Newsletter of the East Bay Chapter of STC
January/February 2003
Online Writing:
Taming the Tech-Neologism
by Scott Wallace
EBSTC Member
Rarely are “new” words in the argot of technology actually new words. Almost without exception, they’re familiar terms that have been reconfigured, “repurposed,” or combined for use in a technological context.
Most of these words are dropped into the language by techies, a group not known for its high regard for editorial convention. The use, spelling, punctuation, and sometimes even definition of a word may vary at first from one instance to the next, leaving technical writers who must use it correctly and consistently in an editorial lurch.
Many of the questions from visitors to my WebStyle Guide have involved the treatment of words forged from pairs of existing words. Is it web master or webmaster? Both versions are commonly used. Is it dial up, dial-up, or dialup? In other words, should these pairs of words be collapsed into single words, hyphenated, or simply left alone?
There is no one-form-fits-all guideline, and it often depends on the part of speech a word occupies.
One Word or Two?
While I was doing background research for my online style guide over a period of two years, it became obvious to me that most compound nouns and adjectives in technology began life as separate words used in tandem. Many passed through an intermediate stage in which they were connected by hyphens. Consider as examples:
bandwidth, chatroom, desktop, downtime, dropdown, filename, homepage, keystroke, keyword, laptop, online/offline, onscreen/offscreen, realtime, screensaver, screenshot, toolbar, Website, workstation
Much of the confusion surrounding the use of technological neologisms occurs when a word is used as a verb as well as a noun or adjective.
- You back up your files, thus creating backup files. (You don’t backup your files.)
- You log on (or in) to a computer, a network, or a Website using your logon (or login) name. (You don’t logon or login, regardless of what the label on the button says.)
- Popup advertisements pop up on your screen.
- But you spellcheck (verb) a document or “run” or “do” a spellcheck (noun) on it.
Printing Out, Dialing Up
Printout/print out and dialup/dial up are a different matter. When used as an adjective or noun, either form of either word is correct. But neither is correct in either form when used as a verb.
Dialup is an adjective. To plug into your ISP via your dialup connection, your modem dials a phone number. It doesn’t dial it “up.”
Similarly, printout is a noun. We don’t print a document “out,” we print it.
Although printing documents “out” and dialing phone numbers “up” have wormed their way into spoken language, they’re techno-slang and have no place in proper written language, except in a quotation. In that case, you print out (not printout) a document and dial up (not dialup) a connection.
No “Right” or “Wrong”
This is not to suggest that downtime and workstation
are right and down time and work station are wrong.
Both forms are used by enough reputable sources—that's the basic
litmus test—that either is acceptable. But over time words coupled
this way almost invariably morph into one. So if there's a rule of thumb,
it's this: All else being equal, feel free to combine into a single compound
word two words commonly used together as a noun or an adjective (losing
the hyphen, if there is one). But do so consistently. And be careful when
using those same terms as verbs.
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