Difference between revisions of "The englishtalk style guide"
From Et_wiki
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* '''Orient(at)ed''' | * '''Orient(at)ed''' | ||
** UK: orientated, US: oriented | ** UK: orientated, US: oriented | ||
+ | * '''People as percentages''' | ||
+ | ** US: 100 people walk into a store and 98% buys something | ||
+ | ** UK: 100 people walk into a store and 98% buy something | ||
* '''Query/Enquery''': Uk. Inquiry: US | * '''Query/Enquery''': Uk. Inquiry: US | ||
* '''Telephone''' | * '''Telephone''' |
Revision as of 16:33, 10 September 2007
© englishtalk Ltd 2007
The englishtalk approach to style, writing conventions, etc.
Everyone is free to refer to this style guide, customers and non-customers, but please note that material must not be copied, reproduced or quoted without the prior permission of englishtalk Ltd.
Contents
englishtalk conventions
Formal rules (grammar, punctuation, proofreading points, editing conventions)
- Addresses
- Paul-Schäfer-Strasse (not Paul-Schäfer-Straße)
- 70173 Stuttgart, Germany (not D-70173 Stuttgart)
- Age
- Hyphens throughout: a 31-year-old woman
- Colons
- After the colon: lower case letter in the first word
- Upper case in a list: Sometimes
- Company names
- Avoid inverted commas and possessive with company names (eg: IBM's). Use 'The Siemens solution was to ...' rather than 'Siemens's solution was to...'
- GmbH/AG, etc: only put in if the context is more formal. 'The product launched by Siemens' is preferable to 'The product launched by Siemens AG'
- Do not replace GmbH with Ltd. If necessary do this: Wolfgang und Michael Schmidtlein Gmbh (Ltd)
- AG without dots, unless the name of the company would make this confusing: PTV AG is probably better as PTV A.G.
- E-Learning
- At the start of a sentence, otherwise e-learning
- Email
- Not E-Mail or e-mail
- UK: things are sent by email. US: things are sent via email.
- Etc
- Without a dot afterwards. "Red, blue, green etc, including standard...."
- At end of list delete if preceded by "such as/for example ..... "
- For example
- e.g. in formal documents
- In more modern contexts
- eg: this way
- or eg, this way
- Headers
- UK: First word only capitalized (so not First Word Only)
- US: Nearly All Words in Title Capitalized
- Hyphens *
- A 31-year-old woman
- 20th-century man
- Business related, without hyphen
- Compound adjectives, eg the ever-shrinking ozone layer, above-average performance
- Cooperation, only in extremely formal contexts: co-operation
- Experience business first hand - not hyphenated, unlike first-hand experience
- Front-runner, formal: front runner
- Like-for-like, not to be confused with 'Comparing like with like'
- As early as the mid 19th century (noun); they discovered a mid-19th century novel (as adjective)
- Night-time
- One-stop/one-step
- Re- only hyphenate if next word starts with a vowel (re-use, re-educate but remastered and rekindled)
- A state-of-the-art system (before noun) which was state of the art (no hyphen after noun)
- Time to market
- "This is up-to-date technology", but "this technology is up to date"
- To date, there are...
- Torchlit (not torch-lit)
- Italics
- Used with foreign words that are not yet part of the Zeitgeist, but not if most people are au fait with them (eg, café)
- Scientific names such as Homo sapiens
- Used with company names or proper nouns that could be confused with content ("The rock scene giant rock rebel struck the right chord","'Fixing a hole' is one of the best tracks on The Beatles' Sgt Pepper album")
- Links/email addresses/website
- Web: englishtalk.net (without www before address, not introduced as website/homepage/Internet)
- At end of line drop off the full stop otherwise it looks like the address should have a '.' at the end: www.like-this.net
- Internet is spelt with a capital I (Internet)
- People order things over the Internet (preferable, although through and via are not wrong)
- Lists
- Usually without a dot at the end of each line. Unless line contains sentences.
- Preferably with 1) 2) 3) and not not 1. 2. 3.
- Mr/Mrs/Ms/Dr
- Mr. with dot after title only in formal titles and addresses
- In the middle of sentences write Mr Smith without dots
- UK English standard: Dear Mr Smith (NO COMMA at end of line) then starting first line of letter with an upper case letter
- UK English formal: Dear Mr Smith, (COMMA at end of line) then starting first line of letter with an upper case letter
- American English always uses a period/dot: Dear Mr. Smith, (standard opener)
- Per cent
- With gap, not percent
- p.s.
- UK: At the end of a letter, both the p and the s are lower case, with dots
- In American English, this is written P.S. (both letters upper case)
- Quotations *
- He said, "This is reported speech." With the dot inside the quote.
- Adding, "But I then quoted someone as saying, 'Look, single inverted commas within the quote'. Which finish with a dot."
- John Smith: "Straight into the sentence." Dot inside the quote.
- "You can start like this too," he added, with a comma in the quotation marks. "But then start again with a capital letter."
- Not reported speech: put things in 'single quotation marks'. Note the dot outside single quotation marks.
- Call attention to a specific term in British English: It's the typical ‘you get what you pay for’ scenario.
- Call attention to a specific term in American English: It's the typical “you get what you pay for” scenario.
- Slash
- In most cases with just two words no gap between/after the slash and following word (so not like / this)
- If numbers and currencies are involved, sometimes with a gap for clarity, eg £54 / €81
- Tel: *
- Without dot, or Fax: (not Tel.: with added .)
Stylistic preferences and conventions
- Among
- Preferable to amongst in more modern texts
- And/or
- Where possible rather than "Take a ferry and/or plane", use: "Take a ferry, plane, or both"
- Competence
- Modern management (slightly alienating): competency, plural: competencies
- Formal or more traditional/UK competence, plural: competences
- To avoid: use skills
- Countries
- Großbritannien > usually United Kingdom/UK
- USA > US, or the States
- englishtalk
- always written small. englishtalk Ltd (without dot) in formal uses
- Focused preferably with one S (although focussed with two S's is not wrong)
- He or she
- In German it is common to use the masculine form of a word then follow this up with "er/ihm/ihn" (eg, The reader can skip to page 5 and enter his name there). In modern English usage "he" is often avoided as this could be deemed 'sexist'. Solutions:
- The reader can skip to page 5 and enter his or her name there.
- The reader can skip to page 5 and enter their name there. (see also they below)
- [Best solution] Readers can skip to page 5 and enter their name there.
- In German it is common to use the masculine form of a word then follow this up with "er/ihm/ihn" (eg, The reader can skip to page 5 and enter his name there). In modern English usage "he" is often avoided as this could be deemed 'sexist'. Solutions:
- Homoeopathy
- Preferably as above in UK English, but homeopathy permissible with younger audiences
- Impressum (German word)
- NEVER Imprint on a website. Instead: About, legals, statutory details, about this website. More: here.
- Magazines and printed media: Publishing details
- Market
- On the market rather than in the market
- Nordic walking
- With a capital letter on Nordic but not walking
- Plurals
- One prospectus, two prospectuses
- One radius, two radii
- One stadium, two stadia
- Data: The data clearly indicates... OR The data clearly indicate... [Data and datum are used on a case-by-case basis. See The Merriam Webster Dictionary for a concise yet informative explanation: [1]]
- They (singular and plural)
- In UK English it is common to see single nouns used as a plural, eg "Blair's Government are introducing a new law.", "IBM are launching their latest server." Sometimes this also happens in reverse, "Freezing fog and mist is common in late winter".
- They is also sometimes used in UK English to mean "one" or "someone". eg: "Someone left the light on. Could they please take more care next time.", "The javelin stabbed an athlete in the back but they are expected to make a full recovery."
- Versus
- England vs Germany without dot after vs
Numbers/currency/dates
- £10.00: UK. $10.00 US. Or £10 / $10 in less formal context
- £100.00: UK. $100.00 US. Or £100 / $100 in less formal context
- £1000.00: UK. $1000.00 US. Or £1000 / $1000 in less formal context
- £10,000.00: UK. $10,000.00 US. Or £10,000 / $10,000 in less formal context
- 1000 - 9999 without a comma
- 10,000 + with comma
- £2 million or £2m or £2mn in tight spaces
- euros, dollars and pounds always plural and written small (eg, he lost 50 euros)
- Official descriptions (more formal/finance): EUR 50, GBP 50, USD 50
- Percentages
- 98% of the time: without gap between number and %
- Also possible: 10pc of time
- Some 58 percent of words
- Areas
- 34sq m. Not 34 square metres or 34 metres squared or 34m²
- 34sq ft. Not 34 square feet or 34 feet squared or 34ft²
- Dates
- February 28, 2007 (US)
- Saturday December 5, 2007 (US)
- 28 February 2007 (UK)
- Saturday, 5 December 2007 (UK)
- Formal UK: Saturday, 5th December 2007 (UK)
- 43 BC (with gap)
- 5th/Fifth century AD
- The 1960s, or the 60s (and not the '60s)
- Number
- UK: No. 34 usually with the dot
- US: #34 with no space
- Time - 12-hour clock, dot between hours and minutes, no space after time, no dots
- 10.40am
- 10.40pm
- American English: 10:40am (colon)
- Fractions: where it would be spoken as "2 and a half": 2½ [= Alt 0189; ¼ = 0188, ¾ = Alt 0190], otherwise 2.5
- Temperature: 34°C - no gaps, capital C, ditto Fahrenheit
- Distances
- 34km without gap
- 3200m without gap (metres, US: meters)
- 16.41m without gap
- 327cm without gap
- 55nm without gap (55 nautical miles)
- 28,000m if clearly in MILES context
- Speed
- 110 mph with gap
- 54 kph car speeds but 54 km/h for sports
- A yacht doing 8kts
- Wattage
- 40W (no gap, cap W) not 40 watt ([2])
- dBA
- Preferably written out: 65 decibels
US vs UK usage differences at englishtalk
Words/vocabulary/grammar
- Aftersales: US. After sales: UK
- Apart from: UK. Aside from: US
- Asking someone to do something: UK:Ask them to do xxx. US: Have them do xxx.
- Diary: UK, Planner: US
- Email: UK: things are sent by email. US: things are sent via email.
- Help
- UK: This pen helps you write more clearly (more common than: helps you to write)
- Like
- UK: They like playing football (more common than: they like to play football)
- Nail varnish: UK. Nail polish: US.
- Orient(at)ed
- UK: orientated, US: oriented
- People as percentages
- US: 100 people walk into a store and 98% buys something
- UK: 100 people walk into a store and 98% buy something
- Query/Enquery: Uk. Inquiry: US
- Telephone
- UK: please ring on 0123 782136
- US: call at this number
- Weekend
- UK: at the weekend
- US: on the weekend
- While in most documents. Whilst in very formal UK usage
- In the UK you write to someone, in the US you write someone
Spelling
- brackets: UK. parenthesis: US. = (xxx)
- brackets: US = [xxx] (UK: square brackets)
- car park: UK. parking lot: US.
- colour: UK. color: US.
- cotton wool: UK. cotton: US.
- envisage: UK. envision: US.
- estate car: UK. station wagon: US.
- full stop: UK. period: US.
- grey: UK. gray: US.
- labour: UK. labor: US.
- metre: UK. meter: US.
- mobile phone: UK. cell phone: US.
- plaster: UK. Band Aid: US:
- open day: UK. open house: US.
- saloon (car): UK. sedan: US.
- speciality: UK. specialty: US.
- tidbits: US. titbits: UK (alternative: tasty morsels)
- toward: more common in the US, towards: more common in the UK
- tyre: UK. tire: US.
- -ization: US. -isation: UK. If text should be neutral than the use of words such as organize with a z is possible as even in traditional UK texts in the early 1900s editors used z more than s. It was only after American adoption of words such as color for colour that UK writers decided that it was essential to play up the UK/US differences.
Place names
- The Alps with a capital A, alpine furniture with a small A
- Brunswick, Germany instead of Braunschweig
- Dusseldorf without umlaut
- Hanover with one N
- Nurburgring without umlaut
- Nuremberg for Nürnberg
Links & external style guides
- http://www.economist.com/research/StyleGuide/
- http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
- http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/guides.htm
- http://www.askoxford.com/
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/ (basic grammar)
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/webwise/course/jargon/a.shtml (web jargon buster)
- http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary.php (American Marketing Association online dictionary)
- http://www.worldwidewords.org/
- http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/contents.html (grammar)