Grand Rapids Nesties
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Grammar Geeks
This is something we debate on at work, well basically every newsletter season. Animal names ? capitalized or not? For example snowy owl ? Snowy Owl or snowy owl
Re: Grammar Geeks
A quick google search shows that it is sometimes capitalized and sometimes not. I'm going to guess it should not be capitalized but I don't have any sort of good rationalization for the reasoning.
Did you check the AP Stylebook? That's what I use as my guide (except for when it comes to the Oxford comma, of course). I just checked on this...
For breed names, follow the spelling and capitalization in Webster's New World Dictionary. For breeds not listed in the dictionary, capitalize words derived from proper nouns; use lowercase elsewhere: basset hound, Boston terrier.
Webster's online won't show me the listing for snowy owl without a subscription, so that's unhelpful.
Exactly.
Snowy owl should be lowercase. Except when snowy is at the beginning of the sentence, of course.
thank you..I needed the valadation on that one.
They always want to capitalize animal names, but not in every case. Just when it looks right to them.
This method of capitalizing - Doing it on a Whim because it Looks Cool! - makes my blood boil.
My general rule of thumb is to err on the side of not capitalizing. It seems safer because there are fewer instances where capitalization is appropriate. Also, typically when something would be offensive if not capitalized (like someone's name or a city), it isn't a doubtful situation.
Don't let the next few years change that! My coworkers capitalize way too many words. (See the link that my brother posted on my FB page yesterday.)
Maybe that's something they teach in Legal Research and Writing?
ETA: Just read your brother's post. Too funny!
I can't tell you how much I loved that article. I LOL'd. And I printed it and hung it on my bulletin board. And then I emailed it to my boss. And then she emailed it to her boss. It is so spot-on, for what we have to edit out of articles on a regular basis.
Sorry for the postjack, GVSU!
Some of the "rules" are ones I break already. In fact, in the post I just added to the what should we talk about thread I changed "due to" to "because of". LOL.
Why is there such consistent rule breaking if it's not taught? And if the rule breakage is taught, why, if it shouldn't be used in practice? Ack, my head is swimming already! See comment in other thread about high anxiety. Oy vey.
A lot of it is taught. Like my brother commented, he was specifically taught to do the numbering thing, i.e. "I have one (1) brother."
The issue is the context. When you're writing a legal brief or a contract for instance, then you follow all those rules.
But when you're writing anything that is not a legal document, then you should revert to writing like a normal human being.
Ah yes, that makes sense. I've already noted the irony in the fact that Legal Research & Writing is supposed to teach clear and concise writing when legal writing is typically anything but clear and concise.