Surfing with Style

Excerpts from the new section on Internet style in the Chicago Manual of Style, 16th Edition (forthcoming on August 1):

8.38 Acronyms. Many weblogs and social networking groups employ acronyms for common expressions, such as LOL, OMG (and its variant ZOMG), etc. No settled style has emerged for rendering acronyms, but Chicago recommends using all capital letters rather than all lowercase (but see 8.39). A mix of capital and lowercase letters should be avoided at all costs.

8.39 Capitalization and lowercase. Whether to use sentence-style capitalization or only lowercase in online discourse is a decision to be made by the individual writer. If lowercase style is chosen, it should be implemented consistently, including for acronyms (cf. 8.38). Always avoid using all capital letters, a style often referred to as "shouting."

8.40 Emphasis. When typing in plain text, where italics are not an option, use asterisks surrounding the emphasized text. The use of multiple asterisks for additional stress is not recommended.

    Mr. Jones said the necklace was *especially* becoming.

8.41 An alternative method. Rendering a word or words in all capital letters is another common method of indicating emphasis. Chicago recommends avoiding this method for long phrases.

    "Chocolate and cilantro should NEVER be combined," he cautioned.

8.42 @ symbol. Users of the social networking tool Twitter employ the "at" symbol (@) before a fellow Twitter user's id to communicate directly with that person and to enable other Twitter users to connect more easily with the person being addressed. There should be no space between the symbol and the user's id.

    @goofus7359

Use of this symbol is becoming prevalent on other platforms, such as on Facebook or in weblog comment threads, but Chicago does not recommend this practice as it serves no practical purpose.

8.43 Abbreviations. Shortened forms of words or the replacement of words by numbers and symbols may be employed in casual contexts. This departure from Chicago's former style reflects the fact that these forms have achieved the status of settled usage. Punctuation is typically dropped in these contexts, and the abbreviated forms are often attached to the previous word.

    Give me ur# i have sthg 4u