Internet, Web, and Other Post-Watergate Concerns
Q. Could you please respond and clarify the proper spelling of the words e-business and e-commerce? Should all letters be lower-case, initial letters be capitalized . . . ? We have found contrasting usages of the words. Any information that you can provide will be helpful.
A. You have spelled them correctly. The fifteenth edition of CMOS spells the abbreviated form of electronic mail “e-mail” (it was “E-mail” in the days of the fourteenth edition). E-mail at the beginning of a sentence is capitalized as I’ve just shown. E-business, e-commerce, e-travel, e-solutions, etc., are all just offshoots of e-mail, so they would follow suit.
