Difference between revisions of "The englishtalk style guide"

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Switzerland and parts of Austria and Italy (Tyrol): English veers more towards French or Italian names than traditional German names, eg Bolzano not Bozen, San Candido not Innichen.
 
Switzerland and parts of Austria and Italy (Tyrol): English veers more towards French or Italian names than traditional German names, eg Bolzano not Bozen, San Candido not Innichen.
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* Neue/Alte Bundesländer - in formal texts use "New Länder" for the old east, otherwise: "former (states of) East Germany". For the old west: "former West Germany"
  
 
= Links & external style guides =
 
= Links & external style guides =

Revision as of 12:02, 29 April 2009

© englishtalk 2009

The englishtalk approach to style, writing conventions, etc.

Everyone is free to refer to this style guide, customers and non-customers, but please do ask englishtalk before copying, reproducing or quoting this website.

And why did we set this style guide up? Because few things are drummed into you in UK or US schools in the way they are in other countries, and few things in the English language are black and white. Or is that Black & White, or B&W, or black-and-white... ?


englishtalk conventions

Formal rules (grammar, punctuation, proofreading points, editing conventions)

  • Age
    • Hyphens throughout: a 31-year-old woman
  • All
    • All and All of are acceptable with nouns and the, my, this etc. "All (of) my friends like riding". US English tends more towards all of
  • Capitals
    • masters thesis but Master of Business (fixed title)
    • CD-ROM rather than CD-Rom (though neither is wrong)
    • North/South/East/West (useful: [1])
      • western Germany (historically: West Germany)
      • north England (but upper case with set names like South Korea, the Middle East etc)
      • the north-east, mid-west etc
  • 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/that is
    • e.g. and i.e. only in formal documents
    • In more modern contexts
      • eg: this way (ie: after a colon)
      • or eg, this way (ie, after a comma)
      • In American English: ALWAYS this way: e.g., then give the example after the comma
      • In American English: same goes for i.e.: i.e., then provide list (note the comma)
  • German addresses
    • Paul-Schäfer-Strasse (not Paul-Schäfer-Straße)
    • 70173 Stuttgart, Germany (not D-70173 Stuttgart)
  • Headers
    • UK: First word only capitalized (so not First Word Only)
    • US: Nearly All Words in Title Capitalized
  • 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/websites
    • 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 only spelt with a capital I (Internet) in formal texts, otherwise like The Telegraph/Orange: internet
    • Website is one word and lower case, "the net" without '
    • People order things over the Internet (preferable, although through and via are not wrong)
    • Content is found or posted on the Internet
  • 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
  • Punctuation/inverted commas
    • The ’ symbol is like a comma, curved to the LEFT not to the right …‘
    • Apostrophe: use ’ wherever possible, or ' in many online texts, but do not mix
    • Quotation marks (off-line) should look like “ ” (66 ... 99)
  • 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
  • St - saints' names
    • Without a period - eg St George, St Swithin, St Magnus
  • Tel:
    • Without dot, or Fax: (not Tel.: with added .)

Hyphens, one word, two words...

  • A 31-year-old woman
  • 20th-century man
  • After sales support
  • Brand new, without hyphen
  • Business related, without hyphen
  • On a case-by-case basis (hyphenated throughout)
  • Centre stage/center stage, withouth hyphen
  • Compound adjectives, eg the ever-shrinking ozone layer, above-average performance
  • Cooperation, only in extremely formal contexts: co-operation
  • Decision makers without hyphen, decision-making (process)
  • Energy-efficient processes offer energy efficiency
  • Experience business first hand - not hyphenated, unlike first-hand experience
  • Eye-catching
  • The follow-up (hyphenated) / "I need to follow up with you" (not hyphenated)
  • Front-runner, formal: front runner
  • Full-time, part-time: both with hyphen
  • German-speaking, English-speaking, etc
  • Grown-ups, rather than grownups
  • Half year results, no hyphen
  • High-speed processes, which run at high speed
  • Talk about something in depth, especially in-depth analysis
  • In-house
  • Large-scale/medium-scale with hyphen
  • Like-for-like, not to be confused with 'Comparing like with like'
  • Login pages are where you log in
  • Long-term thinking, not to be confused with 'in the long term'
  • As early as the mid 19th century (noun); they discovered a mid-19th century novel (as adjective)
  • Midterm, midweek, midsize all without hyphen
  • Mouth-watering
  • Nail-biting
  • Night-time
  • Non-stop
  • No one (no hyphen)
  • One-stop/one-step/one-day event
  • Ongoing without a hyphen
  • Problem solvers without hyphen
  • Re- only hyphenate if next word starts with a vowel (re-use, re-educate but remastered and rekindled)
  • Run-up (as in: "in the run-up to")
  • Real-time
  • Self-explanatory
  • Set-ups can be set up in a day
  • Stand-alone
  • Sub-projects rather than subprojects as it is easier to read
  • Sweetcorn (one word)
  • A state-of-the-art system (before noun) which was state of the art (no hyphen after noun), same applies to up-to-the-minute
  • T-shirt - capital T, hyphenated
  • Tenfold not ten-fold
  • Third party - companies work with third parties on a third-party basis
  • Time to market
  • "This is up-to-date technology", but "this technology is up to date"
  • To date, there are...
  • To-ing and fro-ing
  • Torchlit (not torch-lit)
  • Touch-screen
  • Wholly owned
  • Work-Life Balance
  • World-class (solutions, etc)

Stylistic preferences and conventions

  • Abbreviations
    • Where common, omit dots, eg USA not U.S.A.
    • Write plurals like this: SLAs (and not SLA's)
    • PDF, or lower in a bracket: Portable Document File (pdf)
    • PoS (point-of-sale) not POS
    • United States: careful with US vs U.S. - if not clear from context always go for U.S. (ie, with dots)
  • Acronyms
    • Spell the name out in full followed by the acronym in brackets - eg, National Savings and Investments (NS&I) - the first time it appears in copy. Then the acronym can be used, if that's the preference, in the rest of copy.
  • Aging
    • Preferable to ageing
  • 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"
  • Business-to-business/consumer
    • B2B, B2C B2G
  • Cheese names
    • ...are written with a capital letter (Edam, Brie, Wensleydale cheese etc) (since place names)
  • Commas
    • In modern UK texts commas are sometimes added to create a speaker's pause. eg, "The man's house, and also his home". This is especially the case with advertising. Strictly speaking (especially in more formal texts), the comma would be left out here.
    • With sentences including crucial thoughts, however, although the pause may not be spoken, it is indicated with commas (around "however")
    • In US lists there is often a comma before the last item:
      • US: The ingredients include milk, butter, cheese, salt, and raisins.
      • UK: The ingredients include milk, butter, cheese, salt and raisins.
  • 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
  • Disc or disk?
  • englishtalk
    • always written small. englishtalk GbR (without dot) in formal uses
  • Focused preferably with one S (although focussed with two S's is not wrong)
  • H with nouns/adjectives after "A"
    • If the H is aspirated in modern spoken English (as in hotel), then "a hotel", "a holistic solution", "a historical event"
    • US: herb is unaspirated, so "an herb"
  • 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.
  • Healthcare rather than health care with a gap
  • 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.
  • Job titles
    • lower case - particularly when the title is more general, eg, football player, manager, director etc
    • upper case when they are a salutation eg, Dr, Prof etc
    • Magazines and printed media: Publishing details
  • Market
    • On the market for a product rather than in the market (sometimes for a company)
  • None
    • Can be "none is" or "none are" but englishtalk prefers "none are" as more modern and US/UK neutral
  • Nordic walking
    • With a capital letter on Nordic but not walking
  • Plurals
    • One prospectus, two prospectuses
    • One radius, two radii
    • 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: [2]]
    • Latin plurals: depends on context! You'll find technically correct Latin plurals more often in academic and scientific contexts and the anglicized plurals more often in daily or informal
      • Formula ::: formulae (academic/scientific)
      • Formula ::: formulas (informal use)
      • Stadium ::: stadia (academic/scientific)
      • Stadium ::: stadiums (informal use)
  • 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
  • Web/web
    • Web: Use upper-case when it stands alone (watch it on the Web), forms part of a hyphenated compound (Web-based software, the system is Web-enabled), or forms part of a compound written as two words (Web page, Web site)
    • web: Use lower-case when it forms part of a compound written as one word (webcam, webzine)

Numbers/currency/dates/weight

  • Single digit numbers written out, "four million". Otherwise as digits, "10 million"
  • £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
    • With multilingual texts (refering to the same numbers) a useful trick is a minimal gap in the middle: 340 000
  • £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 (see also [3])
    • 98% of the time: without gap between number and %
    • Also possible: 10pc of time
    • Some 58 per cent of words
  • Area / volume
    • 34sq m in flowing copy. If there is lots of space it can be written out in full in copy ie, 34 square metres or 34 metres squared. Only write 34m² if it is within a numerical context.
    • 34sq ft in flowing copy. If there is lots of space it can be written out in full in copy ie, 34 square feet or 34 feet squared. Only write 34ft² if it is within a numerical context.
    • 34 cu m in flowing copy. If there is lots of space it can be written out in full in copy ie, 34 cubic metres. Only write 34m³ if it is within a numerical context.
  • Dates
    • February 28, 2007 (US)
    • Saturday December 5, 2007 (US)
    • 09/13/2008 (Sept 13, 2007) (US)
    • 28 February 2007 (UK)
    • Saturday, 5 December 2007 (UK)
    • 13/09/2008 (13 Sept 2007) (UK)
    • Formal: Saturday, 5th December 2007 (UK)
    • 43 BC (with gap)
    • 5th/fifth century AD
    • The 1960s, or the 60s (and not the '60s)
  • Degrees
  • Temperature: 34°C - no gaps, capital C, ditto Fahrenheit
  • Angles: write out full as '350 degrees' in sentences, 350° if in among figures
  • Number
    • UK: No. 34 usually with the dot
    • US: #34 with no space
  • Time - 12-hour clock, no space after time, no dots
    • UK: 10.40am, 10.40pm
    • US: 10:40am. 10:40pm (colon)
    • 6 min 35 secs
  • Fractions: where it would be spoken as "2 and a half": 2½ [= Alt 0189; ¼ = 0188, ¾ = Alt 0190], otherwise 2.5
    • Two thirds of all cats eat fish (no hyphen, eat is singular) (UK)
    • A two-thirds majority over the next candidate
  • 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
  • People
    • A 5-strong team (not a five-strong team)
  • Speed
    • 110mph without gap
    • 54kmh, sometimes 54km/h for sports
    • A yacht doing 8kts
  • Wattage, power, etc
    • 40W (no gap, cap W) not 40 watt ([4])
    • 380/220 kV
    • kWh for kilowatt-hour
  • Weight
    • ton for both British and American English generic copy (ton in all American copy - generic or technical)
    • (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1435326/Telegraph-Style-Book-T.html) (For further refs see - C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen\default\Eigene Dateien\Project files S Thomson\Admin\ton_styleguide refs )
    • BUT when a piece of text is technical or specific in British English use:
      • tonne when referring to a metric tonne
      • ton when referring to an imperial ton
    • 100tn (abbreviation)
    • g/qm (Grammatur)
      • gsm (paper weight/thickness)
  • dBA
    • Preferably written out: 65 decibels

US vs UK usage differences at englishtalk

See also External references

Grammar/syntax/morphology

  • 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.
  • Classic/Classical: very little difference in meaning, although classical tends to relate more to Greek/Roman/arts/music/architecture contexts
  • Consulting is an activity (UK and US) provided in the UK by a consultancy (eg management consultancy, which does management consulting), but also a consulting company (UK/US). Increasingly UK companies are providing "consultancy" but the preferred englishtalk term is consulting
  • Effect
    • UK: come into effect
    • US: go into effect
  • Email: UK: things are sent by email. US: things are sent via email.
  • Future: US: in the future, UK often: in future
  • 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)
  • Lists and commas
    • UK: Ingredients include milk, honey, butter and flour
    • US: Ingredients include milk, honey, butter, and flour
  • Insight
    • US: gain insight (gain some insight also in use)
    • UK: gain an insight
  • Mecca
    • US: Uppercase M when talking about the city, lowercase M when talking about a place/hotspot/hub
    • UK: Uppercase M in both instances
  • Orient(at)ed
    • UK: orientated, US: oriented
  • People as percentages, singular vs plural
    • US: 100 people walk into a store and 98% buys something
    • UK: 100 people walk into a store and 98% buy something
    • Please remember these may vary due to context. Is the subject a singular, plural, or collective? "The majority of companies reports that..." (Singular) "65% of companies report that..." (Plural) "65% of the population reports that..." (Collective singular)
  • Query/Enquiry: Uk. Inquiry: US
  • Stop
    • UK: this shoe stops your feet getting wet (though "stops your feet from getting wet" is not wrong=
    • US: this stops your feet from getting wet
      • If in doubt, try "prevents your feet from" (US/UK)
  • Telephone
    • UK: please ring on 0123 782136
    • US: call at this number
  • toward: more common in the US, towards: more common in the UK
  • 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/terminology

  • adaptor: UK. adapter: US (although adapter also permissible in UK)
  • brackets: UK. parenthesis: US. = (xxx)
  • brackets: US = [xxx] (UK: square brackets)
  • car park: UK. parking lot/parking garage: US.
  • colour: UK. color: US.
  • cotton wool: UK. cotton: US.
  • defence UK. defense: US.
  • diary: UK, planner: US.
  • envisage: UK. envision: US.
  • estate car: UK. station wagon: US.
  • full stop: UK. period: US.
  • grey: UK. gray: US.
  • helping hand: US. helpful hand: UK.
  • judgement: UK. judgment: US.
  • labour: UK. labor: US.
  • * licence as a noun in UK, (to) license as a verb in the UK. US: both spelt "licence"
  • lynchpin: UK. linchpin: US.
  • metre: UK. meter: US.
  • mobile phone: UK. cell phone: US.
  • nail varnish: UK. nail polish: US.
  • plaster: UK. Band Aid: US:
  • practice as a noun in UK, (to) practise as a verb in the UK. US: both spelt "practice"
  • public transport: UK. public transportation: US.
  • open day: UK. open house: US.
  • roundabout: UK. traffic circle: US
  • saloon (car): UK. sedan: US.
  • speciality: UK. specialty: US.
  • tidbits: US. titbits: UK (alternative: tasty morsels)
  • 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 and words with the s started to dominate. In other words: "organization" is not necessarily "American".

Place names

  • The Alps with a capital A, alpine furniture with a small A
  • Basle for Basel (exception: Messe Basel)
  • Berne for Bern
  • Brunswick, Germany instead of Braunschweig
  • Dusseldorf without umlaut
  • Hanover with one N
  • Nurburgring without umlaut
  • Nuremberg for Nürnberg
  • Zurich for Zürich

Switzerland and parts of Austria and Italy (Tyrol): English veers more towards French or Italian names than traditional German names, eg Bolzano not Bozen, San Candido not Innichen.

  • Neue/Alte Bundesländer - in formal texts use "New Länder" for the old east, otherwise: "former (states of) East Germany". For the old west: "former West Germany"

Links & external style guides

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