A-Z House Style Guide
- names #
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In news copy, refer to people by their full name (Benaba Youma). Thereafter by their first name (Benaba). If referring to politicians (or others when appropriate) use a title on second mention eg Mr/Mrs/Ms. Do not use someone’s surname on its own. Yes: Mr Mugabe has refused to ask for international assistance. No: ‘Mugabe has refused…’
There should be no spaces or full stops between initials: JWB Phelps not ‘J W B Phelps’.
If a partner organisation’s name is not English, follow it with a paraphrase where space allows (usually better than a translation). Yes: ODE, the development wing of the evangelical church… Cumbersome: ODE, Office de Développement des Eglises Evangéliques…
- Nativity #
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Capital ‘N’ when referring to Jesus’ birth: Luke’s version of the Nativity; the Nativity story; a Nativity play.
- non-disabled #
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Do not refer to someone as normal, healthy, able-bodied, typical, whole or of sound body/mind. Use ‘non-disabled’.
See also disability/disabilities.
- normal #
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Try not to use the word ‘normal’ when describing a person, we are all different from one another in some way.
- north-east #
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Hyphen but no capitals: the north-east coast… three miles north-east of the city.
- north-west #
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Hyphen but no capitals: the north-west corner of the state… the area north-west of Beijing.
- north/North, northern/Northern etc #
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Names of areas are capitalised if they are part of the title of a recognised geographical area or political division (eg North Dakota, Northern Ireland) but they are not capitalised if they are descriptions in general terms (eg northern India, north London).
- north/North, the #
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Lower case for the northern part of a country, upper case when referring to the developed, richer nations of the world: schools in the north of England… Many developing countries say the North has sown the seeds of climate change. Compare south/South, the.
- Numbers #
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Write one to ten in words and 11+ in numerals. She has three children… There were 40 students in the class. This applies to headlines too. NB: Avoid starting a sentence with a numeral. You can often get around it by using a word such as ‘some’/‘around ’ etc. Or if it’s a short word, like ‘sixty’, write it out. No: ‘12 million people…’ ‘60 seconds later…’ Yes: Some 12 million people… Sixty seconds later it all made sense.
2,000 has a comma.
2,500,000 is more easily expressed as 2.5 million OR 2.5m
2,500,000,000 = 2.5 billion OR 2.5bn. See also billion, million, trillion.
Fractions are best written in words: three-quarters of the globe; a quarter of the church; half the packs. Avoid ½, unless in a recipe.
If you must use decimals, give them to one decimal place: £14.8 million.
An exception to the rules on numbers would be an outbox on a DM or similar, where the Project Manager feels a giving handle or stat is more clearly communicated using numerals. (DM main body copy should follow the regular style. If you have queries, please double check with the Project Manager.)
See also age.