[stylist] Question: writing about the letters of the alphabet

[Donna Hill]

Eve,
I'm OK with that in general, and like using just the s to make the plural,
but in this particular case the reference is specifically to lower case. My
character is legally blind, but still can write. She has a board with
elastic bands across to keep the lines straight, and she's referring to how
the elastic stretches down when she makes the lower case g in her name,
which is Abigail. I can't believe there isn't a rule, but I haven't been
able to find it.
Donna 

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Eve Sanchez
Sent: Wednesday, January 23, 2013 10:17 PM
To: Writer's Division Mailing List
Subject: Re: [stylist] Question: writing about the letters of the alphabet

Interesting question. I do not know if there is a rule about this or not. I
do know that I have a personal preference as I have actually thought of this
before. (Great minds...). Well, I like to capitalize the letter referenced
and then when pluralizing I add a lower case S. For example it would be Gs
when two or a singular G.Waiting to see if there is a rule on this though I
may end up ignoring it anyways. Eve

On Wed, Jan 23, 2013 at 12:20 PM, Donna Hill <penatwork at epix.net> wrote:

> Hi All,
> OK, how do you put it in print when you're talking about the letters 
> of the alphabet? For instance, "When I write a g, bla, bla, bla. Or if 
> it were plural, "When I write my gs, ..." I'm looking for what is 
> considered proper grammar/spelling. I've considered having the letter 
> in italics, placing an apostrophe before it and, in the case of a 
> plural, gs would seem more correct than using an apostrophe between 
> the letters -- g's -- because it's not either possessive or a 
> contraction. Jaws likes the apostrophe, however, in terms of 
> pronunciation. Anyway, if anyone has a source for the standard for 
> this, please let me know. I haven't gotten anywhere Googling it, and I
can't find it in any of the style books I have.
> Thanks,
> Donna
>
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