Monday, February 23, 2004
Ask the Publishing Hexpert
SWET’s Publishing Hexpert (PH) is back! Before there was an Internet with its multitude of conflicting answers, the PH gave SWETers straight answers to knotty questions that puzzle English-language writers in Japan. Now the PH does it online.
Writing collectively as the Publishing Hexpert (PH), experienced professionals in the fields represented by SWET members answer specific questions sent via e-mail.
Q: I have a question about how to write the name of what used to be the American Telephone and Telegraph Co. An article in a recent issue of the New Yorker had it A.T. & T., with periods after the letters, a space on both sides of the ampersand, and no space between A. and the first T. The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage says it’s A.T.&T., with periods but no spaces anywhere, while the U.S. News & World Report Stylebook says it’s AT&T, with neither periods nor spaces. In the same issue of the New Yorker an advertisement by that company‘I’m afraid to try to write it, but it’s them’uses AT&T in the headline, body copy, logo, and even on the products pictured. What’s the rule here?
A: Possession. You must spell, capitalize, punctuate, or abbreviate a name the way its owner does, even if the owner’s choices disagree with yours. (As SWET’s Japan Style Sheet, rev. ed., points out in a Japanese context [p.38], ‘For present-day names, a person’s preference for the romanized spelling of his or her name should always be respected, even when it differs from your romanization of choice.’)
This requirement is even stricter if the name’s owner happens to be a company, for’unlike a private citizen’a company reserves its name, registering it (locally, nationwide, or even internationally) so that no one else may use it. The best guide on using a company name or abbreviation is the company itself. Words into Type, 3rd ed. (p. 106), states that ‘each firm name should be printed as the name stands on letterheads and other official documents.’ However, that does not mean you must reproduce the company’s typeface or logo. You need follow only the company’s spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviation. (If a company’s letterhead’or a reference work like the Japan Company Handbook‘gives its full name all in capital letters, you must of course use your head and capitalize only the words that really ought to be capitalized [chapter 8 of the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th ed., is the best guide on this], but if a company uses uses only initials [NEC, IBM], that usage must be respected.)
Since a paid ad showing a company’s products bearing its name is unquestionably an ‘official document,’ obviously the rule here is that this company’s name is AT&T.
Q: I recently had to do a paper about a famous chemist that included the following information: After he retired from his university professorship, he went to work for Yawata Iron & Steel Company’s Tokyo Research Institute. (Yawata I&S is now Nippon Steel Corporation.) After that, he held an honorary post with Nippon Steel’s Fundamental Research Lab (presumably the same institution renamed, which is another reason Nippon Steel has to be named after Yawata I&S).
I wanted to do it: ‘After retiring from the university, he became director of Yawata Iron & Steel Company (now the Nippon Steel Corporation)‘s Tokyo Research Institute, a position he filled for ten years before becoming honorary director of Nippon Steel Corporation’s Fundamental Research Laboratories.’ But that apostrophe s right after the closing parenthesis looks strange. So I finally made the company name an adjective and said, ‘. . . he became director of the Yawata Iron & Steel Company (now the Nippon Steel Corporation) Tokyo Research Institute.’ What should I have done?
Nor is this the first time this sort of thing has come up (since I tend to write in parentheses). Please help.
A: The PH is delighted to hear from a correspondent who provides the answer along with the question. If truth be told, the PH (alias Punctuation-Harassed)‘s solution to such a parenthetical possessive perplex would be the same as this Gentle Reader’s: run the other way’in other words, rewrite to avoid the need for the apostrophe s after parentheses. The PH would have been tempted to reword even more drastically, in fact, perhaps to ‘he became director of the Tokyo Research Institute of Yawata Iron & Steel (now Nippon Steel Corporation),’ thus avoiding any hint of apostrophe’ed possession. In a situation where apostrophe s is unavoidable (the PH can’t think of one off-hand, but anything is possible), the Harassed Punctuator should probably take a deep breath and use it as prescribed by syntax’after the closing parenthesis. Be thankful it’s parens you’re addicted to, not dashes.