A botanist may correct me, but my understanding is hyphenation is used to indicate the common name is not a true species, e.g., Douglas-fir is not a true fir.
Warren W. Aney Senior Wildlife Ecologist Tigard, OR -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of James Crants Sent: Thursday, October 01, 2009 7:54 AM To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] to Capitalize or not to capitalize My experience in botany is that most people only capitalize words in common names if they would be capitalized in regular writing (in the "down" style, I guess). Example: "Here are a few easy ways to distinguish Norway maple, sugar maple, and black maple." You would also capitalize adjective versions of proper nouns ("English," "Chinese," etc.), and people's names ("Short's aster"). Traditionally, two-part common names were hyphenated ("Norway-maple"), but I don't see this in the recently-published literature too often. In the following statement: ....the Narraguagus and Penobscot rivers....should the word "rivers" be capitalized? I say yes, because (along the same lines as what Malcolm McCallum said) the lowercase "rivers" would imply "the rivers of the regions called Narraguagus and Penobscot." If you capitalize "rivers," it implies "the two rivers called Narraguagus and Penobscot" more clearly to me. Jim Crants On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 7:15 PM, Warren W. Aney <a...@coho.net> wrote: > In my journalism and technical writing classes I learned there are two > accepted styles for capitalization: An "up" style and a "down" style. In > the "up" style you would capitalize river, lake, stream, county, etc. if > it's part of the proper name, e.g., Penobscot River, Penobscot County. > Many > "up" style adherents would also capitalize the proper names of species, > e.g., Mule Deer. > > In the "down" style you would be very stingy with capitalizations. So you > would write Narraguagus river and mule deer. > > And then ornithologists have a policy of always capitalizing bird species > names, but since I always write in the "down" style I tend to ignore that > policy for the sake of consistency, e.g., Canada geese and pileated > woodpecker. > > Some newspapers write in the "down" style but most in the "up" style -- and > as you've probably noted, MSWord spellcheck keeps nagging you to use the > "up" style. > > You can also mix styles, e.g., write about Atlantic salmon in the Penobscot > River. That's part of the frustration (or beauty) of writing -- it's an > art > and not a science. > > Warren W. Aney > Senior Wildlife Ecologist > 9403 SW 74th Ave > Tigard, OR 97223 > (503) 246-8613 phone > (503) 246-2605 fax > (503) 539-1009 mobile > a...@coho.net > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news > [mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Michael Cooperman > Sent: Wednesday, 30 September, 2009 11:19 > To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU > Subject: [ECOLOG-L] to Capitalize or not to capitalize > > In the following statement: ....the Narraguagus and Penobscot > rivers....should the word "rivers" be capitalized? I have my opinion, > but in the spirit of not biasing responses I'll keep it to myself; my > office as a whole is split 50/50. One way or the other, half the people > in my office are wrong! > > Michael > > -- > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ----------------- > Michael Cooperman, PhD > National Research Council - Research Fellow > in residence at NOAA-Fisheries, NE Fisheries Science Center - Maine Field > Station > Atlantic Salmon Research and Conservation Task > 17 Godfrey DR., Suite 1 > Orono, ME 04473 > > (work) 207-866-7409 > (cell) 207-974-9846 > (fax) 207-866-7342 (pls call before faxing) > email: michael.cooper...@noaa.gov > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > ----------------- >
