A general style guide for writing purposes to make text more uniform.
Marcotoa’s style guide (V1.075)
Note: This style is influenced by MLA, Oxford, AP, UN, Chicago, BBC and The Guardian. This guide generally emphasises the use of respectful language, spelling, punctuation and word phrasing. This style guide is region-neutral (British, American, Canadian and Australian English are acceptable), and gives advice for each entry to advise the writer how they should write. This style guide is mostly prescriptive for many rules, but some are more flexible or descriptive (analysing how they “actually” speak). This guide can be used for their own projects.
Note: There may be contexts that are misleading, disparaging or offensive.
A or an? (per BBC)
Use “a” before a vowel sound and “an” for a consonant sound. There are some words you need to pay attention, which are:
- A euro
- A European
- An honest mistake
- An hour
- A unicorn
- A unique place (pronounced as “you”)
- A university
- An honour
- An heirloom
Do not use a/an based on the spelling. You need to pronounce the word once, then if it is a vowel, use “an”, otherwise, “a”.
There are also some exceptions, for the word “herb”, in British English, the “h” is pronounced, therefore, “a herb”, but in American English, it is pronounced as “erb” with a silent “h”, therefore, “an herb”.
Aboriginal/Indigenous (Per ABC style)
Capitalised when referring to First Nations peoples or cultures.
Acronyms
Periods are generally optional, it is recommended to omit them, especially in British English, use all caps for all acronyms, eg BBC, IBM, NASA, UN, UNESCO, AIDS.
Addict
Prefer “Person with a substance use disorder”, avoid “junkie” or “crackhead”
Addiction
Avoid Netflix addiction, use regularly watch or habitual
Advisor, adviser
Use “adviser” as the standard spelling. Use advisor only if it is a part of an official job title.
Affect and effect
Use “affect” to mean “to have an influence on”, “effect” means “to cause”, mostly, “affect” is used as a verb, whereas “effect” is used as a noun.
African American, Asian American
Not hyphenated.
African British, African Caribbean
Not hyphenated (two words) and also avoid Afro-British and Afro-Caribbean.
African descent
Use this phrase whenever possible instead of “Black” or “POC”.
Aged
Avoid saying “the aged”. Use “older people”.
Ageing
Avoid “the elderly” or “seniors”, prefer “older adults” or “people aged over 65”
Aggressive
Often racially coded, use ambitious.
AI
No periods.
Air conditioning
Two words.
All right
Two words, never “alright”.
Alumni (per Chicago)
Use alumni for a group, alumnus (masc singular), alumna (fem singular) or alum (informal/gender-neutral)
Ambassador
Capitalise it when referring to a specific person by title.
Among, amongst
Use “among”. “Amongst” is acceptable in BrE but may sound overly formal or archaic in American English.
Ampersands
(&): Never use outside trademarks eg “Mars & Spencer” or UI elements where space is limited.
Antisemitism
One word without hyphen.
Archaeology Is the preferred spelling, not archeology.
App
Use as a standalone word unless in a very formal specification.
Audiobook
One work without hyphens.
Australian Labor Party
Note spelling, must use the American “Labor”
Ax or Axe?
Use “axe” in BrE while “ax” in AmE.
Baby boomer
Banned. Use older adults.
Backwards
Note S at the end in British English.
Band Names
Treated as plural, eg The Beatles are (is for American English)
Banned words / Inclusive language
Some of the words are NOT allowed to use because it is associated with stereotyping or marginalisation, including:
List I: Words that should be avoided to judge their vibe of the context. (mostly based on the formality and the dialect)
- Accurate
- Adaptive
- African styled (For AAVE)
- Archaic
- Articulate
- Broken (English)
- Clean
- Correct
- Elite / Elitism
- Improper
- Non-standard
- Old-fashioned
- Out of touch
- Pidgin
- Pretentious
- Proper
- Too British
- Unadaptive
- Unfashionable
- Unpopular
- Well-spoken
- Wrong
List II: Words that should be avoided. (Despite their commonness of usage, they should be avoided due to insensitive context, this also include some redundant Gen Z slangs)
- 41
- 67
- Acoustic (as autistic)
- Addictive (to mean “captivating”)
- Alphabet soup
- Atypical
- Autistic (as a slur)
- Big Black Cock (as a joke)
- Black Girl (as a stereotype)
- Cocksucker
- Crazy (as a metaphor), use “wild”
- Cringe (if misused)
- Crip / Crippled (when used by outsiders), use “disabled”
- Delulu
- Disabled (as a joke), avoid
- Differently abled, use “person with a disability”
- Down’s (as a joke)
- Dumb (if misused), use “non-speaking”
- Gay (as a slang for stupid), use “foolish”
- Ghey
- Handicapped, use “person with a disability”
- Idiot (if misused)
- Imperial(ism) (as a metaphor)
- Invalid (for disability)
- Kill yourself
- Lame (if misused), use “uncool”
- Literally (if used incorrectly in a formal context)
- Massive (if used incorrectly to mock others)
- Mid (Gen Z slang)
- Moron
- Mute (as a disability descriptor, use non-speaking)
- My bad (if used dismissively)
- Niggardly, use miserly
- NPC
- OCD (as an adjectives), use “organised”
- Ohio
- OK Boomer
- Penis (if misused to insult a person)
- Psycho
- Restarted (as leekspeak)
- Retard
- Rizzless
- Schizo / Schizophrenic
- Sigma
- Skibidi
- Snigger, use “snicker”
- Special (if mocked for physical appearance)
- Stupid (to describe a person)
- Unalive
- Woke (as AAVE)
List III: Words that should be avoided due to cultural appropriation
- Blacklist, use “banned list” or “denylist”
- Bury the hatchet
- Cakewalk
- Circle the wagons
- Chop-chop
- Eeny, Meeny, Miny, Moe
- Fuzzy-wuzzy
- Grandfathered in
- Gung ho
- Guru
- Gyp (as a verb), use “cheat”
- Hold down the fort
- Jew (as a verb)
- Long time no see, use “it’s been a while”
- Mammy stereotype (In a US context related to people of African descent)
- Master / Slave, use “primary/secondary”
- Mumbo jumbo
- Ninja
- No can do
- Off the reservation
- Open the kimono
- Paddy Wagon
- Peanut gallery
- Peon
- Powwow, use “meeting”
- Sherpa
- Sold down the river
- Spirit animal, use “patronus”
- Thug (a racially coded substitute for more aggressive slurs to describe men of African descent)
- Totem pole
- Tribe (when misused to describe a person of low rank of importance, or describing a family or squad when misapplying)
- Uppity (if misused, it is a Jim Crow-era slur to describe the behaviour of people of African descent)
- Urban (as a coded euphemism)
- Whitelist, use “allow list”
Basically
Redundant filler word, omit for clarity
Benefited
One “t”, not “benefitted”
Bible
Capitalise Bible, but lowercase for biblical.
Billion
Never use the archaic “million million” definition.
Biological male/female
Avoid in social contexts, use assigned male/female at birth if medical history is relevant.
Bi-weekly, bi-monthly
Avoid. This can be ambiguous as it can mean “twice a week” or “every two weeks”. Use every two weeks or fortnightly.
Blind
Use “a person who is blind”, “blind people” or “the blind community”. Avoid using as metaphors.
Block quotes
Use for quotes longer than 40 words. Start on a new line and indent the whole block.
Blog
Do not capitalise, short for weblog
Bona fide
Do not italicise
British and American spellings, vocabulary etc
British and American English spellings differ slightly for some words due to the historical standardisation effects, most notably the American lexicographer Noah Webster, who simplified American spellings to establish a distinct national identity and better reflect pronunciation. British English often retains roots and largely influenced by Latin and French roots.
Rules include:
- -our and -or: colour/color, honour/honor
- -re and -er: centre/center, theatre/theater
- -ise and -ize: organise/organize
(Note, British English generally uses -ise, but -ize is also accepted because of “Oxford spelling” to reflect Greek roots) - -yse and -yze: analyse/analyze (never “z” in British English)
- Latinised or French digraphs: leukaemia/leukemia, manoeuvre/maneuver (also in the -re/-er rule) (Note “fetus” should be spelled like this in both regions because of the Latin root), also refer to the Oxford or your dictionary for the standard spelling, recommended to use “-ise” in British and Australian English)
- -ll- and -l-: cancelled/canceled
- -ce and -se: practice/practise (British/Australian/Canadian English only, American must use -ce for some words like practice but -se for some like defense or offense)
- For the past tense verbs, British English can use both -t and -ed endings (but this style favours the -ed spelling for consistency), eg spelt/spelled, learnt/learned. This rule is virtually non-existent in American and Canadian English.
For vocabulary, there are some differences, eg
- Flat and apartment
- Lift and elevator
- Rubbish and trash
- Crisps vs potato chips
- Sweets vs candy
- Bill vs check
You must keep the original spelling for the official names etc, eg “Australian Labor Party”, “World Health Organization” and also “World Trade Center”.
Note also do not mutate the text for quotations.
Cancelled
Use double-l in British English, canceled in AmE.
Capitalisation (per BBC)
Some words should be capitalised, whether you name the person or not (eg the King, the Pope etc), but our style recommends minimising the use of capital letters unless it causes confusion.
Political job titles have capitalisation only when the title is next to the name, this also applies for former holders of political office eg “The former President”, “US President James Tucker”, eg.
Similarly, Leader of the Opposition is capitalised if accompanied by the name. Other opposition portfolios are always written in lowercase, with or without the name.
Use lowercase for all jobs outside politics, eg a police officer, the direct general of the BBC. The UN secretary general is capitalised when with a name; the director of public prosecutions is always not capitalised.
Government names are generally not capitalised, eg “The Italian government”. Capitalise Parliament only to 1. Westminster in any context or the Scottish European Parliaments where you are giving the full titles. Otherwise lowercase.
For place names, capitalised for recognised regions and for vaguer geographical areas, eg the Middle East. (Exception compared with BBC): It is also required to capitalise phrases like South Wales to ensure consistency.
For Latin names of plants or animals, must be italicised and capitalise the first word only.
Captions
Use a full stop at the end of a caption only if it is a full sentence.
Century
Use lowercase, eg the 20th century
Chairperson
Use chair or chairperson instead of chairman or chairwoman to remain gender-neutral.
Challenged
Banned for disability. Use “a person with a disability”
Changelog
One word without hyphens.
Check or cheque?
In British English, use cheque for bank documents. Use checks for all senses in AmE.
Checklist
One word without hyphens.
Citations
Place the footnote numbers after the punctuation mark, eg This is the end.[2]
Clean
Avoid describing drugs as it implies others are dirty. Use “sober” or “in recovery”
Click here
Avoid spammy language, use descriptive hyperlinks instead.
Cloud
Not capitalised unless it is a part of a proper product name.
Coca-Cola
Note hyphen and also never use it as a noun or a verb.
Coexist
No hyphen.
Colour is the British spelling. The American spelling is color. Also it is always spelled "color" in HTML.
Combated
Not combatted
Committed suicide
Banned. Use “died by suicide”
Compass points (per BBC)
Lowercase for directions eg “go south” capitalise for regions eg “The South of France”.
Complement and compliment (per BBC)
Compliment means praise or admiration. Complement for something which completes, enhances or goes well with another thing. Remember like “I” receive a compliment, while things that complete each other are complements.
Comprise
The whole comprises the parts, never say “is comprised of”
Contractions
Avoid using contractions in formal writing. Say “is not” instead of “isn’t”. You may, however, use contractions in semi-formal or informal writing.
Cooperate, cooperation
No hyphen.
Coordinate, coordination
No hyphen.
Coordinates (Map) (per UN)
Use decimal degrees for digital maps but degrees/minutes.seconds for formal geography.
COVID-19
All caps and note hyphen.
Co-worker
Hyphenated, to prevent misreading as “cow”
Cripple
Banned as a verb even in the sense of “damage”.
Cybersecurity, cyberspace, cyberattack, cybercrime, cybercafé etc
No hyphen.
Dashes (Em or En?)
Use an en-dash (–) with spaces for parenthetical thoughts – like this – in British style. Use an em-dash (—) without spaces—like this—for American style.
Data
When referring to legislation, always use the official capitalisation.
Dates (Apostrophes)
Dates do not usually require apostrophes eg 1980s, not 1980’s, but if the century is omitted, use an apostrophe, eg, ‘88
Dates (formatting)
British: DD/MM/YYYY: eg 14 February 2024 (comma is optional)
American: MM/DD/YYYY: eg February 14, 2024 (note the comma before the year)
d/Deaf
Capitalise when referring to the community while lowercase for the medical condition.
Deadline
One word, no hyphen
Deepfake
One word, no hyphen
Decision-making
Hyphenated.
Decimals
Must use a leading zero for amounts less than one, eg 0.5, not .5.
Depressed
Avoid as a synonym for sad.
Desktop
One word
Dietary requirements
Do not capitalise “halal”, “vegan”, “kosher” etc
Dietitian
Note spelling and not “diatician”
Dived
Not “dove”
Dot-com
Hyphenated.
Double-click
Hyphenated.
Drunk
Say I have drunk, not drank, though some speakers say it to avoid the stigma. Use “toxicicated” instead of “drunk” to describe drinking habits.
Earth
Capitalise Earth only when referring to the planet itself.
eBay
Note lowercase “e” with capital “B”
Eg and ie
Eg means “for example”, ie means “that is”. In BrE, the periods are optional, while in AmE, you must use periods and a comma.
Elderly
Avoid. See “older people”.
Email, ebook
One word and no hyphen, but “e-commerce” or longer words require hyphens for the “e-” prefix.
Emoji
Singular and plural. Emojis is also accepted but informal.
Encyclopedia
Note spelling, not “encyclopaedia”
Ending a sentence with a preposition
Ending a statement or question with a preposition is NOT banned. It is necessary if the phrasing is too clunky, especially for relative clauses and questions.
Endonym vs exonym
Endonyms are names of places, people, ethnic groups or languages which are used by locals or insiders eg “Deutschland), whereas exonyms are names given by outsiders, eg Germany, here are the examples:
- Nihon and Japan
- Kölh and Cologne
- España and Spain
- Bharat (rarer in general use, but mostly in diplomatic contexts) and India
- Wien vs Vienna
Some places officially changed their international name to match their endonym to reclaim identity.
- Mumbai (formerly Mombay)
- Türkiye (formerly Turkey)
- Netherlands, the (formerly Holland)
- Czechia (formerly Czech Republic)
It is recommended to be coexistent rather than omitting the former name for the countries which have already changed their international name. Say: “Türkiye, formerly Turkey, is…”.
Enquiry and inquiry
In British English, use enquiry for a general question and inquiry for a formal investigation. In American English, use inquiry for both.
Every day or everyday?
Every day is an adverbial phrase, everyday is an adjective.
Exclamations
More than one exclamation mark is banned in formal writing.
Exotic
Avoid describing people or cultures as “exotic”, use nationalities instead.
FAQ
Plural FAQs, no periods.
Fellowship
Avoid. Say “scholarship” or “partnership”.
Females
Use “woman” or “girls”
Fetus
Not foetus
Fewer and less
Use “fewer” for countable nouns, “less” for uncountable nouns, eg fewer people, less bureaucracy, also the use of fewer also applies in percentages, eg Fewer than 30% of the patients were rescued. For heights, you must use “less”.
Fiancé and fiancée (per Oxford)
Note accents, and use fiancé for a man and fiancée for a woman.
First-come, first-served
Hyphenated and the “d” on served.
First-year
Not “freshman”
Focused, focusing
Not “focussed” or “focussing”. Follow standard English doubling rules.
Foreign words
Italicise foreign words only if they are not yet commonly used in English (per CMOS), eg weltanschauung is italicised, café is not.
Formulas or formulae
Both are acceptable, you can use either, but must stay consistent.
Fractions
Hyphenate when used as an adjective or a noun, eg a two-thirds majority.
Full stops (spaces after)
Always use a single space after a full stop. Never use double spaces, which is now obsolete.
Gay
Use as an adjective, not a noun, eg gay people NOT the gays. Also avoid it as a cliché, eg saying “that’s so gay” is homophobic.
Gender
Do not confuse it with “sex”. Use Gender for social identity.
Gigabyte (GB)
Note that 1GB equals 1024MB, though often estimated to 1000 in consumer marketing.
Global South
Capitalised. Use this to describe regions that are “developing” or “third world” (note: both of which should be avoided).
Global warming
Use “climate crisis” or “climate change” for modern scientific accuracy.
God
Capitalised in monotheistic contexts, lowercase gods and goddesses.
Google
Do not use it as a verb, eg to google, say to browse in Google.
Grey
Use “grey” for British English. Both grey and gray are accepted in American English.
Handheld
One word.
Headlines
Avoid full stops at the end of headlines
Healthcare
One word.
Hate speech
Two words
Hectare
Use metric units (ha) for international reporting.
Hard-working
Hyphenated.
Hawaiʻi
Note use the ʻ sign (ʻokina) to ensure linguistic accuracy. It is recommended to use the character U+02BB in the fonts Gentium, Times New Roman or Arial. You can copy this, which is highlighted in yellow: ʻ The language name is ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi.
Hawaiian
Exception: No ʻokina
He/she
Do not use it. Use the singular “they” as a gender-neutral pronoun.
Homeless, the
Avoid, say “People experiencing homelessness”.
Homepage
One word.
Homeopathy
Not homoeopathy
Historic vs historical (similar to classic/classical)
Historic means famous in history, historical means relating to the past.
Hyphens
1. Hyphenation (for clarity)
Hyphens can be a crucial tool for changing the meaning of phrases, often turning a sequence of words into a single, cohesive concept.
“Man-eating shark” means the shark which eats men, “man eating shark” is a man who is eating a fish.
“Small-shop owner” means the owner of a small shop, “small shop owner” means a small person who owns a shop.
2. Hyphenation for adverbs
Do not hyphenate adverbs ending in -ly, eg a highly amusing film, not highly-amusing. For “well-known”,, you must hyphenate before a noun, while dropping after a noun eg the place is well known.
3. Hyphenation for ages
Hyphenate if it is used as a modifier eg “a six-year-old girl” (no “s” and all hyphens) while “a girl who is six years old”.
4. Hyphenation for phrasal verbs
American: Hyphenation of phrasal verbs are optional because they are well known. It is largely optional.
British/Australian/Canadian: You can hyphenate words ending with -in, -on or -up eg clean-up or turn-on. Nouns ending with -off also need a hyphen eg turn-off, pay-off, however, -out words are optional, you can close it, eg checkout, for prepositions with 4+ letters, close it, eg setback, lookahead, runaround.
5. Hyphenation after prefixes
For prefixes starting with non-, you should hyphenate them, eg non-existent, non-profit, non-binary. For pre- and re- closed except for double-vowels eg re-enter, pre-empt or some nouns eg pre-war, pre-registration. For cooperate, coordinate and their derivatives, close it due to their familiarity. The exceptions are if the words change the semantic meaning if hyphenated eg recover vs re-cover or if it has a number or starts with a capital letter, eg un-American, pre-1950. For combinations with co-, hyphenate outside coexist, eg co-author, co-worker etc. Prefixes like self-, ex- etc are always hyphenated. Check the dictionary if you are not sure.
6. Other words
Some words do not need hyphens, eg:
- Airbase
- Aircrew
- Airdrop
- Airlift
- Bookkeeper
- Bushfire
- Codebreaker
- Crowdfunding
- Crowdsourcing
- Ebook
- Expat
- Filmgoer
- Flypast
- Fundraising
- Handheld
- Heatwave
- Holidaymaker
- Homegrown
- Homemade
- Infrared
- Landmine
- Multicultural
- Multimillionaire
- Multiplayer
- Orangutan
- Peacekeeper
- Reopen
- Retweet
- Seabed
- Schoolchildren
- Smartphone
- Substandard
- Substation
- Sunbed
- Suncream
- Touchline
- Waterboarding
- Webpage
- Website
- Whistleblower
- Wildfire
- Xbox
ID
No periods, plural is IDs.
If I were, if I was
Always use “were” regardless of the subject in the past subjunctive mood, “was” for past, real events that happened in the past.
Illegal alien
Banned, use undocumented persons or unauthorised immigrants.
Impact
Avoid as a verb. Use the effect.
Inclusive language
Note: See “banned words”
I. Disability
Should be careful about the use of language when referring to people with disabled. This also applies for people with different medical conditions or mental health condition.
Here is the list of terms to use and to avoid.
- People with disabilities / disabled people (not the disabled, handicapped)
- Wheelchair user / person who uses a wheelchair (not wheelchair-bound)
- Having or living with a disability (not suffer from or afflicted by)
- Person with an intellectual disability (not retard or subnormal)
- Person with a speech impairment / non-speaking (not dumb or mute)
- Person with cerebral palsy (not spastic (as a noun))
- Person with epilepsy (not an epileptic)
- Seizure (not attack or fit)
- Person with leprosy (not leper)
For other stereotypical terms, go to Banned Words.
II. Gender-neutral and LGBTQ+-related language
Gender-specific language might reinforce stereotypes, with the effect of undermining certain people. Use terms that include a wider range of gender identities than just male or female as a binary.
Here is the list of terms to use and to avoid.
- Hello everyone / folks (not guys)
- Singular “they” (not he or she)
- Partner / spouse (not husband or wife)
- Friends / colleagues / co-workers (not girls)
- A student should submit their word on time. (not his as a general default)
- Chair / chairperson (not chairman)
- Gay (not homosexual and never use it as an insult)
- Transgender / Trans (not tranny)
III. Race and ethnicity
Use non-discriminatory, respectful or precise language regarding race, ethnicity and nationality to promote equality.
Here is the list of terms to use and to avoid.
- People of African descent (not blacks)
- The nurse / the employee (not the black employee or the Asian nurse)
- Multiracial / global majority (not coloured or BAME)
- Take someone back / rescind a gift (not Indian giver)
Indigenous Peoples
Capitalised and pluralised.
Initials
Use spaces between initials in British English eg “J R R Tolkien”, no spaces in AmE, eg” J.R.R. Tolkien”.
Inuit
NOT Eskimo, the singular form is Inuk.
Insane/Mad
Avoid as a metaphor. Use “extreme”.
Internet, the internet
Lowercase
IoT (Internet of Things)
Capitalise I and T only, lowercase “o”
Its and it’s
Its is a possessive adjective, eg “the dog wagged its tail” (note never use it as a standalone possessive noun, eg “the ball is its” is an error), and also “it’s” refers to “it is” or “it has”, eg “It’s going to rain right now.”
iPhone, iPad, iPod etc
Always lowercase “i”
Job Titles
Use lowercase for generic roles, eg the doctor, the consultant.
Judgment and judgement
In British English, except for legal contexts where judgment is the standard, use judgement for other contexts. In American English, always use “judgment”.
Koran Avoid. See "Qur'an".
Landline
One word
LGBTQ+, LGBTQIA+
Acceptable in the first mention.
Liaison
Note spelling
Lists
If list items are fragments, no punctuation. If they are full sentences, use a full stop.
Livestream
One word, not hyphenated.
Login
One word as a noun/adjective, eg “Enter your login details”, two words if it is a verb: “Log in to your account”.
Lowercase, uppercase
One word.
Mainstream
One word
Manpower
Avoid. Use “workforce”
Māori
Note macron. The plural is also Māori.
Mastercard
Capitalise “M” only
Measurements
Use metric as the primary unit, with imperial in brackets for US audiences.
Mentally ill
Avoid. Say “people with mental health conditions”.
Minority (for race)
Use “historically marginalised” or “underrepresented” to avoid implying inferiority.
Money
Currency symbols: place the symbol immediately before the number without a space, £50, $100, €20. For large amounts, use a combination of figures and words for millions and billions, eg £10 million. For decimals, only include if there is a “change” amount.
Moon
Capitalise “Moon” when only referring to Earth’s satellite.
Muslim
Not Moslem
Multi-
Closed outside words with double-i, eg multi-institutional or the word “multi-ethnic”
Nationality
Always capitalised, and when forming adjectives, there are some suffixes, which are:
- -an/-ian: Italian, Mexican, Australian
- -ese: Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese
- -ish: English, Spanish, Swedish
- -i: Iraqi, Pakistani, Qatari
- -ean: Korean, Chilean, European
- -er: Icelander (one word), New Zealander (two words), Londoner
- -ic: Greenlandic, Icelandic
Native English Speaker
Avoid as a requirement for correctness. Use “fluent”.
Neurodivergent
Used as an umbrella term for people whose brains function differently, eg autism spectrum disorder, ADHD or dyslexia. Do not use as a synonym of stupid.
Newsfeed
One word, no hyphen.
No one
Two words.
Normal
Avoid when comparing groups eg “normal vs autistic people”, use “neurotypical” or “typical”
Numbers
Words: spell out numbers from one to nine. Use numerals for 10 or above.
Exceptions: Always use numerals for:
- Measurements and percentages, eg 5kg, 7%, 20cm
- Ages, eg a 5-year-old child
- Dates and times, eg 9am, 1 January
- Mathematical contexts, eg the value is 3
Also, never start a sentence with a numeral, e.g. forty-two people attend…, not 42 people.
Offline, online
One word, no hyphen
Over, more than
Interchangeable, but more than is often preferred in formal contexts
Passer-by
Plural passers-by
Percent sign
Recommended to use the % symbol with numerals, eg 70%, Use “percent” only in very formal texts. Percent should be written in one word.
Pleaded
Not “pled”
Podcast
No hyphen
Pop-up
Must be hyphenated to avoid the awkward combination of “popup” with three “p”s.
Possessives (Exception)
For names ending with “s”, you must use an apostrophe to avoid ambiguity with the plural form:
- Burns’s
- Jones’s
- Charles’s
- Jesus’s
- Moses’s
- Griffiths’s
Post-traumatic
Hyphenated
Pre-eclampsia
Hyphenated
Preferred pronouns
Avoid, just say “pronouns” (identity is not a preference)
Profited, profiting
Note single “t”
Program and programme
In British English, programme for TV or events, program for computers.
Proper English
Avoid as it suggests American English as default while viewing British as secondary as a hierarchy.
Prostitute
Avoid, use “sex worker”
Quotation marks: (per BBC)
Use single quotes if
- In headlines, eg UK ‘to leave EU’ or in titles
- Or inside a double quote, eg “This ‘that’ this” (layout only)
Use double quotes if
- In regular text for layer 1: eg I mean “this”. (layout only)
(Note we use double quotes to match global standards and to ensure clarity with the apostrophe to avoid misreading)
No quotes are required for film, TV or song titles. You must use initial caps.
Qur’an, Qur’anic
Note apostrophe and never “Koran”
Regions
Capitalise all recognised regions, the West Midlands.
Runner-up
Hyphenated and plural is “runners-up”
Sámi
Note the accent and never “Lapp(lander)”.
Screenshot
One word without hyphens.
Seasonality
Lowercase (eg spring, summer, autumn/fall, winter) outside proper nouns.
Serial comma
Aka Oxford comma. Avoid in British English, but required in American English, eg “apples, pears and lemons.” (the comma before the word “and”)
Sexual preference
Banned, use “sexual orientation”
Sneaked
Not “snuck”
Spelling
You need to follow the dictionary you’re using for, choose the head entry as the first use, eg Oxford dictionary says “protester” rather than “protestor”, “medieval” rather than “mediaeval”, “focused” not “focussed”. For the Merriam-Webster dictionary, follow American standards, eg “color” not “colour”.
Split
Past tense is split
Split infinitives
Are NOT banned. We can say “to quickly go”. Split the infinitive if the alternative looks ugly.
Subject-verb agreement: singular or plural after nouns (more flexible comparing with BBC)
Treat collective nouns – companies and governments as either singular or plural (British and Australian only, NOT in American or Canadian English), eg the family is/are, the Arsenal is/are.
Police must be treated as a plural form, it is almost always referring to a group of police officers, for singular, use “police officer”.
Press and public should be treated as singular, but rewording might be advisable.
For words like aircraft, cannon, sheep, fish can be plural without an “s”. Note that fishes refers to different kinds of fish. Also note some words like “criteria” (criterion), “bacteria” (bacterium) are already plural, which many people mistakenly use as a singular. The plural of “data” is flexible. You can use the plural form for the sense of analysis, but must be strictly singular if writing about the computer sense. This word is common to treat it as singular similar to “agenda”. For “-ium” words, more flexible, you may use “stadiums” or “stadia”, though the Latin form is more formal. For French words, eg “bijou”, “adieu”, “bureau”, “plateau” etc, you can use the “-x” form (French) eg adieux or bureaux (Banned in American English) or the “-s” form (Anglicised) eg adieus or bureaus (Mostly in American English). (Must be consistent)
For words ending with “o”, there is NO strict rule, here is the list of words that must add an “s” (best way to check is to use the dictionary following, for British: Oxford, American: M-W or American Heritage), eg “flamingos” (instead of flamingoes), “mangoes” (instead of mangos) or “photos” (never photoes)
Also for the plural of “index”, use indexes, the form “indices” is for mathematical context.
Subjunctive mood
Used to give commands, explore conditional and imaginary situations.
For the present tense, use the infinitive form no matter if the pronoun is in the first, second or third person. Say “I suggest she be here”. The “should” subjunctive is also acceptable, especially in British English, eg “I suggest she should be here”. For the past subjunctive, most verbs are based on the past form, but you must use “were” in all pronouns, say “If I were” not “was”.
Suffer/sufferer
Avoid when related to disability. Use “has” or “lives with”
Sulfur
Not sulphur
Surnames
Never capitalise the entire surname, use John Smith, not John SMITH.
Sync
Not synch
Talking about trends
To talk about trends, you should follow these guidelines:
I. Always use the present tense for current truths. Use the present perfect for ongoing trends. Use the future tense (but try to use less) for certain predictions, eg The data show(s) a decline.
II. Use verbs such as increase, grow, climb, jump etc to talk about trends that are growing while decrease, drop, shrink or decline for trends that are declining.
You can also use adverbs to describe the speed of the trend, eg gradually, significantly etc.
They
Can be used as a singular pronoun, eg If a student is late, they may have lunchtime detention class.
Though
Not “tho”
Thru
Avoid outside technical terms eg thru-hole or drive-thru.
Time (apostrophe)
Put the apostrophe before the word “time”, eg “two weeks’ time”, not “...time’s”.
Title case (per APA)
Capitalise: The first and last words of the title, and all principal words, eg nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs.
Lowercase: Articles (a/an/the), coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS) and short prepositions of four letters or fewer.
Example: The Quick Brown Fox Jumps over the Lazy Dog.
Trade Names
Always follow the company’s preferred styling, eg iPhone, eBay, MasterCard.
Toward(s)
Use towards in British English and toward in American English.
Türkiye
Formerly Turkey, also note capitalisation and umlaut in the “ü”.
Underway or under way?
Use “underway” for two words as an adjective while one word (under way) as an adverb.
UK / US
No periods. Use UK and US in British English.
Unique
Only use it to mean “one of a kind”. Don’t say “very unique”.
URL
Must be written in lowercase and make sure you have avoided http:// or www.
Username
One word without hyphen
Victim
Avoid for long-term conditions
Virtual Reality (VR)
Spell out on first use, followed by the acronym in brackets.
Web, website
No hyphen and not capitalised.
Wheelchair-bound
Avoid wheelchair users.
Which and that
BrE: You can use both interchangeably for restrictive clauses, but you must use “which” for non-restrictive clauses.
AmE: “that” defines and “which” informs, eg say “the car that is blue” (not “which”)
Who and whom (per BBC)
Formal English only. “Who” is the subject for a verb, “whom” is the object, compared with he/him and they/them. If the answer is “he/she/they”, use “who”, for “him/her/them”, use “whom”, eg Mr Smith ignored Mr Clarke, whom he disliked.
Whose and who’s
Whose is a possessive, who’s is the contraction of “who is”
Wordle
Never use as a verb, eg say “play a Wordle puzzle” instead of “to Wordle”
WordleBot
Note camelcase.
X-ray Note capital X with a hyphen.
You
It is recommended to use the second-person “you” as an address rather than the indirect, stiff “one” for commands.
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