2009/6/27 Anthony <wikimail(a)inbox.org>rg>:
On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Andrew Gray
<andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk>wrote;wrote:
(Perhaps Britannica gets it because
"Encyclopedia" is a common word -
we'd feel silly with the sentence "I looked it up in Encyclopedia
Britannica", because "I looked it up in encyclopedia" would itself be
wrong)
I don't have a problem with the sentence "I looked it up in Encyclopedia
Britannica". In fact, after consideration, I'd say adding in "the"
would be
technically incorrect. Looking at
britannica.com, EB consistently refers to
itself without "the" in the beginning.
Interesting. I am inclined to take my lead from the organisation
itself for things like this, so perhaps I should change my speech.
Now look at
www.cia.gov. Seems to be no rhyme or
reason to the use or
nonuse of "the" when the CIA refers to themselves. "About CIA",
"History of
the CIA", "Offices of CIA", "Contact CIA". "To accomplish
its mission, the
CIA engages in research, development, and deployment of high-leverage
technology for intelligence purposes. As a separate agency, CIA serves as an
independent source of analysis..." They must have used Intellipedia to
create that paragraph.
I hate inconsistency like that. What kind of major organisation
doesn't have a style guide detailing how its name should be used?