JulesVerneATV - 19/3/2006 7:32 AMI think those Brits like to give things personality - they ( British publishers ) want to think of Nasa as a person or a thing/object rather than refer to it as an acronym for an agency
SpaceCat - 19/3/2006 8:40 PMI have to say- what peeves me even more is running into Americans- even residents of Florida and some politicians- who pronounce NASA as though it were an island in the Bahamas.
Hotol - 19/3/2006 8:27 AMQuoteJulesVerneATV - 19/3/2006 7:32 AMI think those Brits like to give things personality - they ( British publishers ) want to think of Nasa as a person or a thing/object rather than refer to it as an acronym for an agencyNope, it's just crap journalists.
The BBC's policy is to write acronyms in lower case letters - henceNasa, Nato etc. Acronyms which cannot be pronounced as words (orinitialisms are they're sometimes called) - CIA, FBI, RAF etc - arespelled with capitals. It may not be something that everyone agreeswith, but at least someone here has put some thought into coming up witha decision. In fact in the UK, other respected media such as the Timesand Telegraph newspapers follow the same format.Best wishes,Ian JollyNewsWatch
Jim - 29/3/2006 3:17 PMI sent an email to the BBC and this is the response:The BBC's policy is to write acronyms in lower case letters - henceNasa, Nato etc. Acronyms which cannot be pronounced as words (orinitialisms are they're sometimes called) - CIA, FBI, RAF etc - arespelled with capitals. It may not be something that everyone agreeswith, but at least someone here has put some thought into coming up witha decision. In fact in the UK, other respected media such as the Timesand Telegraph newspapers follow the same format.Best wishes,Ian JollyNewsWatch
Spacely - 6/4/2006 11:58 AM Who calls the ESA "ess-a"?
FBI isn't an acronym. It's an abbreviation. Acronyms are formed by taking the first letter or (two) from a series of words to form another word. RADAR or SCUBA are the best examples, other than NASA.Anyway, the BBC's style guide is still awful. Example from today's article on Cassini."The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint venture between the US space agency (Nasa), the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI)."Nasa, Esa, ASI?! Argh!!! Who calls the ESA "ess-a"?
Quote from: Spacely on 04/06/2006 04:58 pmFBI isn't an acronym. It's an abbreviation. Acronyms are formed by taking the first letter or (two) from a series of words to form another word. RADAR or SCUBA are the best examples, other than NASA.Anyway, the BBC's style guide is still awful. Example from today's article on Cassini."The Cassini-Huygens mission is a joint venture between the US space agency (Nasa), the European Space Agency (Esa) and the Italian Space Agency (ASI)."Nasa, Esa, ASI?! Argh!!! Who calls the ESA "ess-a"?Actually, NASA is an acronym, not an abbreviation.An initialism is a group of letters (usually taken from the first letter of each word) of something of interest.An acronym is a group of letters (usually taken from the first letter of each word) of something of interest where the letter spell a pronounceable word (i.e. FBI is an initialism, NASA is an acronym).A weird one is "ID". ID is an abbreviation. It's not an acronym, because it is only one word (Identification). It's not an initialism because it forms a word. So it's strange, but its an abbreviation like "ETC."
I sent an email to the BBC and this is the response:<tt>The BBC's policy is to write acronyms in lower case letters - henceNasa, Nato etc. Acronyms which cannot be pronounced as words (orinitialisms are they're sometimes called) - CIA, FBI, RAF etc - arespelled with capitals. It may not be something that everyone agreeswith, but at least someone here has put some thought into coming up witha decision. In fact in the UK, other respected media such as the Timesand Telegraph newspapers follow the same format.Best wishes,Ian JollyNewsWatch </tt>
<tt>The BBC's policy is to write acronyms in lower case letters - henceNasa, Nato etc. Acronyms which cannot be pronounced as words (orinitialisms are they're sometimes called) - CIA, FBI, RAF etc - arespelled with capitals. It may not be something that everyone agreeswith, but at least someone here has put some thought into coming up witha decision. In fact in the UK, other respected media such as the Timesand Telegraph newspapers follow the same format.Best wishes,Ian JollyNewsWatch </tt>
When you reply, spell BBC as "Bbc" (that was nearly painful to type), and see how long it takes for them to correct themselves.