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Last Seven Days

Question from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 23, 2024

Do you have any guidance on whether “toolkit” should be one word or two? Nothing pops up in the search, and Merriam-Webster also doesn’t return any any results from the search function. Thank you!

Answer

Merriam-Webster uses two words, tool kit. That is a recent update that will be added soon.

Question on Dec. 20, 2024

I am seeing this in the context of a story regarding China's "one-child" policy, but as a general rule should writers and editors of news stories avoid the descriptor "draconian" to describe government policies? It seems like needless editorializing to me, when readers are capable of drawing their own conclusions if the story spells out the specifics of a law.

Answer

Yes, we'd generally want to avoid that term for the reasons you note, unless attributed to someone else. It may occasionally slip into stories, however.

Question from Washington, District of Columbia, on Dec. 20, 2024

The "foreign service" entry says that term should be lowercase. However, just below it, entries for FSO and FS spell out those abbreviations as "Foreign Service Officer" and "Foreign Service. Should these terms be capitalized or not? Thank you. 

Answer

You're looking at Merriam-Webster entries, not AP Stylebook entries. We don't have a specific style, but we wouldn't use the FSO abbreviation. Of course, you're free to follow Merriam-Webster's approach.

Question from New York, New York, on Dec. 20, 2024

Hi there. Happy holidays! Should the “to” in “to go,” as in food to go, be capitalized when in a title? 

Answer

Yes, that should be capitalized. Happy holidays to you!

Question from Bishkek, on Dec. 20, 2024

Dear editors! I'm aware of the distinction between the day of the year vs. the upcoming 365-day period in capitalizing New Year. Does that mean I should capitalize:

  1. a New Year party
  2. a New Year's party
  3. a new year party

I'm puzzled by the fact that where I come across that expression, my colleagues usually mean parties in the runup to New Year's day. Could be a party at work one week before New Year's proper.

So how do I capitalize that?

Answer

a New Year's party.

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