News websites and their style guide

 News websites and their style guide

A style guide is a document that helps the way you communicate with your audience. It ranges from grammar and punctuation to names and numbers and so on. It provides assistance in delivering consistent, accurate and relatable content that reflects what your organization stands for.

1. BBC News

The style guide covers various aspects of writing, including grammar, spelling, punctuation and specific guidelines for names, numbers, time, military, religion and more.

Spelling

 BBC News follows British English spelling conventions.

• Use "colour" instead of "color"
• Aeroplane is the correct spelling - do not use airplane, which is the American term.

Numbers

 BBC News uses numerals for most numbers, but spells out numbers one to nine.

• For example, they write "5 million people" but "four cars."

Names

BBC News respects individuals' preferences for how they are referred to.

• For example, they use "John Smith" if that is how a person prefers to be identified.

Time

BBC News uses the 24-hour clock system and includes the time zone when reporting times.

• For example, "14:30 GMT" instead of "2:30 PM GMT."

Grammar

BBC News strives for clear and concise writing, using active voice and passive voice.

• For example, they write "The government announced the new policy" instead of "The new policy was announced by the government."

Acronym

Use the abbreviated form of a title without explanation only if there is no chance of any misunderstanding (eg UN, Nato, IRA, BBC). Otherwise, spell it out in full at first reference, or introduce a label (eg the public sector union Unite).

• Their style is to use lower case with an initial cap for acronyms, where you would normally pronounce the set of letters as a word (eg Aids, Farc, Eta, Nafta, Nasa, Opec, Apec).

• For names with initials, they avoid full stops and spaces (ie JK Rowling and WH Smith). When abbreviating a phrase, rather than a name or title, use lower case (ie lbw, mph).

Capitalization

BBC News follows specific capitalization rules. They capitalise proper nouns, titles and the first word of a sentence.

• For example, "London," "President," and "The weather is beautiful today."

Attribution

BBC News emphasizes attributing information to reliable sources. They aim to provide transparency and credibility in their reporting.

• For example, they mention "according to a study by Oxford University."

Titles and honorifics

BBC News uses titles and honorifics sparingly. They generally use "Mr," "Mrs," or "Ms" followed by the person's last name.

• For example, "Mr. Johnson" or "Ms. Smith."

Quotations

BBC News aims to faithfully represent what people say. They use single quotation marks for a quote within a quote and double quotation marks for direct quotes.

• For example, "According to Aryan, 'It was an incredible experience.' "

Font

The Reith typeface manifests the BBC's typographic identity, and is designed to “improve the experience of reading for everyone, regardless of ability, context or canvas”.

2.  Hindustan Times

Attribution

•  if a person carries or prefers a single name, say so in the attribution
•  made-up or fictitious names are not allowed
•  if you are not disclosing a name to protect a victim or patient’s identity, say so
• if an official or representative does not wish to be identified, say why. Minimise use of a company/government official said on condition of anonymity. State why … because of company or government policy or because the person is not authorised to talk on this particular matter.

Abbreviations /acronyms

• always use the full form, including that of political parties and company names, at first mention
• exceptions can be made in the rare case of entities whose abbreviations are more familiar to readers than their full forms or names which require no full form (examples are HIV, Aids)
• if, for reasons of flow, an abbreviation/acronym eg the US or the UK is used in the introductory paragraph, the full form (the United States or the United Kingdom) should follow at next mention
•  no full stops between letters or at the end of abbreviations and acronyms so PMO not P.M.O. or US Embassy not U.S. Embassy

Age

• a person’s age can be recorded in one of two ways: Ram Singh, 38, or 25-year-old Asha Rani
• Rahul Gandhi, aged 34, or 52 year old Tony Blair (without the hyphens) isnot allowed
•  all other forms of recording age, especially thirty-something, fortyish etc, are not allowed
•  people in their 20s or 40s takes no apostrophe
•  do not use the word youth unless referring to a collective of young people
•  a man or woman is someone 18 years and older
•  a girl or boy is someone 17 years or younger
• a minor or juvenile is someone described thus by legislation or a court and used only in that context. 

Banned words and phrases 

The following are banned:

• Clichés
•  Indianisms like prepone, pin drop silence, serious (for seriously ill), wheatish complexion
• contractions that may give offence
• remnants of archaic, colonial-era English like miscreants (use the word that is being used by the court), eve teasing, (use harassing or sexually harassing instead), etc, are avoided
• any word that is perceived as offensive by groups or communities. 

Bullet points 

upper case the first letter of each point. Do not take a full stop after each point, ie:

• This is the first bullet point
• This is the second
• This is the third
•  and takes a full stop at the end of the list of points.

Bylines

• the reporter’s byline is always in bold type, flush left of the first column at which the story starts, below the headline and just above the dateline
•  only the first letter of each word in the byline is in capitals
•  a reporter will only take a byline if he or she has sourced or written at least 50% of the copy
•  if there are more than two contributors to a story, the bylines should appear at the end of the copy
• the byline on a story that combines the efforts of an HT reporter with agency copy should read Reporters Name and Agency Name. Or the story may take the reporter's byline and the words with inputs by (name of agency) at the end if the reporter's work is more than 60% of the copy.

Captions

• every photo unless it is part of an info-graphic should have a caption, even a picture of someone extremely well known. If space is available, the context of the photo should also be stated
• what is obvious from the photograph, barring the identities of the people shown, should be omitted
• a head and shoulder pic of someone used with a brief may be captioned in the copy as follows: bold the name at first mention and write left, right, above  or below  in brackets after the name.

Class(versus standard)

• we use class and standard interchangeably in HT. While both are correct, for reasons of consistency, we will use class (uppercase) for school years followed by an Arabic numeral. Class 1, Class 2, standard 1, standard II .

Colloquialisms and Slang

•  not permitted in the main section (eg kids, pricey, cool);
• may be used, with care, in HT City, HT Cafe, HT Next and HT Edge

3. The Economist

The first requirement of The Economist is that it should be readily understandable. Clarity of writing usually follows clarity of thought. So think what you want to say, then say it as simply as possible. Keep in mind George Orwell’s six elementary rules (“Politics and the English Language”, 1946):

• Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print (see metaphors).
•  Never use a long word where a short one will do (see short words).
•  If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out (see unnecessary words).
•  Never use the passive where you can use the active (see grammar and syntax).
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent (see jargon).
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous (see iconoclasm). 

Ampersands 

Should be used:

• when they are part of the name of a company:Procter & Gamble Pratt & Whitney
• for such things as constituencies where two names are linked to form one unit:The rest of Brighouse & Spenborough joins with the Batley part of Batley & Morley to form Batley & Spen.

Definite article

If an abbreviation can be pronounced – EFTA, NATO, UNESCO – it does not generally require the definite article. Other organisations, except companies, should usually be preceded by the:

• the BBC the KGB the NHS the NIESR the UNHCR

Elements

Do not take small caps when abbreviated:

• carbon dioxide is CO2
• chlorofluorocarbons are CFCs
• lead is Pb
• methane is CH4
• the oxides of nitrogen are generally NOX

Headings, cross-heads, captions, etc

 In headings, rubrics, crossheads, footnotes, captions, tables, charts (including sources), use ordinary caps, not small caps. 

Initials in people’s and companies’ names

In general, follow the practice preferred by people, companies and organisations in writing their own names.(with a space between initials and name, but not between initials)

Acronym

A pronounceable word, formed from the initials of other words, like radar or NATO. It is not a set of initials, like the BBC or the IMF. Actionable means giving ground for a lawsuit. Do not use it to mean susceptible of being put into practice: prefer practical. active, not passive. Be direct. A hit B describes the event more concisely than B was hit by A.

Address

What did journalists and politicians do in the days, not so long ago, when address was used as a verb only before objects such as audience, letter, ball, haggis and, occasionally, themselves? Questions can be answered, issues discussed, problems solved, difficulties dealt with. 

Aetiology

It is the science of causation, or an inquiry into something’s origins. Etiolate is to make or become pale for lack of light. 

4. Associated Press

Numbers

• Spell out the numbers one through nine; for 10 and up, use Arabic numerals.
• Spell out numerals that start a sentence; if the result is awkward, recast the sentence:Twenty-seven detainees were released yesterday. Yesterday, 993 freshmen entered the college.
• The one exception to this rule is in a sentence that begins with a calendar year: 1938 was a turbulent year for Leon.
• Use Roman numerals for wars, monarchs and Popes: World War II, King George VI, Pope John XXIII
• The figures 1, 2, 10, 101, and so on and the corresponding words — one, two, ten, one hundred one and so on — are called cardinal numbers. The terms 1st, 2nd, 10th, 101st, first, second, tenth, one hundred first and so on are called ordinal numbers.

Datelines

• Put the city name in CAPITAL LETTERS, usually followed by the state, country or territory where the city is located.
• Domestic and international large cities stand alone in datelines (see the AP Stylebook under “datelines” for a complete listing).
• Do not abbreviate Canadian provinces and territories.
• In most cases, use the conventionally accepted short form of a nation’s official name (e.g. Argentina rather than Republic of Argentina), but there are exceptions. 

Academic Degrees

• Avoid abbreviations: Billy Bob, who has a doctorate in philosophy.
• Use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, a master’s, etc.
• There is no apostrophe in Bachelor of Arts or Master of Science.
• Use abbreviations such as B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. only when the need to identify many people by degree on first reference would make the preferred method cumbersome; use the abbreviations only after a full name and set the abbreviations off with commas:Samuel Cotton, Ph.D., lectured yesterday on bioethics.

Dates

• Always use Arabic figures, without st, nd, rd or th.
•  Capitalise months.
• When a month is used with a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec. (e.g. Oct. 4 was the day of her birthday.)
• When a phrase lists only a month and year, do not separate the month and the year with commas. (e.g. February 1980 was his best month.)
• When a phrase refers to a month, day and year, set off the year with commas. (e.g. Aug. 20, 1964, was the day they had all been waiting for.)

Time

• Use figures except for noon and midnight
• Use a colon to separate hours from minutes (e.g. 2:30 a.m.)
• 4 o’clock is acceptable, but time listings with a.m. or p.m. are preferred

Punctuation

Apostrophe (')

• For plural nouns ending in s, add only an apostrophe: the girls' toys, states' rights.
• For singular common nouns ending in s, add 's: the hostess's invitation, the witness's answer.
• For singular proper names ending in s, use only an apostrophe: Descartes' theories, Kansas' schools.
• For singular proper names ending in s sounds such as x, ce, and z, use 's: Marx's theories, the prince's life.
• For plurals of a single letter, add 's: Mind your p's and q's, the Red Sox defeated the Oakland A's

Colon (:)

• Capitalise the first word after a colon only if it is a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence: He promised this: The company will make good all the losses. But: There were three considerations: expense, time and feasibility.
•  Colons go outside quotation marks unless they are part of the quoted material.

Comma (,)

• Do not put a comma before the conjunction in a simple series: John, Paul, George and Ringo; red, white and blue.
• Use a comma to set off a person's hometown and age: Jane Doe, Framingham, was absent. Joe Blow, 34, was arrested yesterday.

Dash (—)

• Make a dash by striking the hyphen key twice. Put a space on either side of the dash: Smith offered a plan — it was unprecedented — to raise revenues.
• Use a dash after a dateline: SOMERVILLE — The city is broke.

Hyphen (-)

• Use a hyphen for compound adjectives before the noun: well-known actor, full-time job, 20-year sentence
• Do not use a hyphen when the compound modifier occurs after the verb: The actor was well known. Her job became full time. He was sentenced to 20 years.
• Do not use a hyphen to denote an abrupt change in a sentence—use a dash.

5. The Guardian

Abbreviations and acronyms

Do not use full points in abbreviations, or spaces between initials, including those in proper names: IMF, mph, eg, 4am, M&S, No 10, AN Wilson, WH Smith, etc.

Use all capitals if an abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters (an initialism): BBC, CEO, US, VAT, etc; if it is an acronym (pronounced as a word) spell out with initial capital, eg Nasa, Nato, Unicef, unless it can be considered to have entered the language as an everyday word such as awol, laser and, more recently, asbo, pin number and sim card. Note that pdf and plc are lowercase.

Brackets

If the sentence is logically and grammatically complete without the information contained within the parentheses (round brackets), the punctuation stays outside the brackets. (A complete sentence that stands alone in parentheses starts with a capital letter and ends with a stop.)

Capitals

Times have changed since the days of medieval manuscripts with elaborate hand-illuminated capital letters, or Victorian documents in which not just proper names, but virtually all nouns, were given initial caps (a Tradition valiantly maintained to this day by Estate Agents). A glance at the Guardian of, say, 1990, 1970 and 1950 would greater use of capitals the further back you went. The tendency towards lower case, which in part reflects a less formal, less deferential society, has been accelerated by the explosion of the internet: some net companies, and many email users, have dispensed with capitals altogether.

Dates

January 1 2000 (no commas); it is occasionally alleged that putting month before date in this way is an “Americanisation” — in which case it should be pointed out that this has been our style since the first issue of the Manchester Guardian on May 5 1821. 21st century; fourth century BC; AD2006 but 1000BC; for decades use figures: the swinging 60s or 1960s.

Europe

Includes Britain, so don’t say, for example, something is common “in Europe” unless it is common in Britain as well; to distinguish between Britain and the rest of Europe the phrase “continental Europe” may be useful; eastern Europe, central Europe, western Europe.

Foreign names

The French (or French origin) le or de, the Italian di and the Dutch van are all lc when the name is full out: eg Graeme le Saux, Roberto di Matteo, Pierre van Hooijdonk; but Le Saux, Di Matteo, Van Hooijdonk when written without forenames

Gender

Our use of language should reflect not only changes in society but the newspaper's values. Phrases such as career girl or career woman, for example, are outdated (more women have careers than men) and patronising (there is no male equivalent): never use them. Businessmen, housewives, male nurse, woman pilot, woman (or lady!) doctor similarly reinforce outdated stereotypes. Actor and comedian cover men and women; not actress, comedienne (but waiter and waitress are acceptable — at least for the moment). Firefighter, not fireman; PC, not WPC (most police forces have abandoned the distinction).

Headlines

Use active verbs where possible, particularly in news headlines: “Editors publish new style guidelines” is much better than “New style guidelines published”. Avoid tabloidese such as bid, brand, dub, and slam, and broadsheet cliches such as insist, signal, and target. Take care over ambuiguity: “Landmine claims dog UK arms firm”, which appeared in the paper, contains so many ambiguous words that you have to read it several times to work out what it means.

Introducing people

Never use the following construction to introduce a speaker or a subject: “School standards minister David Miliband said … " Instead, use the definite article and commas to separate the job from the name, like this: “The school standards minister, David Miliband, said … " (there is only one person with this specific post). Commas are not used if the description is more general and could apply to more than one person, like this: “The education minister David Miliband said … " (there are several education ministers); or like this: “The former school standards minister Estelle Morris said … ” (there have been several).

Font

Guardian Egyptian is a slab-serif typeface commissioned by Mark Porter for the UK newspaper The Guardian and designed by Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz between 2004 and 2005 and published by their company Commercial Type.