Ian Brunskill - The Times Style Guide - A guide to English usage

archaeologist, archaeology

archbishops

1. Anglican archbishops and diocesan or suffragan bishops in the UK: at first mention, the Archbishop of Barchester, the Most Rev John Smith; or the Bishop of Barchester, the Right Rev John Smith, or (if a doctor) the Bishop of Barchester, Dr John Smith; subsequent references, the archbishop or bishop (lower case), or Dr Smith (if so entitled), never Mr Smith.

2. The Archbishop of Canterbury is primate of All England, the Archbishop of York is primate of England.

3. Anglican bishops are consecrated, Roman Catholic bishops ordained.

4. Roman Catholic archbishops, at first mention: the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Liverpool, the Most Rev John X, subsequent mentions Archbishop X or the archbishop; bishops, first mention the Roman Catholic Bishop of Plymouth, the Right Rev Christopher Y, thereafter Bishop Y or the bishop, unless he has a doctorate, when he is Dr Y; Anglican and Catholic archbishoprics carefully avoid overlap, but there is no reason readers should know this, so it may be helpful to spell out in this way at first mention which church is involved

arch-rivalhyphenate in the sense of chief rival. For combinations using the prefix arch-, some will look better hyphenated while others can be a single word, eg archbishop

Argentineis the adjective; an Argentinian is a person from Argentina (never the Argentine)

Argylefor socks, jumpers and the Plymouth football club; Argyll for the Scottish county and its regiment, the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders

armadacap in historical reference to Drake etc, otherwise lower case; try to avoid (or at least limit) imprecise use of this word: it means a fleet of armed ships, so strictly should not be applied to just any collection of boats or ships; flotilla might sometimes be a better word for what you want

Armageddoncap

armchair, deckchairno hyphens

armed forces, thelower case; also the services

Armistice Dayis not the same as Remembrance Sunday (unless November 11 falls on a Sunday)

arm’s lengthas in “he was kept at arm’s length”; but hyphenate as a modifier, eg “the former partners now have an arm’s-length relationship”

armycap the British Army, if naming in full (but otherwise and thereafter the army, eg “he joined the army”; “government efforts to reform the army”); otherwise all lower case: the Belgian army, the Swiss army, the US army; always lower case when used adjectivally, eg an army helicopter, a British army tank, a Swiss army knife

A-road, B-roadetc hyphenated

arounddo not use as an alternative to about

ArranIsle of, in the Firth of Clyde; but the Aran Islands (note one r) off Co Galway in western Ireland, and Aran Island (singular) off Co Donegal; and an Aran sweater etc

arrestrarely necessary to add “by the police”; an arrest made by anyone else is worth explaining. If, unusually, there is a good reason for specifying a particular squad or unit, then do so: he was arrested by the anti-terrorist squad, by officers investigating phone-hacking, by detectives from South Yorkshire police who had travelled to Spain etc

art decoartistic style/movement (see below), lower case seems fine, but use caps if needed for clarity

artefactdo not use artifact

artistenot a word to use seriously; prefer entertainer, performer, singer, dancer etc

artistic knightswith these, use only surname in their artistic contexts (eg Rattle conducted the Berlin Philharmonic with panache), but full title in news stories with, for example, political or social contexts (eg Sir Simon Rattle visited No 10 yesterday). Similarly, McKellen played Lear, but Sir Ian McKellen led the gay rights march

artistic movements/stylesgenerally lower case for all period or stylistic designations — baroque, classical, neoclassical, rococo, modernist, minimalist, postmodern — except in the context of quite specific art historical discussion (of, eg an exhibition of German Expressionist painting) or where clarity is helped by a capital: the romantic movement, for instance, can usually be lower case like the rest, but there may be times when it matters that Romantic verse, as written by Byron or Keats, is not necessarily romantic verse, in which case use a cap for clarity

Arts and Crafts movementseems to need caps for clarity

asbeware of sloppy use in sentences such as “They were moved out as the blast tore open the building”; what is meant is “ after the blast …”. The sport headline “Martis makes crucial mistake as Mowbray’s men go down” wrongly suggests that the blunder by Shelton Martis, the West Bromwich Albion defender, was unconnected to his team’s relegation from the Premier League in May 2009. In fact, it was his error that led to a first Liverpool goal. After that, his team lost and went down to the Championship. Avoid having lots of headlines using “as”; ensure here as well as in copy that its precise meaning of “when” is retained. It is not a synonym for “before” or “after”

Ascendancyfor clarity cap when referring to the landowning Protestant minority in Irish historical context

ascendant, ascendancyprefer to ascendent, ascendency

Asianwhile this is obviously an adjective pertaining to Asia, or a person from that continent, note that in Britain it can have a narrower officially sanctioned, although in some quarters controversial, meaning of a person who comes from, or whose parents came from, India, Pakistan or elsewhere in south Asia; be aware that using it in this way (especially in eg crime stories) may annoy British Asians of other backgrounds. In North America Asian is more likely to refer to people from China, Japan or elsewhere in east Asia

aside fromdo not use this Americanism. Write apart from

as of (with dates)prefer on, after or from to make clear what is meant

assassin, assassinate, assassinationto be used only in the murder of a statesman or politician from a political motive; not to be used for the killing of general celebrities or others

assizeslike quarter sessions, no longer function, having been replaced by the Crown Court

assureyou assure your life; ensure means to make certain; you insure against risk

as toavoid in the sense of the much preferred about

asylum seekerno hyphen

at the present time, at this timeuse now ; but avoid the phrase “as of now”

Atlantic (Ocean)North Atlantic, South Atlantic, but transatlantic

attendeeghastly word that there was no need to coin; avoid

attorney-general, solicitor-generalboth are hyphenated; they are law officers, not legal officers

aubrietaprefer to aubrietia and aubretia (named after Claude Aubriet). The genus, as per standard botanical style, is Aubrieta

auditor generallower case, no hyphen

Auntienot aunty as antique colloquialism for the BBC

autumn statementdelivered by the chancellor, lower case

awardssuch as Baftas, Oscars etc should be lower case, eg best actor, best director. Also, note Academy award. See prize