🚀 go-pugleaf

In comp.unix.solaris Logan Shaw <lshaw-usenet@austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Colin B. wrote:
>> I'm still reeling over the concept that teachers in an English-speaking
>> country taught (and may still teach) "'s" as the proper way to pluralize
>> acronyms (and initialisms). I can't find any authority that would suggest
>> this is or has been proper,
> 
> English teachers teaching it *are* the authority.  Maybe there is some
> other authority that you like better, but then who's the authority on
> which authority to follow?  :-)

Heh. True enough, although given that teachers (and teaching material!) are
potentially quite fallible, their authority may also come into question.
Question everything! Believe nothing! Get out the tinfoil hats!

Whew! Sorry about that. I'm better now. Honestly!

> I'm not saying you don't have a good case, but unless the language is
> French, there is no central authority that decides what's wrong and
> what's right.  Basically, what's proper is just whatever a group of
> people decides is proper.

Of course, ANYONE can decide that something is proper. The question comes
when assigning credibility to this group vs. that. English teachers are
definitely one authority on the language, but in this case it seems like
the word of two teachers (and undoubtedly more) goes against highly respected
style guides (Columbia Guide and Associated Press, to mention two) as well
as most semiformal or informal sources (wikipedia, most US and UK campus
guides, etc.) so my instinct is to jump up and down yelling, "your teachers
were wrong!!!" Of course, they weren't wrong--they were teaching what they
were supposed to teach, and the content itself is not definitively correct
or incorrect.

Suffice to say that pluralising acronyms (and initialisms!) with 's is more
likely to be corrected by editors across many fields than when done with a
simple s.

Just to drop a note about the Sparc20 here (remember the SS20 question that
started this insane thread?), the final order date was 06/1997.

Colin