Folks, I've been having a very interesting interchange with an editor at a
newspaper, about whether "Down's Syndrome" or "Down Syndrome" was correct.
Among the DS community, the latter is preferred, and in my letter to the
editor, the newspaper changed my "Down Syndrome" to "Down's Syndrome". She
said they go by some dictionary, and I said "Yea, but if you try to get the
dictionary to change, they'll say they follow general usage, like in
newspapers, and you just go around in a big circle." I gave as an example
our campaign to get newspapers and magazines to use "breastfeeding" as one
word, instead of breast-feeding or breast feeding, and this was her
interesting suggestion:
>
>Dear Ms. Dettwyler:
> If you would like to take up the cause further on the spelling of
>breast-feeding to get it changed to breastfeeding in popular literature,
>you might try working on the Associated Press. Someone apparently did take
>the Down syndrome spelling to the AP directly to get a stylebook listing.
> If you're interested, write The Associated Press, 50 Rockefeller
>Plaza, New York, NY 10020.
I don't have an email for the Associated Press, but perhaps if a number of
us wrote letters, it would have an impact??
Kathy D.
mailto:[log in to unmask]
|