moon or Moon?

Today someone from the Junior Textbook Office section of our new Department for Research and Development asked me to edit a test section from a textbook she's working on. While editing, I ran across a sentence that had the word 'moon' capitalized twice. I changed them both to lowercase. But then I stopped myself and wondered, "Is moon capitalized or lowercase?" I really didn't know so I turned to the trusty Google to help me out. The first article Google recommended for my search term 'moon capitalized or lowercase' was from the Air and Space Smithsonian.

moon vs. Moon: A Study in Arrant Pedantry

Wow, if I was unsure before, I was even more confused after reading the article. To learn that my beloved AP Stylebook could be wrong in this matter was quite shocking. I decided to check it for myself (so happy I found a copy of the Stylebook while packing up our old office). These entries are taken word for word from the 2008 edition (although I left out any example sentences).

   moon Lowercase. See
heavenly bodies.

   sun Lowercase. See
heavenly bodies.

   heavenly bodies Capitalize
the proper names of planets,
stars, constellations, etc.: Mars,
Arcturus, the Big Dipper, Aries.
See earth.
   For comets, capitalize only the
proper noun element of the name:
Halley's comet.
   Lowercase sun and moon, but
capitalize them if their Greek or
Latin names are used: Helios, Luna.
   Capitalize nouns and adjectives
derived from the proper names of
planets: Martian, Venusian, but
lowercase adjectives derived from
other heavenly bodies: solar, lunar.

   earth Generally lowercase;
capitalize when used as the
proper name of the planet.
See planets.

   planets Capitalize the proper
names of the planets: Jupiter, Mars,
Mercury, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus,
Venus. (Pluto was redefined as a
dwarf planet by the International
Astronomical Union in 2006.)
   Capitalize Earth when used as
the proper name of our planet.
   Capitalize nouns and adjectives
derived from the proper names
of planets and other heavenly
bodies: Martian, Venusian. But
lowercase adjectives derived from
other heavenly bodies: solar, lunar.
   See earth and heavenly bodies.

Then I checked out one more online source, Daily Writing Tips' article "How to Treat Geological and Astronomical Terms." I appreciated their approach. It sounded pretty logical and made sense.

So, what do you think? Should we refer to the words 'sun' and 'moon' as proper nouns and capitalize them accordingly? Or should we leave things as they are and continue to refer to them as common nouns? I haven't completed made up my mind about the issue yet, but I'm leaning more toward the capitalization side. As the article says, don't the Germanic names deserve the same respect the Latin names enjoy?

PS - And on a slightly different vein, I LOVE the story in the Air and Space Smithsonian article about Winston Churchill being criticized for ending sentences with prepositions. Ugh, that's probably one of my least-favourite English rules. I see no problem ending sentences with prepositions and knowingly do it quite regularly. Sorry English majors...but really, I'm not really that sorry.

Finally published again!

My aunt contacted me a couple weeks ago and asked if I would consider helping her. She is part of the music festival association in her town. The committee wanted to raise awareness of the music festival in their community and thought of having additional exposure in the local newspaper. So she asked me if I would be the volunteer article-writer. Of course I said yes. It's been more than a year and a half since I've written any news stories and I desperately need to revive and hone that skill. So here it is, folks, my first newspaper publication (excluding the SAU student newspaper).

Lacombe gears up for annual music festival

Free press

I read a headline on allAfrica.com today that made me wonder, so I clicked the link and read the whole story. Now I'm aggravated. Why can't the press throughout the world have the same freedoms it enjoys in the west? People in developing countries deserve a free press just as much as those in developed countries. Sometimes I'm embarrassed by my (soon-to-be) chosen profession...

College choice

Hmmm, maybe I should have gone to UBC instead...

On second read, those were graduate students. Therefore, maybe I should go to graduate school. And pick UBC as my school of choice...

The new Twitter

Mrs. Ellis mentioned this in class today and, after many students begging her to show it to us, she did. I think it's amazing and really wish I had known about it yesterday so I could have included it in my debate. It would have fit perfectly. Enjoy!

Southern Accent

Today I had my first unofficial Southern Accent staff member orientation. If this afternoon is any indication, the next 8 months should be hectic, crazy and possibly a little stressful. But within a few weeks everything should start to calm down and maybe I'll be able to settle into a routine. I really hope this year is an educational, growing and exciting experience.

For more info on the Southern Accent, watch Viviene Martinelli's promotional video made for a digital video class last semester.

For still more information, check out the Southern Accent's Web site or Facebook page.

News 2.0

From a cbc.ca article on how the Web has affected the news and the media.

"Definition: Web 2.0 is a term that is generally applied to the second generation of internet applications that first began to appear about 10 years ago. The dominant trait of Web 2.0 is its interactivity: ordinary people can easily contribute to online discussions, and not remain simply on the receiving end of information."

As I read the article the following paragraph jumped out at me. It puts into words my thoughts on the subject since becoming a journalism major.

"There is much to celebrate about this democratization of the media, but there are also reasons to be concerned about the loss of an independent, professional journalistic filter at a time when everyone can be their own media. Can online communities of 'citizen journalists' be counted on to help us make informed choices as citizens and consumers? What's lost, and what's gained when 'News 1.0' gives way to 'News 2.0?'"

While the involvement of everyday citizens in the media can provide new opinions and generate discussion, many of these people haven't been trained as reporters and news quality could suffer because of it. After several years of journalism classes and experience, I'm still not completely sure how I feel about the traditional media audience becoming involved in what we read, see or hear. How long will it be before citizen journalism negatively affects news quality? Has it already been too long?