‘Evangelical’ or ‘evangelical’? To Capitalize or Not?

Interesting, given that I opted for the capitalisation of the word just yesterday.

Matthew Schmitz writes over at First Things.

Evangelical writer Daniel Silliman tackles a problem familiar to this editor: Is it “Evangelical” or “evangelical,” majuscule or miniscule, capitalized or not? The problem encompasses other terms like “deist,” “atheist,” and “charismatic.”

In the chart above, Silliman shows how preferences have swung dramatically through the sixteen- and seventeen-hundreds. Nor, as he points out, do things get any clearer in the twentieth century.

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Silliman concludes, “I don’t know how much can really be drawn from these graphs. Maybe there are some social facts to be cited as explaining one style or the other at one time or another. The bigger picture, I suspect, is that we just fuddle along. Which I take some peace in.”

That sounds right. We here at First Things capitalize “Evangelical,” not least because it so often appears alongside Catholic and we want a kind of visual parity, and also because they should not have the word to themselves. Catholics and Orthodox also can be evangelical, as we have long insisted.

Anyway, do read all of Silliman’s post (and browse the rest of his blog) here.

Traditional Anglican Liturgical English

Is Contemporary English a fit language for the worship of God? asks Vincent Uher.

English as spoken today is the language of politicians, newsreaders, radio hosts, newspapers, advertisers … it is a language of lies for the telling of lies.  Is it possible to write liturgical prayers in contemporary English or some form mid-way between contemporary and Tudor?  Yes.  But it requires both the greatest care and a clear understanding that it is a missionary concern and not a matter of formation of the standard sacred liturgical rite…

Read on here.

Sacred English. It just sounds much more respectful.

 

A Sign of Plagiarism: The Correct Use of a Semicolon

In those cases I was alerted to plagiarism by the sudden appearance, in a paper that is otherwise a morass of grammatical errors, of a series of flawless sentences with complicated structures. The correct use of a semicolon is a big red flag for me. As is the use—and often misuse—of specialized jargon or technical language that I’ve not discussed with them in class. Then I type those sentences into Google, and they all wind up being smoking-gun cases of plagiarism. My favorite case this semester was plagiarism within plagiarism. When I informed this student that I suspected her paper was plagiarized, she said to me, “I got my paper from one of the students who was in your class last semester. How was I to know that she had plagiarized?” Which indicated to me, along with a number of the other email responses I got from students, that many of them don’t even know what plagiarism is.

I’m also saddened by the instructor’s observation that “the correct use of a semicolon” is an indicator that a college student might not have written it…

Shocking isn’t it?