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Rio	Post subject: Pointless exceptions to Webster's Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2002 6:19 am
Joined: Thu Apr 11, 2002 12:01 am Posts: 887 Location: U.S.A.	I see that AP has added in its updated stylebook an entry for "cell phone." This joins "best seller," "work force" and myriad other confusing, pointless spelling exceptions to Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition.<p>I find it infuriating that AP's stylebook editors have the time to decide that they think "cell phone" should be two words, while not having time to edit and update what's already in the book. Just to cite one example: How many more editions of the stylebook is it going to take before AP acknowledges the existence of the Girl Scouts' Daisy Scouts? Daisies have been around since at least the mid-'80s, but you wouldn't know it, by the stylebook's "Girl Scouts" entry.<p>If anyone could explain to me why AP's style gods have the compulsive need to create spelling exceptions for no apparent reason, thus making the job of writing and editing that much more difficult, I really would like to hear it. And as long as I'm raving, I also wouldn't mind knowing how AP can leave so many embarrassing mistakes and omissions in the stylebook year after year.
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