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Opinion: Why STAT is sticking with ‘health care’ as two words
After the Associated Press Stylebook made the startling decision in April to shift from “health care” to “healthcare,” it set off a fierce debate not only in the STAT newsroom, where we use a lightly modified version of AP style, but among our readers.
As STAT’s director of editorial operations and a longtime copy editor, I consulted with my colleagues and also asked for readers’ help. The fight over a single space, which has raged for years, might look a little silly from the outside, and maybe it is. But it’s taken on perhaps outsize importance, and many people, including me, have strong feelings on the matter.
After the Associated Press Stylebook made the startling decision in April to shift from “health care” to “healthcare,” it set off a fierce debate not only in the STAT newsroom, where we use a lightly modified version of AP style, but among our readers.
As STAT’s director of editorial operations and a longtime copy editor, I consulted with my colleagues and also asked for readers’ help. The fight over a single space, which has raged for years, might look a little silly from the outside, and maybe it is. But it’s taken on perhaps outsize importance, and many people, including me, have strong feelings on the matter.