Style guide
In order to maintain a consistent approach to writing and editing across The Student Review, we make use of a style guide. The style guide lists the rules we follow for writing prose (in addition to standard grammar and spelling) as well as formatting it. For example, the guide contains information about how to write acronyms, but it also contains information about when to italicise a title.
In general we are fairly relaxed about style, and provided something is grammatically correct we will normally allow it. We edit creative writing for style only minimally, and do not edit poetry for style at all. Nevertheless, we do ask that writers (including guest contributors) of regular articles, as well as editors, try to adhere to the rules listed below. For cases not covered here we defer to the style guide provided by the Guardian.
The guide is a work in progress and is still being updated.
A
abbreviations, acronyms, initialisms
should be entirely in uppercase e.g. UCAS, NATO, except where the word is in common usage e.g. laser; do not include full points in abbreviations, acronyms or initialisms (including titles such as Dr) except for e.g. and i.e.
age
the 28-year-old father; the father was 28 years old; the father, 28
ageing
not “aging”
A-levels
not “A levels”
Americanisms
e.g. “globalisation” vs “globalization”; use the former (British) version
amongst
acceptable, but “among” is more modern
and/or
an informal shortcut that should be avoided
anxious
implies fear or dread, not eagerness
B
backwards
not backward
bands
bands are plural e.g. Editors were great last night; bands with one member are not really bands and are singular
bring, take
“bring” means to move something towards the subject, “take” means to move something away e.g. I brought the Guardian towards you even as I took the Daily Mail away from you
C
cafe
not café
center, centre
“centre” is British, “center” is American
colon
the word following a colon should be lowercase; an exception may be when a colon is used as part of the name of a column
companies
companies and corporations are singular e.g. Facebook is a big company
compare to, compare with
an object is compared to an object of a different type, but compared with an object of the same type e.g. life has been compared to a battle, but Congress has been compared with the British Parliament
complement, compliment
the woman’s handbag complemented her dress; the man complimented the woman on her style; the handbag was complimentary with a magazine
continual, continuous
“continual” means frequently recurring, “continuous” means uninterrupted
contractions
will often be allowed where they do not detract from the prose, but should be expanded where possible; “there’ve” is not a word
D
data
either plural or singular; “datum” is old-fashioned and should only be used by people who also say “agendum” and “musea”
data storage
KB, MB, GB (kilobytes, megabytes, gigabytes) are different to Kb, Mb, Gb (kilobits, megabits, gigabits). Use uppercase as appropriate
dates
Sunday 1st January; January 1st; January 1, 2012
defence, defense
“defence” is British, “defense” is American, but they mean the same thing; however, Department of Defence
different from
not “different to”
disinterested, uninterested
“disinterested” means impartial or indifferent, “uninterested” is the opposite of interested
due to
“due to” should only be used to complement the verb “to be” e.g. The Student Review‘s delay in publishing was due to a technical error. Otherwise use “owing to” or “because of” e.g. The Student Review was delayed in publishing owing to a technical error
E
effect
not to be confused with “affect”; “to affect” means to change something, “to effect” means to implement something, “effect” is a noun e.g. The effect [noun] of the explosion was to affect [verb] the city’s trade, which effected [verb] great change
ellipses
when used to show redacted or missing content, put spaces before and after; when used for dramatic effect in creative writing or poetry, only put a space after
ebook, email
no hyphen or uppercase; but e-reader, e-commerce
emphasis
italics are preferable to bold font if emphasis is absolutely required; never underline
ensure, insure
we insure our house to ensure we’re covered
entitled, titled
he was entitled to read the newspaper; he entitled the paper The Student Review; the newspaper is titled The Student Review
F
farther, further
“farther” should be used for measurable distances, “further” should be used for abstract lengths which can’t always be measured e.g. I walked farther each day in order to further my goal of getting fit
fewer, less
less in quantity, fewer in number e.g. Other newspapers had fewer articles than The Student Review and less research was done for them
film reviews
our film review template can be found here
flaunt, flout
he flouted the law by flaunting his knife in public
forward
not forwards
G
Gaddafi
not Gadaffi, Qaddafi
get
avoid needlessly using “have got” in place of “have”; the past participle is “got”, not “gotten”
grey
not gray
god, gods
lowercase as nouns; “God” when referring to a specific god by that name, for example in Christianity
H
headings
headings and sub-headings within articles can be formatted as such, though bold font will often suffice; headings may be exempt from the use of italics for titles (see “italics”)
hence why
the “why” is redundant
however
avoid using at the start of sentences to mean “nevertheless”; when placed first it should mean “in whatever way” or “to whatever extent” e.g. However tedious this guide may seem, it is important
I
inflammable
means combustible, despite the “in” prefix
initials
SJ Watson, not S. J. Watson
internet
lowercase
italics
We italicise the titles of works or publications. These include books, poems, newspaper and magazine articles, songs, albums and video games. We also italicise the names of publications e.g. The Student Review, the Guardian (take care to check whether a publication includes a definite article in its name). We do not italicise legal bills or acts
irony
The New Oxford English Dictionary says: “Irony is a state of affairs or an event that seems deliberately contrary to what one expects and is often amusing as a result.” For example, it would be ironic if you moved to France to escape English people, only for the first friend you make there to be English. Much of the time when we say something is ironic we actually mean hypocritical, cynical, lazy, amusing or coincidental
J
K
L
lay, lie
“lie” does not take a direct object e.g. I lie down; lie, lay, lain, lying
“lay” does take a direct object e.g. I lay the newspaper down; lay, laid, laid, laying
licence, license
“license” is a verb, “licence” is a noun
like
avoid using in place of the conjunction “as”
M
moot
a moot point is debatable or subject to discussion, not superfluous
N
numbers
Spell out as a word from one to nine, but use numerals from 10 to 999,999. Afterwards use million, billion, trillion except for scientific data, precise statistics, etc, where numerals may be used. For finance or quantities measured in units such as kg or GB, use mn, bn, tn. Separate large numerals with commas as normal
O
OK
not “Ok” or “ok”
P
participle phrases
a phrase at the beginning of a sentence must refer to the sentence’s subject e.g. “On her arrival, a taxi met her at the station” should be “On her arrival, she was met at the station by a taxi”
party
lowercase for organisations e.g. the Conservative party
possession
use an apostrophe where a noun ends in “s”, or sounds like it does e.g. the newspaper’s front page, Burns’ poems, for goodness’ sake
practice, practise
“practise” is a verb, “practice” is a noun; practice makes perfect
prepositions
never at the end of sentences (unless for effect) e.g. “The ball he played with” should be “The ball with which he played”
president
lowercase except when used as a title e.g. President Obama is the president of the United States
program, programme
a computer program; a TV programme; a concert programme
Q
quotation marks
In general we follow the Guardian‘s style, which is standard English. However, our captions and titles may take double quotes where appropriate and we can sometimes introduce quotes with commas. Parentheses inside direct quotes do not need to be square brackets unless the author is inserting a clarification for the reader e.g. “He [Mr Smith] walked down the street”
quotes
read the Guardian‘s style guide section and take particular care
Qur’an
not Quran, Koran
R
S
semicolon
“A semicolon is halfway between a full stop and a comma; try to use it as such.” You can also use them in lists in place of commas, particularly if any of the list items contain commas
style guide
not styleguide
subjunctive
try to use correctly; see this guide for an explanation
summaries
keep to one tense; for summarising the plot of a book, film, etc, this should preferably be the present
T
teams
sports teams are plural e.g. Liverpool will be hard-pressed to win in their next match
The Student Review
The Student Review may be abbreviated to TSR, but italicise in either case
toward, towards
“toward” is American, “towards” is British; we prefer the latter
try to
not “try and”
U
unique
means “without equal”; there are no degrees of uniqueness e.g. it is wrong to say “the most unique newspaper” or “the newspaper was very unique”
V
versus
may be shortened to “vs”
W
website, webpage, web, world wide web
lowercase
west, western, wild west
lowercase
which, that
use “that” to define and “which” to add more information e.g. The Student Review, which was founded in 2011, enables people to publish work that they couldn’t otherwise
whilst
acceptable, but “while” is more modern
whom
try to use correctly; see the Guardian‘s style guide section for an explanation
