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

Copyright Copyright Introduction Acknowledgments Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz About the Publisher

Published by Times Books

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First published 2003

Second edition 2017

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Ebook Edition © April 2017 ISBN: 9780008146184

Version 2017-04-27

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Aa

Bb

Cc

Dd

Ee

Ff

Gg

Hh

Ii

Jj

Kk

Ll

Mm

Nn

Oo

Pp

Qq

Rr

Ss

Tt

Uu

Vv

Ww

Xx

Yy

Zz

About the Publisher

Introduction

This updated version of The Times Style Guide aims to provide writers and sub-editors with a quick reference to contentious points of grammar and spelling, and to guide them through areas where confusions have arisen in the past. It is a guide, not a straitjacket. Consistency is a virtue, but it should not be pursued at the expense of clarity, elegance or common sense.

By the standards of its predecessors this is a permissive volume. It avoids unnecessary prescription and prohibition. It tries to distinguish linguistic superstitions from grammatical rules. It hesitates to condemn common usage that neither baffles nor offends. English is not a language fixed for all time. Speech changes and its written form should change too. The Times must use the language of its readers, but that language at its best, clearest and most concise.

The guide sets out the paper’s detailed preferences in such fields as capitalisation, hyphenation and variant spelling. More general entries are intended to encourage reflection about words and the way we use them. While all Times journalists should follow house style, they should not do so unthinkingly. Considered exceptions can (and often must) be made, especially in direct quotes, in features, diaries and other less formal kinds of writing, and with columnists whose individual voices should be heard and whose flow of argument should be preserved.

Where extra guidance is needed, and for all spellings, hyphenations etc not covered by the guide, staff are expected to use as their first point of reference Collins English Dictionary . Other helpful resources are the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (Odwe), the Concise Oxford or Chambers . For place names The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World should be consulted.

Further advice on style and on good writing may be found in the familiar authorities: Fowler ( Modern English Usage ), Partridge ( Usage and Abusage ), Gowers ( The Complete Plain Words ) and their admirably brisk US counterpart Strunk & White ( The Elements of Style ). The compendious Chicago Manual of Style contains sensible (American) guidance on almost everything. Kingsley Amis’s The King’s English takes a more idiosyncratic approach. All are valuable works of informed and considered opinion; none should be regarded as a repository of unbreakable rules.

There are thoughtful books on the particular challenges of journalistic writing by Harold Evans ( Essential English for Journalists, Editors and Writers ) and Keith Waterhouse ( On Newspaper Style ).

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Isabella Bengoechea, Magnus Cohen, Fiona Gorman, Alan Kay, Matthew Lyons and Siobhan Murphy, who worked on production of the book at The Times , and to Gerry Breslin, Jethro Lennox, Kevin Robbins and Sarah Woods at HarperCollins.

Thanks also to Nic Andrews, Chris Broadhurst, Josie Eve, Hannah Fletcher, Jeremy Griffin, Robert Hands, Oliver Kamm, Nick Mays, Robbie Millen, John Price, Chris Roberts, Fay Schlesinger, Mark Shillam, Craig Tregurtha, Emma Tucker, Roland Watson, Rose Wild and John Witherow at The Times ; and to Tim Austin, Richard Dixon, Sir Simon Jenkins and the late Philip Howard, who were responsible for earlier editions of this guide.

Aa

a, anuse a before all words beginning with a vowel or diphthong with the sound of u (as in unit) — a eulogy, a European etc; but use an before unaspirated h — an heir, an honest woman, an honour. Whether or not to use an before an aspirated h when the first syllable of a word is unaccented — hotel, historian, heroic — is a matter of preference; The Times prefers a . With abbreviations, acronyms, initials, be guided by pronunciation: an LSE student, an RAF officer, an NGO

abbreviated negatives(can’t, don’t, shan’t etc, and similar abbreviations/contractions such as I’ll, you’re) should be discouraged except in direct quotes, although in more informal pieces such as diaries, sketches and some features they are fine when the full form would sound pedantic

Abdicationcap with specific reference to Edward VIII’s; in general sense use lower case

Aboriginal(singular, noun and adjective) and Aborigines (plural), for native Australian(s); aboriginal (lower case) for the wider adjectival use

absorptionis the noun from absorb; absorbtion is a non-word that has found its way more than once into The Times

abstractionoften an escape from precise meaning and a sign of lazy writing. Beware words such as situation, crisis, problem, resolution, question, issue, condition . A newspaper is about what happens and what people do; it should use concrete words. A headline, especially, may be killed by an abstract noun or phrase

abumeans “father of” so must not be separated from the name that follows, ie Abu Qatada at first mention remains Abu Qatada (“father of Qatada”), not simply Qatada, and certainly not Mr Qatada

accentsgive French and German words their proper accents and diacritical marks, unless they have passed into common English usage. Use accents as appropriate also on capital letters and in headlines. With anglicised foreign words, no need for accents ( hotel, depot, debacle, elite, regime etc), unless it makes a crucial difference to pronunciation or understanding, eg cliché, façade, café, exposé . NB matinee, puree etc.