stilllearning Wrote:
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> Er, James, I just learned, yesterday, that
> correctly, it should be "an" MSC vs "a" MSC.
>
> [
www.mysteryshopforum.com]
> 16#msg-321016
>
> (heart)
I suddenly realized that somewhere in my Chicago Manual of Style's 1011 pages I could find a definitive answer to this problem that has been haunting us all. Sure enough, Section 7.44: "acronyms and articles" discusses it thoroughly. (Possibly, a little too thoroughly!)
So, the CMS confirms the link above. "The use of
a or
an depends on, (or, conversely, determines), how the term is pronounced."
However, note what's in the parentheses, which seems to leave the door open for writing it either way.
Some of their examples:
an MS treatment--you pronounce it 'emm ess'
a MS in the National Library--you pronounce it 'manuscript'
an 007 field in a library catalog--you are expected to pronounce it 'oh oh seven', (and presumably you could write it as 'a 007 field' if you expected people to pronounce it as 'zero zero seven.')
a 007-style agent--pronounced 'double-oh seven.'