Ms. or Mrs.?????

[Erin Murray]

If an attorney says Mrs., do you still change it to Ms.? I have been advised by a proofer to always use Ms. Any thoughts on this??

[Jill Silk]

But if it's not a contraction, why are we putting a period at the end of it? It's just something that has needled me for years because it goes against the rules. I thought that the genesis of Ms was that it was a word rather than it being derived from anything? I love to get other opinions. Thanks!

[Jennie Ann]

Here's a couple reference links of the word. I don't think it is a contraction, but I may be wrong. These do provide a pretty interesting read. :-)

Wikipedia
Visual Thesaurus
Answers.com
Free Dictionary
Dictionary.com

[Jill Silk]

These are great links, thanks. Yes, I suppose because I am in Canada we follow a lot of English and French rules; perhaps this is why I have followed using it without the period. It's great to have this resolved!

[Jennie Ann]

I'm glad you enjoyed the links. I do like the Wikipedia explanation the best, I think. Everything is gone over with a fine-toothed comb on Wikipedia. All articles are constantly being scrutinized for their validity.

It is kind of odd that there is what I call "regional punctuation."

For example, I always put the periods in front of the end quote, but I know that in England and Canada, they do it differently.

Example A. We went to the so-called "world championship."
Example B. We went to the so-called "world championship".

This is an ongoing battle on Wikipedia today. The Americans like Example A, and the English and Canadians like Example B.

I am a Junior Widipedian, and I contribute in one subject matter when time allows. My editor who adopted me uses Example B style, always correcting my Example A contributions. LOL

[Jill Silk]

I'm glad you mentioned the quotations because I do puntuate after the quotes unless the entire sentence is a quote . . . that's what I was instructed to do in school many, many years ago.

Yes, I love Wikipedia and may daughter uses it for help in school work constantly! We will say, "let's Google it" and we say "let's Wikipedia it". See my punctuation!

[Kyung]

I'm not sure about using Wikipedia as your only source. Anyone can enter anything into Wikipedia. I would use Wikipedia and try to cross-reference with another source.

[Veronica Kubat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ms.

Check out this link for a possible answer.

V.

[Mary Ann Payonk]

Coming in late on the thread, but I'd never change Mrs. to Ms. Reading through the rest of the thread, I'll mention that when I was in school in ... do I have to say it? ... 1976, we were advised to change contractions ... "I don't" would be broken out into "I do not" for every speaker. That didn't last long ...

But my scopist recently suggested I change Miss to Ms., as no one uses Miss any more. Well, if they say Miss, I'll put Miss. Some ladies who are Mrs. are real happy to be a Mrs., and they'd be bothered by being addressed or called Ms.! Also, just like in transcripts witnesses get referred to as Mr. Jones, and they're immediately corrected, "Excuse me, that's Dr. Jones," I've also had witnesses point out that they are a Mrs. or a Ms. as opposed to what was actually said. So I think it does matter, and even after reading the thread, with regional practices included, I still wouldn't change it.

M.A.

[Jill Silk]

To sum up, I agree to write what is said!