2009/6/27 Anthony wikimail@inbox.org:
On Sat, Jun 27, 2009 at 11:29 AM, Andrew Gray andrew.gray@dunelm.org.ukwrote:
(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?