Accepted spellings, punctuation, and capitalization of email
We’re arguing in the office. Help us get this straight once and for all.
You could boil the question down to this: how would you write this title?
“email Is Destroying Our Children”
email or e-mail?
Do you capitalize the E if it’s at the beginning of a sentence or part of a title?
Do you capitalize the M if it’s at the beginning of a sentence or part of a title? If so, do you only do this when it’s hyphenated?
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"e-mail" was how the word started, because it was a short for electronic-mail. But I think we evolved further now, and "email" is more common. If you are not hyphenating it, it makes more sense to capitalize the e. Email. That's what I do personally. But I don't think there is a definitive answer for this. It will be settled in about 10 years, I would guess.
Also, I would imagine that some of the manuals of style would have this in them.
Dyske Oct-14-2010
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In formal writing, I still use "e-mail". "E-mail" at the beginning of a sentence.
bubbha Oct-14-2010
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Both are acceptable; however, Chicago style prefers e-mail. And E-mail at the start of a sentence. Never capitalize the "m."
sbhall52 Oct-14-2010
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I use "email". On those occasions where this word starts a sentence, I write "Email".
JJMBallantyne Oct-14-2010
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And, as everyone neglected to mention, since it's in a title, the "E" would be capitalized in your example even if it weren't at the start of the sentence.
porsche Oct-15-2010
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AP style also prefers e-mail
lindalouiseelliott Oct-15-2010
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I have long written "email" un-hyphenated, but the website Future Perfect makes a strong argument for the hyphenated form:
"Remember, if your organisation has ‘chosen’ to use a certain spelling, without looking at the derivation, and ‘decided’ on no hyphen, then you are going to run into trouble when trying to write ‘eeconomy’; ‘eenvironment’."
The full article can be found here:
http://www.future-perfect.co.uk/grammartips/grammar-tip-e-mail.asp
douglas.bryant Oct-17-2010
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The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications suggests using "e-mail."
As others have said, only capitalize the "e" at the start of a sentence.
Robert2 Oct-26-2010
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The rule I follow is to use capital letters and hyphens (and a lot of other things too) as little as possible. Therefore, "email." This is style choice rather than grammar--keep it simple.
fmerton Nov-05-2010
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The form you use for writing email/e-mail depends on what your company has chosen to use. It's important to be consistent within your organization, regardless of which form you choose.
Laura2 Jan-06-2011
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According to this website, "email" without capitalization or hyphenation is a type of dark ink:
http://phrontistery.info/e.html
Although no one would ever use the word with that particular meaning, it could potentially be confused with electronic mail.
I still use email instead of e-mail. It looks better to me.
Claudia1 Feb-19-2011
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See below for the new development on this topic:
http://painintheenglish.com/case/4547
Dyske Mar-18-2011
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this site http://pogo-american.tripod.com mail is mail and email is email means the same
Bill_Brown Apr-13-2011
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and hyphens (and a lot of other things too) as little as possible. Therefore, "email." This is style choi supra shoes http://www.hisuprashoes.com
supra shoes Dec-14-2011
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