1948, the Gregg name had come to stand for the highest-quality materials designed for academic programs in business education. It is for this reason that The Gregg Reference Manual continues to bear the Gregg name, even though the manual is no longer aimed exclusively at an academic audience. Indeed, The Gregg Reference Manual now serves as the primary reference for professionals in all fields who are looking for authoritative guidance on matters of style, grammar, usage, and formatting.
2. Is it still correct
to write Web site as two words? And should Web
be capped? I've started to see the word written as website.
For the time being, Web site
is the form most commonly seen. The form website is not
incorrect. Indeed, many compound computer terms start off as two
words or as a hyphenated term and ultimately become written as one
word (for example, online). However, on the basis of current
usage, Website isn't there yet.
As for dropping the capital W, are you also prepared to write the
world wide web or simply the web?
If you want to maintain a consistent style for Web words, retain
the capital W until the prevailing usage indicates that a majority
of these terms have lost their initial cap.
• For more on this topic, see ¶847 in the manual
or click
here.
3. What about the term
e-mail? I've started to see it written solid—email.
Is it okay to write it that way?
It's always best not to make a style decision
by looking at a single word in isolation. Are you prepared to write
all the other e-words solid as well—for example, e-commerce,
e-money, e-tailing, and e-lancing (doing
freelance work on the Internet)? Speaking for myself, I won't recommend
dropping the hyphen in e- words until I see good evidence that doing
so is becoming widespread industry usage.
• For more on this topic, see ¶847 in the manual
or click
here.
4. Isn't it wrong to end a sentence with a preposition?
Ending a sentence with a preposition is not
incorrect. Whether you do so or not should depend on the emphasis
and effect you want to achieve.
INFORMAL: I wish I knew which magazine her article appeared in.
FORMAL: I wish I knew in which magazine her article appeared.
NOTE: Many people are familiar with Sir Winston Churchill's complaint
to an editor who tried to discourage him from ending his sentences
with prepositions:
This is the sort of English up with which I will not put.
At the other extreme is a sentence that probably takes the prize
for piling the greatest number of prepositions at the end. It is
the complaint of a small child who does not want to listen to a
particular bedtime story:
What did you bring that book I don't want to be read to out of in
for?
Both these examples reinforce the main point:
Use good sense in deciding whether or not to end a sentence with
a preposition.
BETTER THAN: Use good sense in deciding whether or not to use a preposition to
end a sentence with.
• For more on this topic, see ¶1080
in the manual.
5. What is the proper way to refer aloud to the class of 2000?
There is still no consensus on how to refer aloud to academic
classes in the first decade of the twenty-first century. On the basis of the
style commonly
used at the start of the twentieth century, the class of 2004 (or '04) could
be referred to aloud as "the class of aught-four" or "the class of naught-four." The more challenging question is how to refer to the class of '00. One solution is simply to say "the class of two thousand." Other suggestions currently in circulation include "the class of aughty-aught," "the class of naughty-naught," "the double-ohs," "the oh-ohs," and even "the uh-ohs." In
time, one expression will probably become established through usage as the dominant
form. Until then feel free to choose (or devise) whatever form appeals to you.
• For more on this topic, see ¶412c in the manual.
6. And how should one refer to the first decade of the twenty-first century?
There is still no consensus on how to refer
to the first decade of the twenty-first century. One possibility
is "the aughts" (the term used to refer to the first decade
of the twentieth century). Among the other suggestions currently
circulating are "the ohs," "the zeros," "the
zips," "the naughties," and "the preteens."
Until one expression becomes established through usage as the dominant
term, it may be safest to refer simply to the first decade of the
twenty-first century.
• For more on this topic, see ¶439b in the
manual.
7. Which is it: one space or two after a period at the end of a sentence?
Now that the standards of desktop publishing
typically apply to all documents produced by computer, the use of
one space is recommended after the punctuation that occurs at the
end of a sentence. Yet this standard should not be mechanically
applied.
In all cases, the deciding factor should be the appearance of the
breaks between sentences in a given document. If the use of one
space does not provide enough of a visual break, use two spaces
instead. For a fuller discussion of this topic and a number of illustrations
showing the difference between using one space or two, see ¶102
in the manual or click
here.
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(Select one of the following
questions.)
