Housestyle

This section sets out our own rules on how to present your stories – in order to achieve consistency across the site.

Capitalisation

The general principle is to use as few initial capitals as possible, since they make pages look ugly and breed inconsistencies.

Instance	Rule(s)	Examples
The Queen – and a few others where person and role are almost inseparable	Always capitals – with or without the name	“Queen Elizabeth the Second” “the Queen” “the Pope” (but “the pontiff”) “the Dalai Lama” “the Archbishop of Canterbury” (but “the archbishop”) “the Sultan of Brunei” “the Shah of Iran”
Other royalty	Ours, as a family, are always capped Our Queen is unique among royal individuals (ours or foreign) in retaining the initial cap in all circumstances	“the Royal Family”, “the Royal Wedding”, “the Royals” (though better not to use it) “Prince Charles” – but “the prince” “The Duke of Edinburgh” – but “the duke” “Queen Noor” – but “the queen”
PMs, presidents, ministers, etc - with names	Use capitals when the title is accompanied by the name NB: title BEFORE name	“The American President, Bill Clinton, said he was horrified”, “The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Barak, rejected the criticism” “The First Minister, Donald Dewar, agreed”
PMs, presidents, ministers, etc - without names	If you’re not mentioning the name, use lower case	“The French foreign minister has condemned the European commissioner for transport” ”In Cardiff, the first secretary is to meet the Irish prime minister”
Former PMs, presidents, ministers, etc	As above: with the name, use caps; without the name, lower case	“The former President, Jimmy Carter, is to make a political comeback” “The former president said he wanted to spend less time with his family”
Governments	Use upper case only if you name a specific government	“The Italian Government has resigned” “In Italy, the government says it can’t go on” “The Scottish Executive has expressed concern” “The executive in Edinburgh is to hold emergency talks”
Political parties	Upper case	“Labour Party”, “Conservative Party”; but “the party” NB: “Liberal Democrats” at first reference, then “Lib Dems”
Parliaments	Most parliaments or houses have proper names, which should take caps ‘Parliament’ is capped only if you’re referring to Westminster, in any context; or either the Scottish or European Parliaments – where you are giving the full name	“the House of Commons” (“the Commons”), “the House of Lords” (“the Lords”), “the Knesset”, “the Bundestag”, “the Duma” (BUT: “Mr Blair told the house..”; “The upper house was in uproar”) “Mr Blair told Parliament he was sorry” “Fist-fights have started in the Dutch parliament” “The dispute will now be discussed in the European Parliament” “Mr Dewar will report to the Scottish Parliament” (But: “He told the parliament in Edinburgh..”)
Assemblies	‘Assembly’ is capped only when you are giving the full title	“The problems facing farmers will be discussed by the Welsh assembly” (ie lower case – unless you’re giving its full title: “the National Assembly for Wales”) “The future of the Northern Ireland Assembly remains uncertain” “The Stormont assembly has been suspended”
Parliaments and assemblies – the members		MSP = Member of Scottish Parliament AM = Assembly Member MEP or Euro-MP = Member of the European Parliament NB: “cabinet” and “shadow cabinet” are always lower case
Opposition portfolios	Lower case – with or without the name	“The shadow chancellor, Michael Portillo, was furious” “The shadow chancellor walked out of the meeting” “The Liberal Democrat health spokesman..” NB: “Leader of the Opposition” “Her Majesty’s Opposition” (but: “the opposition”)
Other job titles - including BBC jobs	Lower case	“The chairman of Microsoft, Bill Gates, has gone fishing” “The chief political correspondent of the BBC, John Sergeant, has joined ITN” “The director general of the BBC, Greg Dyke, has sold his shares in Granada” ”The England captain, Nasser Hussain, got a duck”
Religions	Use caps for religions and denominations	“Muslims”, “Catholics”, “Protestants”,etc (BUT: “loyalist”, “republican”, “nationalist” ) Lower case “church” for the actual buildings; otherwise “Church” Lower case for “mass”(which is “celebrated”)
Books, films, poems, plays, etc	Use caps. There is no need for italics or quotation marks	“Steve McQueen starred in The Great Escape”, “Dickens next wrote Great Expectations”
Courts	Use caps if you are giving the court’s official title. Otherwise (and if in doubt), cap down	“the US Supreme Court” “the European Court of Human Rights” “Bow Street Magistrates Court” “The appeal court in Iceland has ruled..”
Sport	Use lower case for managers, coaches etc.	“Kevin Keegan said he had been disappointed by the team’s performance. The England coach said he would be considering ‘wholesale changes’ before the next match”
Place names	Upper case for recognised regions - and also rather vaguer political or geographical areas Otherwise, lower case - with hyphens as appropriate	“the Middle East”, “the Far East”, “East Asia”, “South Asia”, “South East Asia”, “Central Asia”, “Eastern Europe”, “Western Europe”, “the West country”, “the North East”, “the South West” “south-east France”, “north-west Kent”, “east Lancashire” AND ALWAYS: south Wales, north Wales, mid Wales, etc
The internet	Capitals have been dropped.	“internet”, “web”, “website”, “online”, “the net”, “e-mail” . But : “BBC News Online” (and NEVER just “News Online”). We say dot.com for those racy stocks.
Miscellaneous - Where you should use caps	‘Budget’ is capped for the Westminster extravaganza – otherwise lower case ’High Street’ Third World (BUT: other than in quotes, best avoided; instead, say ‘developing world’, or ‘developing nations’) Words derived from names	“The chancellor has announced the date for his Budget” “The Australian parliament has begun its budget debate” “The High Street banks have all cut mortgage rates” “The president said he intended to help the Third World” “This was a Pyrrhic victory”
Miscellaneous- where you should use lower case		“the euro”, “general election”, “secretary general of the UN” (but initial caps if you use the name)
Animals, birds, etc	Lower case – but with Latin names, use italics and cap the first word only	“Corvus corone”
After colons	Technically, you should use lower case after a colon. BUT IN CAPTIONS AND HEADLINES USE A CAP.

Titles

Don’t repeat titles unnecessarily.

Examples: President Clinton at first mention, then Mr Clinton (never use Mr President). The Reverend Doug Fortesque at first mention, then Mr Fortesque. Professor Twaddle at first mention, then Mr/Mrs/Miss/Ms Twaddle.

Honorifics (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss etc) should be used, except for criminals, and journalists, sports people, authors, actors, and entertainers WHEN IN THEIR PROFESSIONAL CAPACITY..

Examples: “Jeremy Paxman stuck to his line of questioning. Paxman refused to be side-tracked” BUT: "the burglars entered Mr Paxman's house. . ."

Miss, Mrs or Ms? Try to find out what the person herself uses. Then stick to that.

Don't be too liberal at dropping politicians' titles. Mr Blair, Mr Prescott, Mr Hague.

The full montgomery: We have dropped the convention of abbreviating individual words in military titles at second reference. Hence, we will no longer say “Gen Pinochet”, “Cpl Jones”, etc : we must repeat “General”, “Corporal”, etc.

However, it remains the case that it is not necessary to repeat the full titles of senior military men at second reference.

Thus: we would give the full title only once with eg Field Marshal Lord Smith, or Admiral of the Fleet Lord Jones. Thereafter, we can refer to "Field Marshal Smith" or "Lord Smith", or "Admiral Jones" or "Lord Jones". We can refer to RAF officers of any rank from air vice-marshal to air chief-marshal (after giving the full title) as "air marshal". We should not contract Lieutenant General Sir John Smith to "Lieutenant General Smith". If we give the full title, we should give the full name. But, at the second mention, we can say "General Smith". Similarly, Major General also becomes simply ''General'', second time round – whereas ''Lieutenant Colonel'' collapses to ''Colonel'' (nb: many foreign armies have Brigadier Generals, who become ''General'' after the first reference. This is not a problem with the British army – which has only Brigadiers).

Company names

It is unrealistic to recreate on site the bizarre combinations of punctuation and formatting that are becoming commonplace: eg the partly-bold oneworld alliance, the variably-fonted ondigital. Therefore: wherever possible, we should treat company names as though their punctuation were conventional. Hence, the airline “go” becomes “Go”, “easyJet” is “Easyjet”, etc. At a stroke, potentially baffling sentences are eliminated (“holidaymakers vote go best buy”). But we will stick to the company’s preferred form if there is good enough reason to do so (so we will still say, eg, PricewaterhouseCoopers, iMac, NatWest)., BUT THIS IS A LEGALLY HAZARDOUS AREA – especially given the current fad for registering variations on existing names (eg there are two very different websites which on our site would be identical, HertsWEB and Hertsweb – one a registered company name, the other a county trademark). THIS MEANS ANY HEADLINE WHICH MIGHT HAVE A LIFE INDEPENDENT OF THE TEXT MUST FOLLOW THE COMPANY’S OWN USAGE, if there is any possibility of confusion. In any case, enormous care should always be taken in ensuring it’s clear who we’re talking about. Pictures can be a useful tool in establishing, for example, that the “Go” in the text is written as “go” when it is painted on the side of a plane. The Business team is now compiling a list of the “preferred forms” which we intend using. The possibility exists that we eventually store them in a customised (Words97) dictionary.

Abbreviations and Acronyms

The rule is to use lower case (with an initial cap) if you would normally pronounce the acronym as a word. Examples: Nato, Nasa, Aids, Unesco, Isa, Miras, Peps (or: personal equity plan). No full stops.

Where you would normally pronounce the acronym as a string of letters, use all capitals. Examples: UNHCR, TGWU, NUT, IMF, VAT (or: value-added tax). Again, no full stops.

If an acronym is unfamiliar or looks odd, it’s probably best avoided.

Numbers

Instance	Rule(s)	Examples
Single and multiple digits	Use words for single figures, digits for anything above nine	One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12
Beginning a Sentence	DO NOT start a sentence with numbers in digits. If you have to begin with a number, write it out in words	‘Seventy-five people died…’
Percentages	Always use digits and % sign	3% , 75%
Fractions	Write fractions in words, or better still, use a decimal	Three-quarters, 0.75
Millions and billions	Spell out except when they are used with currencies	Five million people, 10 billion bacteria, £2bn
Numerals	Use Roman numerals with proper names	Henry VIII and World War II (second reference WWII)

Weights and Measures

· For people’s weights in UK stories, use stones then kg.

· For people’s weights in other stories, use kg then stones.

· For distances, etc, let the context rule! Eg most sci-tech stories will be metric – but miles and pints (esp. of milk, blood and beer) are acceptable in all sections (where appropriate, with metric conversion).

· For speed: 2.5km/h; 60mph

· For temperatures: always Celsius, not centigrade or Fahrenheit. Write ‘30C’.

Currencies

· 50p ; nine pounds ; £10 ; £500m ; £20bn

· Currency references in UK stories: use pounds – without conversion

· Otherwise: for stories where the “source” figure is in US dollars (eg an American company’s results) – use dollars first, then convert to pounds. Where the “source” is in another currency (eg euros), use that first, followed by a conversion into dollars. But the context will determine how rigidly this rule is applied: eg if a multinational European company based in Paris announces its profits in euros, you should add a dollars conversion. But if it also announces plans to spend 2m euros on its UK operations, that figure should be converted to pounds.

· In any case, do not convert every figure in a story. Often only the top figure requires conversion. If the story is unavoidably cluttered with other figures, it will probably be helpful to include a second conversion later on.

Times and Dates

· We should use the 24-hour clock in all circumstances (including streaming), labelled GMT or BST as appropriate. World stories should continue to use local time first, followed by conversion into GMT. Domestic stories with an international dimension should use local time first - followed by a conversion into UK time: eg. "Mr Blair will leave London immediately after this morning's cabinet meeting - arriving in Washington at 1100 local time (1600 BST). "

· Avoid references to “tonight”, “today”, “tomorrow”, etc. (use eg “on Monday”).

· Also: avoid seasonal references in World stories and don’t use the agency style of “northern summer”. Instead, speak in terms of months.

· Date style: put the day before the month (eg 13 September 1999).

· Jurassic, Cretaceous, 21st Century

· Decades are plural: 1960s, 70s, 80s, etc. No apostrophes.

Sports and Scores

If listing scores, put scores BETWEEN names of teams eg Watford 6-0 Real Madrid

Use hyphens in quarter-final, semi-final, all-rounder, full-time, half-time

Do NOT use a hyphen in fullback, halfback

Use a cap C in sporting cups So: FA Cup, World Cup, Calcutta Cup, etc

Said

Please use ‘said’ in preference to anything else. Don’t use explained, intoned, grinned etc. ‘Added’ is acceptable if used sparingly and if it really is the last addition to a set of quotes.

‘Claim’ should be used with caution. It should not be used with an alleged statement of fact, where it suggests we are deliberately casting doubt on what’s being said (“The Russian authorities claim another bomb has exploded”). But it is acceptable with the declaration of an opinion (“Mr Hague claimed that the government had completely failed to uphold law and order").

Incomplete Quotes

Triple dots are used, where, for instance, a sentence is unfinished, or part of a quote is omitted (as in “He says the quality of mercy is not strained… it is twice blest” ).

It’s important NOT to start with a space (because this could mean a new line beginning with the dots): our method, therefore, is to use dot dot dot space.

Accents

If you’re using a foreign word with an accent (whether or not a proper noun), your story on site should retain the accent. For example: we use the German umlaut in place of double vowels (hence, “Schröder” not “Schroeder”). Use the CPS to create special characters (and not Word), to ensure you get the right HTML code.

Punctuation and Quotations

Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks UNLESS it is an incomplete sentence.

Example: Bill Clinton said: “I am completely innocent of all charges.”

Example: Tony Blair said the foreign secretary had his “personal support and the full backing of the cabinet”.

NB: beware the American conventions – which are different. Do not pick them up from copy.

Use single quotes in headlines and crossheads.

Example: Pakistan to ‘build nuclear weapons’

Single quotes, also, for quotes within quotes.

Example: Bill Clinton said: “Chelsea told me she was ‘sick of being hounded’ by photographers.”

Use double quotes in picture and audio captions.

Avoid semi-colons. They are difficult to read on screen. If you want to break a sentence, use a single hyphen with spaces either side. The only exception is when you have a list within a list.

In text, use double inverted commas, even where your instinct might be to use single. Examples: "road rage", "mad cow" disease, at first instance. No inverted commas subsequently.

After colons in headlines or captions, use caps.

Example: Means-tests: Who is to benefit?

Do not use full stops or semi-colons in incomplete sentences, in lists or in captions.

Audio/Video Captions

The caption must identify the speaker, mention the BBC if appropriate -- and use quotation marks if you’re using a direct quote,

Examples: Michael Portillo: "My private hell”

The BBC's Andy Tighe: "Things will never be the same again."

BBC arts correspondent Rosie Millard: “Canned in Cannes”

The BBC’s Peter Day on the sellers’ market in housing.

In REAL PLAYER captions (“Clip Title” in the CPS), add something more specific than the page caption. So say where, who, when, or for which programme.

Examples: Rosie Millard reports for PM on the film-world’s wildest parties;

Michael Portillo tells Panorama of the crisis in his personal life

Square Brackets

If you must, use square brackets for interpolations.

Example: Reacting to the news, Mr Blair said: "He [President Clinton] is my best friend."

But: if an explanation is required, the direct quote is probably not worthwhile anyway!

Miscellaneous

· co-operate with a hyphen – it reads better

· genetically-modified food – with a hyphen

· A-level -- with a hyphen

· no-one with a hyphen (unless it’s a story about Herman’s Hermits)

· reopen and ceasefire – no hyphens

· Use eg and ie without punctuation

· under way is two words

· schoolteacher is one word

· more than should be used with numbers (“More than ten people.”). Do not use ‘OVER’

· about should be used to mean ‘approximately’. Do not use ‘AROUND’ or ‘SOME’

· Don’t use contractions like this one. Spell it out: do not, is not, cannot etc

· Do not use lawsuit. Use legal case, prosecuted, sued - whichever is appropriate

· Do not use stand-off unless unavoidable – in which case, remember the hyphen

· Do not use points - not M.C.Cowdrey, but MC Cowdrey

· Downing Street or Number 10

· The UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair – not “the British Prime Minister”

· Kashmir Say Line of Control at first reference; then cuttable to LoC

· Terrorist etc. Beware - One person’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. In general, don’t use except in quoting eyewitnesses/politicians or in referring to academe (eg Professor of Terrorism Studies)

· BBC News Online, BBC One, BBC Two, Radio 1 to Radio 4, 5Live, BBC News 24 (not BBC1 etc).

· But ITV2, Sky1, Channel 4.