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Subject:Re: small caps and acronyms From:Lazarus Slater <lazaruss -at- EICON -dot- COM> Date:Wed, 6 Dec 1995 12:11:00 PST
Actually in some instances there is a difference between small and large
caps, such as megabit (Mb) and megabyte (MB)
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From: TECHWR-L[SMTP:TECHWR-L -at- VM1 -dot- ucc -dot- okstate -dot- edu]
Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 1995 7:35 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: small caps and acronyms
Stacey Kahn wrote-->
> In a manual I'm producing, I'm setting the (many) acronyms in small
caps. It
> looks great-- the acronyms blend into the rest of sentence, rather than
> standing out by virtue of size.
> But what's the convention at the start of a sentence?
> Do you (should I) "true" cap the first letter of the acronym or keep
the
entire
> acronym small-capped and let the sentence start with the small cap?
(Rewriting
> isn't an option.)
=================
In the Army, a long standing rule was "never begin a sentence
with an acronym." This prevented the dilemma you describe.
I work for the Software Development Center, which is commonly
referred to as "SDC". But if we want to start a sentence with
"SDC", we would have to write "The SDC ..." I guess it depends
on the acronym and what it stands for whether you can precede it
with an article or not.
Another option (the preferred one, actually) is to simply spell
out the acronym (or initialism) when it appears at the
beginning of a sentence.
I realize this suggestion merely prevents your dilemma; it
doesn't answer your question. Visually, I think it may look
better to make the first letter a true cap, as you mentioned. It
helps to signal the start of the sentence.
=*= Beverly Parks -- bparks -at- huachuca-emh1 -dot- army -dot- mil =*=
=*= Huachuca : That's pronounced "wah-CHEW-ka" =*=
=*= "Unless otherwise stated, all comments are my own. =*=
=*= I am not representing my employer in any way." =*=
