Barack Obama Writes to Millennials: A Style Guide
"History has dubbed you 'the Millennials,'" writes President Barack Obama, the latest celebrated writer to bring his work to the elegant platform at Medium. He is telling the younger segment of his public something about jobs.
More importantly, though, he is investing his authority as Chief Executive in a series of decisions about style and usage. History—or at least a couple of high-concept quasi-historians—has dubbed young people "the Millennials." President Barack Obama makes sure to give them a capital M.
Here is an overview of President Obama's stylistic preferences, as expressed today on Medium.
• "Millennials": capital M
• "internet": lowercase
• "book bags": two words
• "landline": one word
• serial comma: yes ("we've expanded grants, tax credits, and loans")
• "touch screens": two words (adjective form: "touch-screen")
• "coffee shops": two words
• "smartphones": one word
He also might be using "their" as a singular pronoun, but there's a sort of wobbly single/plural parallel structure involved: "nearly all of the students graduate, and along with their diploma, they've earned real-world skills."
[Image via Getty]