Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Why e e cummings wasn't involved in tech - capitalization is important!

I was reading an old software review of a business intelligence software package and was struck by the lack of capitalization in the web version of the review.

It integrates with J2EE application servers from ibm WebSphere and bea WebLogic...

BEA? Told you it was an old software review. Now I was able to figure out that the review was supposed to be talking about the acronym-using companies IBM and BEA. But this excerpt is a little more problematic.

Though WebFocus requires it planning and deployment...

If someone looked at that phrase in isolation, the person would probably conclude that the writer was not a native English speaker. When you realize, however, that "it" should be capitalized as "IT" (information technology), then the phrase has an entirely different meaning. Let's face it - delivery of lunch requires planning and deployment, but it doesn't necessarily require the type of specialized skills possessed by many...well, some information technology professionals.

P.S. I actually wrote this post a couple of months ago, but didn't publish it until now because...well, just because.
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