The information below has been written and compiled by Tina Koenig, founding partner of the Xpress Press News Service. It is intended to serve as a quick reference for individuals and organizations interested in knowing the accepted spelling and usage conventions used by high-tech and online journalists in their news stories.

For a more comprehensive source you'll want to check out the Wired Style guide. Also of note is the recently updated online dictionary from Merriam-Webster which contains many computer terms. This may help create more consistency among style guides. (Contributed by Tara, online-writing list)

Words and phrases are case correct (either upper or lower) is as indicated below. Here we go...

E-mail or email
(Wired magazine uses email while Internet Week uses E-mail. Personally, I use e-mail.)

back-end
browser
cutting-edge
high tech
HTML
InterNIC
Internet
intranet
IT (as in an information technology dept.)
Net
online
PC
plug-ins
reboot
relaunch
site
Usenet
URL
W3C
Web
Web site
World Wide Web

Including a Web site address within the structure of a sentence.

Your Company Name (www.yourdomain.com)
use parentheses around the lower case letters.

Tech Editor Feedback

Software editors look for the following three pieces of information contained in the first screen of an e-PR. (1)Is a Web download available? (2)Is a contact listed to obtain an evaluation copy on CD (via snail mail)? (3) For what platform is the software written?

Including a Web site address in a press release contact block.

Non-tech Nit-picking and Peeves

a lot (is two words)

QUOTATION MARKS

"Many times, punctuation marks go inside the quotes."

However, there are additional rules which relate to how exclamation points (!) and question marks are placed with quotes.

The exclamation point should be placed inside the quotation mark when it is part of the quoted material:
He told me he was "sorry for stealing," but I think he was "sorry he got caught!" she shouted.

Place the exclamation point outside the quotation mark when it is not part of the quoted material:

I loved the last episode of "Seinfeld"!

If you would like to contribute to this information, have a peeve, or have a question about a word or phrase, please send your comments to Xpress Press at grammar@xpresspress.com