Style notes

The Washington Post is now hyphenating health care as a compound modifier. [Punctuational]

The Baltimore Sun does not clean up e-mail quotes: "Our practice in quoting texts is to present them as they were written, rather than correcting minor errors or making capitalization, abbreviations and other details conform to our house style." [You Don't Say]

The Virginian-Pilot's public editor has a column about the paper's style committee. Among the rules mentioned: Don't use prominent, as in prominent attorney or physician or citizen. In stories about civil suits, don't lead with the amount of money being sought. And then there's this puzzling rule:

Accident: Be careful about using this word. Its legal definition is an unforeseen event that occurs without anyone's fault or negligence. If the issue of fault or negligence is unknown, use 'crash' or 'wreck.'

That's not one I'll be following.