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but when the address appears in continuous text, use commas where the lines would normally break. Full stops should not be used in.
Typology: Study notes
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1.0 Introduction
This guide has been produced to promote a consistent style for University of Aberdeen publications and for the Universityās website and is based on commonly accepted standards such as those adopted by The Times and the BBC.
Just as we have a visual identity to make sure that we present a strong, consistent image to the world, so should we follow some basic guidelines when writing for the University. Our writing should be easy to read, easy to understand and presented in a consistent style that is familiar to most readers.
2.0 Rules
Rule Wrong Right
Use of abbreviations should be kept to a minimum. Where abbreviations are used, punctuation should be avoided.
eg. or e.g. ie. or i.e. etc. or e.t.c. pp. or p.p.
eg ie etc pp viz et al
Abbreviations āieā and āegā do not carry punctuation but are preceded with a comma and space.
The book is long i.e. over 3, pages.
The book is long ie over 3, pages.
The book is long, ie over 3, pages.
Measurements should be treated similarly, with no full stops.
m.p.h. a.m. p.m. cm. mm. min. hr.
mph am pm cm mm min hr
Geographical abbreviations follow a similar style.
Points of the compass should not be abbreviated in straight text and generally carry lower-case initials (see also Area Names).
North, South, East, West N, S, E, W n, s, e, w
north south east west
Rule Wrong Right
Acronyms and initialisms should be set in capitals and should have no full stops and spaces between letters.
For plurals of nouns that donāt end in s, the apostrophe goes before the s.
The womens minibus runs on Fridays.
The womenās minibus runs on Fridays.
Omission: Apostrophes are also used to show that letters are missed out of a word or phrase, usually to make it easier to pronounce.
Theyre
Wont
Theyāre
Wonāt
Never use an apostrophe to form a plural with numbers and letters.
1990ās
CDās
1990s
CDs
Its/Itās: Its means belonging to it.
Itās means it is.
The dog has itās bone.
Its cold today.
The dog has its bone.
Itās cold today.
Rule Wrong Right
Official area names which include points of the compass should carry a capital initial, otherwise lower case should be used
south Yorkshire the west midlands western Australia
North-East
South Yorkshire the West Midlands Western Australia
north-east (if used to refer to this area follow with Scotland to avoid confusion)
Points of the compass not used as part of an area name should not carry a capital initial
the South of Scotland
North-East Scotland
the south of Scotland
north-east Scotland
Rule Wrong Right
Donāt use ending punctuation for single words of short phrases in a list.
ļ· Students. ļ· Academics; ļ· Staff.
ļ· students ļ· academics ļ· staff
Where bullets form full sentences use an initial capital and full stop.
This style guide has many functions:
ļ· its primary aim is to ensure consistency across the Universityās publications and the website and it will be made available to all staff
This style guide has many functions:
ļ· Its primary aim is to ensure consistency across the Universityās publications and the website and it will be made available to all staff.
Rule Wrong Right
Names: capitalise names, course titles, names of institutions etc but try to keep to a minimum.
principal
school of education
Principal
School of Education
Headings: Always write headlines and headings in lower case (after the first initial capital letter). The only exception to this is if there is a name within the heading.
Specific guidelines apply to menus and major headings on the website ā see the Web Editorsā Guide.
New Menu At Zeste.
NEW MENU AT ZESTE.
New menu at zeste.
New menu at Zeste.
When referring to a particular decade use, eg āsixtiesā or ā1960sā (no apostrophe)
1960ās 1960s
Rule Wrong Right
Please use these names in full. Do not use abbreviations (CASS, CLSM etc) unless for internal purposes only. Note capitalisation.
College of arts and social sciences
College of Life Sciences & Medicine
College of Arts and Social Sciences
College of Life Sciences and Medicine
Rule Wrong Right
Full stops should not be used after headings, subheadings, paragraph headings etc..
Page heading. Page heading
Only one space should be used in a sentence following a full stop
end of sentence. Start of new end of sentence. Start of new
Minimise use of full stops in abbreviations. Use only for clarification or to avoid misinterpretation, eg, ānoā meaning ānoā and āno.ā meaning ānumberā.
e.g. e.g
eg
Rule Wrong Right
Keep hyphenation to the minimum to avoid ambiguity. Distinguish between āa man-eating tigerā and āa man eating tigerā; āfour year-old childrenā and āfour-year-old childrenā. Words such as āmakeupā and āchildcareā can be run together and written without a hyphen. āPart-timeā and āfull-timeā need hyphens (both as nouns and adjectives), but āpostgraduateā and āundergraduateā do not.
Part time
Full time student
Post-graduate
Under-graduate student
part-time
full-time student
postgraduate
undergraduate student
Ages as adjectives are hyphenated.
21 year old John Smith.
John Smith is 21-years-old.
21 - year-old John Smith.
John Smith is 21 years old.
Rule Wrong Right
Italicise Latin names, foreign words, ship names and titles of periodicals, works of art, films, plays, newspapers and books in preference to using quotation marks
āThe Timesā War and Peace
The Times War and Peace
Rule Wrong Right
Job titles should be capitalised where it is a specific person such as āProfessor Smith is a Lecturer in Physicsā. General jobs such as āa professorā should be in lower case.
A Lecturer in Music.
Professor Smith, lecturer in music.
John Smith, head of admissions.
A lecturer in music.
Professor Smith, Lecturer in Music.
John Smith, Head of Admissions.
Titles which precede a name should also have initial capitals.
vice-chancellor Vice-Chancellor
Rule Wrong Right
Many Latin plurals are commonly used in preference to the singular form: data , or conversely the singular form is pluralised: forums.
Being overly prescriptive can be off-putting to the reader, so where language has evolved we have adopted the approaches evident in common parlance.
fora
formulae
syllabi
data are
a datum
an alumuni
a criteria
forums
formulas
syllabuses
data is
data
an alumunus
a criterion
Rule Wrong Right
Numbers, including ages, up to 10 should be spelled out in full, ie there are eight students , but figures should be used for 10 and above. However, figures should be used for statistics, money, weight, measurements.
There are 29 schools, 1 college and ten universities.
You will receive either £nine or £92.
The child is 6 years old.
There are 29 schools, one college and 10 universities.
You will receive either £9 or £92.
The child is six years old.
Never start a sentence with a number, always spell it out.
End of sentence. 12 people took part in the studyā¦
End of sentence. Twelve people took part in the studyā¦
āPer centā should be written as two words in full except in diagrams and tables. The symbol may also be used in headlines.
90% 90 per cent.
For purposes of clarity, numbers above 999 should carry a comma
There were 4285 students.
The project cost £15000.
There were 4,285 students.
The project cost £15,000.
Million/Billion should be written in full the first time it is used, thereafter a symbol of lowercase āmā or ābnā (no space) can be used. For thousands, ākā should not be used, instead use digits separated by a comma (eg Ā£100,000).
First reference: 15million.
Thereafter: 15 m.
15k.
First reference: £15 million.
Thereafter: 15m.
15,00 0.
Decimal points should be preceded by a digit.
For currency, use either £ or p, but not both.
£3.50p £3. 56p
Spaces should not appear between figures and abbreviated measurements.
5 mm 10 cm 20 g
5mm 10cm 20g
Do not use spaces for % (only use symbol in tables, otherwise write per cent), temperatures or times.
9 am
9am
Rule Wrong Right
Activities of groups such as research institutes, teams or schools should be reported as āthe School isā not āthe School areā. Words such as āalumniā and āmediaā are plurals, but note exceptions under 2.14 Latin plurals.
All organisations and institutions are singular, and should be referred to as āitā, not ātheyā.
The University of Aberdeen are
The team are
The university is reviewing their
The University of Aberdeen is
The team is
The university is reviewing its
Rule Wrong Right
Use s (British) rather than z (American) for words ending āiseā.
The only exceptions are capsize and seize.
Recognize
realize
Organise
Recognise
Rule Wrong Right
Avoid use of the 24 hour clock. There is no need for full stops or spaces between the number and am or pm. Use 12 noon.
10 a.m
10 am
10:
19:
10am
7pm
Rule Wrong Right
Aberdeen University is not allowed.
The University of Aberdeen should be used at all times (the only exception is AUSA)
Aberdeen University,
Aberdeen Uni
University of Aberdeen
When referring to the University of Aberdeen in body text without using the full name, the word āUniversityā should carry an initial capital.
When referring to universities in general, use lower case.
the university has produced this style guide (when referring to Aberdeen).
students at Universities in Scotlandā¦.
the University has produced this style guide.
students at universities in Scotlandā¦.
Note use of capitals and hyphen for the title āVice- Chancellorā and āVice- Principalā.
Vice chancellor Vice-chancellor
Vice-Chancellor
Do not use hyphens in telephone numbers. Use brackets only for clarification of alternative digits in international dialling codes.
Keep email or web address hyperlinks as a single entity wherever possible. If itās unavoidable to break them across rows, break after the forward slash.
Never insert hyphenation to reflect a break as the hyperlink will not function.
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ www.abdn.ac.uk
Do not include āhttp://ā in web addresses unless the address doesnāt begin with www in which case āhttp://ā must be prefixed
http://www.aberdeensportsvillage.com/
studentmail.abdn.ac.uk
www.aberdeensportsvillage.com
http://studentmail.abdn.ac.uk/
Express āemailā as one word (no hyphen), using upper case āE" only when at the start of a sentence.
Email can be used as both a verb and noun.
E-mail e-mail
Express āonlineā as one word.
on-line online
Express āwebsiteā as one word with lower-case initial.
web site Web site web-site
website
3.0 Quick Reference
Wrong Right
Aberdeen University University of Aberdeen
@ Should never be used in place of āatā
advisor adviser (but advisory)
alot (never) allot (unless in the context to distribute between or among)
a lot (two words meaning many)
all ready (unless used in context āwe are all ready toā)
already (means āby nowā, āeven nowā, or āby thenā eg āthe course has already startedā)
alright all right
A-Level/ A-level A level (no hyphen, lower case l)
amidst amid
amongst among
an historic collection A historic collection (use only if h is silent, eg an honour)
any way (unless meaning āany methodā) Anyway (meaning regardless)
Wrong Right
carpark car park
co-operate cooperate
co-ordinate coordinate
college of arts & social sciences College of Arts and Social Sciences
college of physical sciences College of Physical Sciences
college of life sciences & medicine College of Life Sciences and Medicine
Wrong Right
degree classes ā 2.1, 2.1 2:1, 2:
desk top desktop
Dr. Dr (no full stop)
Wrong Right
E-mail/e-mail email
e-learning, e-commerce eLearning, ecommerce
e.g. eg (use for example in preference)
Etc. etc (avoid if possible)
extra curricular extracurricular
Wrong Right
Freshers Week/ Fresherās Week Freshersā Week
field work fieldwork
figure head figurehead
fulltime/ full time full-time
fund raising fundraising
Wrong Right
Government government (lower case unless Scottish Government)
ground-breaking groundbreaking