Who Decided To Drop Capital Letters?

[Coppit]

The PC version of the East End of London is east end and it's not only people who live there who resent that. To me it will always be North London, an area as opposed to north of London.
The Home Office. e.g., has been downgraded to home office and so on.

Any thoughts?

[Old_Geezer]

East End or east end depending on whether you are using it as a proper noun or a description.

[Peter Pedant]

o god coppitt you are not having a good linquistic day really are you ?

taste really

I mean e e cummings always wrote in lower case for effect apparently

and also social
when the ministry wanted to screw the doctors leaders - they referred to the royal colleges
but now they want them to intervene in the juniors' industrial action, the capitals have reappeared

[Coppit]

I have a bad linguistic day every day, being 81, and pretty set in my ways. I used to regard my late 1940s church choir master as a Victorian relic so I suppose i can be said that the torch has passed on.

[Buenchico]

I'd love to know which journals you're reading, Coppit, because it would seem that their journalists (and, more importantly, their sub-editors) aren't following their own style guides.

The Guardian & Observer's style guide uses 'East End':
http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-e

The Telegraph states "east: capitalise in references to regions or international politics. Lower case for points of the compass" which, as I read it, means that capital letters should be used.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/1435311/Telegraph-style-book-Ee.html

Similarly, the BBC's style guide seems to imply that capital letters should be used:
"For place names: use upper case for recognised regions, and for vaguer political/geographical areas":
http://www.bbc.co.uk/academy/journalism/news-style-guide/article/art20130702112133530

The Economist agrees:
"Use upper case for definite geographical places, regions, areas and countries (The Hague, Transylvania, Germany), and for vague but recognised political or geographical areas"
and
"Lower case for east, west, north, south except when part of a name (North Korea, South Africa, West End)"
http://www.economist.com/style-guide/capitals

While I might have seen 'home office' used in phrases such as "the ideal printer for home office solutions", I've never encountered the use of lower case letters in reference to the Home Office based in Marsham Street, SW1.

So just WHAT are you reading these days, Coppit?

;-)

[jno]

as Buenchico says, this is entirely a matter for individual writers and publishers. Some may have decided to go for lower case, but most haven't, and you don't have to either. There aren't any language police who can tell you you're wrong.

[fiction-factory]

>There aren't any language police who can tell you you're wrong.

Apart from many examiners and recruiters, maybe.

[Calibax]

Who Decided To Drop Capital Letters?
e e cummings?
k d lang?

[fiction-factory]

And itv

[jno]

f-f, how many recruiters is your average 81-year-old likely to need to impress?

[fiction-factory]

jno- you did say "this is entirely a matter for individual writers and publishers" and then said "there aren't any language police who can tell you you're wrong.".

But I suppose you would have said "one " rather than "you" if you were talking in general terms. But I'm not sure I can reconcile that with your first sentence as it isn't a matter of personal taste for job applicants and students in my humble opinion

[Coppit]

My reading nowadays, Buenchico, includes newspapers online, the Sunday Times in print and messages on classical music and family history boards.

The standard of presentation on the last is atrocious, many items being by youngsters who are unable or don't care to use the key on their device in order to produce an upper case letter.

home office or Home Office? it seems to me that on arriving at the end of a printed line the mind has already assembled a selection of possible next words. Provided that one of them appears, understanding follows without interruption.

However I was reading a book review (in narrow columns) where the last word on a line was home - but office did not come to mind so it was a shock to find that the author was writing about the Home Office.

[jno]

a home office these days is often the computer desk where you print out maps, send emails and generally do some of your work, so it makes sense to capitalise Home Office if you mean the government department. The Guardian does, though it uses home secretary for the officeholder.

http://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-h

[Buenchico]

Interesting, Jno.

The Telegraph, on the other hand, says:
"Ministers: always cap up posts when giving their full title, e.g. Chancellor of the Exchequer, Secretary of State for Defence. Subsequently "the Chancellor", "the Defence Secretary" ".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/about-us/style-book/1435309/Telegraph-style-book-Cc.html

The BBC says:
"Political job titles have initial caps only when the title is next to the name, in whatever order. Thus:
The Foreign Secretary, Harold Thomas, said... "

The Economist requires lower case:
"All office-holders when referred to merely by their office, not by their name, are lower case: the chancellor of the exchequer, the foreign secretary, the prime minister"

[Coppit]

Thanks Allen. Good to know that there are still others fulminating against the ever-growing Americanisation of our language. I fight on against 'skedewl'.

But beware. When not really concentrating I have just heard a BBC economics spokesman speak of 'global commodities rout'. I assumed the worst and was up on my hind legs straight away (7.35 am.) but in fact he really did mean 'rout' as he went on to mention the the rapid fall in prices!

[Coppit]

I forgot to mention the difference between infer and imply which I first read about in Ernest Gowers' The Complete Plain Words, written for the Civil Service, I believe.

It was something like:-
If you see a man late at night swinging around a lamppost you infer he is drunk, but if you go and say to him that you think he must have too good a night out, you imply that he is.

[david small]

God not god or was that deliberate. peter.

[Zacs-Master]

The concept that we have a static language is nonsense. Language will change in a generation. Your children will speak subtly different to you and your grandchildren certainly will. Language is a way of communication so the nuances of whether capital letters are used does not affect the semantics and is just a one-upmanship tool.