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style_guide_en

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English Style Guide
for writers and translators at
Salesian Head Office, Rome

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Table of Contents
Preface ...................................................................................................... v
1. Abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms ................................................... 1
2. Ampersands .......................................................................................... 5
3. ‘And’ and ‘but’: why it’s okay to start a sentence with a conjunction ............ 7
4. Apostrophes .......................................................................................... 9
5. Books .................................................................................................. 13
5.1. Book dimensions ....................................................................... 13
5.2. Book parts ................................................................................ 14
6. Brackets (parentheses) ......................................................................... 17
7. British vs American English .................................................................. 19
8. Bullet points ......................................................................................... 25
9. Caps vs lower case .............................................................................. 27
10. Colons and semicolons ....................................................................... 31
11. Commas ............................................................................................ 33
12. Compass points ................................................................................. 37
13. Currency ............................................................................................ 39
14. Dashes .............................................................................................. 41
15. Dates and times ................................................................................. 45
16. Ellipses .............................................................................................. 47
17. Etc. .................................................................................................... 49
18. Exclamation marks ............................................................................. 51
19. Foreign words .................................................................................... 53
20. Forward slash .................................................................................... 55
21. He, she or they .................................................................................. 57
22. Initials (people) ................................................................................... 59
23. Italics ................................................................................................. 61
24. Job titles and team names .................................................................. 63
25. Numbers ............................................................................................ 65
26. Okay ................................................................................................. 69
27. Old-fashioned words ........................................................................... 71
28. Percentages ....................................................................................... 73
29. Proofreading symbols ......................................................................... 75
30. Punctuation ........................................................................................ 77
31. Quotation marks ................................................................................. 81
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English Style Guide
32. Roman or roman? .............................................................................. 83
33. Saints’ names .................................................................................... 85
34. Small caps ......................................................................................... 87
35. Split infinitives .................................................................................... 89
36. That or which? ................................................................................... 91
37. Titles of books, films, TV programmes ................................................. 93
38. To hyphenate or not to hyphenate? ..................................................... 95
39. Tricky words ...................................................................................... 99
40. Useful keyboard shortcuts ................................................................. 101
41. Web and email addresses ................................................................. 105
42. Weights and measures ..................................................................... 107
Glossary: some printing and publishing terms .......................................... 109
A. Clear English ..................................................................................... 121
B. FALSE FRIENDS ............................................................................... 123
C. TRANSLATING ITALIAN .................................................................... 139
C.1. In general ............................................................................... 139
C.2. In particular ............................................................................ 141
D. Editing process .................................................................................. 147
D.1. Introductory comment .............................................................. 147
D.2. The traditional editing process ................................................. 148
D.2.1. Items to be considered ................................................. 148
D.2.2. Onscreen editing .......................................................... 149
D.2.3. Copyediting techniques ................................................. 149
References ............................................................................................ 151
Index ..................................................................................................... 153
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Preface
This Style Guide is intended primarily for English-language writers and translators
working at the Salesian sede centrale (Salesian Head Office) in Rome. In
this sense, then, it is a ‘house style’ which can guide the use of English in
documentation produced by the General Council, General Chapters, Sectors and
their Departments, Secretariats, ANS, sdb.org.
The reality is that English is now spoken, and certainly understood, by an
increasing number of Salesians and Salesian Family members around the world,
to a point where it may already be the most widely understood language, other
than Italian, in the Congregation. The term ‘style’ as used in this Guide is
synonymous with a set of accepted linguistic conventions in the language. It does
not refer to literary style, nor to pronunciation, and while it recognises that different
varieties of English have introduced words specific to their context, these will only
be the concern of this Guide where their use might lead to incomprehension or
worse, misunderstanding.
There are many varieties of English, which some may prefer to call dialects,
although they are not so much dialects in strict linguistic terms as they are
variations on a common language. For reasons of stylistic consistency the variety
of English on which this Guide bases its instructions and advice is the standard
usage of Britain. For the sake of convenience, it is called ‘British usage’ or ‘British
English’ in this Guide, recognising that it is the 'trunk' from which so many other
Englishes have branched out. For the most part, English in Ireland, India, Australia
and New Zealand, South Africa only displays some minor differences from the
linguistic conventions of British English, (and ‘Brexit’ aside!) it is also a fact that
the European Union, through the European Commission’s Director-General for
Translation, likewise bases its style guide on British English.
None of the above is intended to suggest that the major branch of English known
as American English or American usage is any less valid. The ultimate aim of the
Guide is to encourage clear, reader-friendly English, and this partly implies that
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a choice be made between one or other set of conventions, except where those
two major varieties of English themselves allow for variety of convention.
Note that the Guide is addressed not only to writers, but also to translators. This
inclusion of translation is important in a worldwide Congregation and Family such
as the Salesians of Don Bosco and the Salesian Family that stems from it. On
the one hand, many documents need to be translated into English from Italian (or
other languages of the Congregation), while on the other, many more documents
today are being authored in English for the use of the Congregation at large. These
may be read by people for whom English is not their mother tongue, or they may
need to be translated into their mother tongue. Many people who speak English
as another language struggle to understand English texts. Human translation is
expensive. Machine translation frequently does not give good translations. So the
English we write or speak needs to be clear, consistent, and translatable.
What guides this house style?
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is obviously a guiding light for standard
British English and usage. But not only the dictionary.
The New Oxford Style Manual (NOSM) is an essential handbook for anyone
working with text or seeking authoritative guidance on matters of style, spelling
and presentation. Nevertheless, some of the choices made by the NOSM are
specific to Oxford University Press house style, and are not followed in this Guide.
An example of this is the so-called Oxford (or serial, or Harvard) comma, the
comma used before a conjunction linking the final item in a series, as in Portugal,
Spain, and France where the comma after Spain is the serial comma. This Guide
does not advise the use of the serial comma.
The OED has versions specific to other parts of the English-speaking world:
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa …
In Australia, the Macquarie Dictionary was first published in print in 1981 and has
been online since 2003. It is now nationally and internationally regarded as the
standard reference on Australian English.
India looks to the Oxford Dictionary, and indeed many Indian words have been
added to it, but India also famously has its Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of
Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological,
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Historical, Geographical and Discursive which has been in print since at least
1903 and is still being reprinted.
One very useful online guide is TheWriter.com. It describes itself as ‘40-odd
people on a mission to rescue the corporate world from the tyranny of linguistic
mediocrity. We’ve been around since 1999, and have offices in London and New
York’. It, too, follows standard British English, but recognises the different usage
employed by its New York office.
The previously mentioned English Style Guide for authors and translators in the
European Commission is also a helpful source, especially given the fact that many
Salesians who know and use English in Europe, and there are many of them, will
be guided consciously or unconsciously by the European Commission’s constant
presence through media and other forms of documentation. The latest version of
this guide (12 December 2019) quite clearly states, as well, that ‘the reproduction
and reuse of this document is authorised, provided the sources and authors are
acknowledged and the original meaning or message of the texts are not distorted’.
Expect to find some elements of this guide, then, in the current document.
The Salesian Dictionary, (SD) published in 2019 as a result of the East Asia-
Oceania Salesian Translators' Workshop is the only extant general guide to
English in a Salesian context. See immediately below under the reference to the
translators' appendix.
Where people make the valid choice for American English, they will find useful
references in this Guide to the differences it involves. Ultimately, the Guide urges
consistency, whatever choices are made.
Appendix for translators.
Many mentions of linguistic conventions involved in translation are made
throughout this Guide, but we also add an appendix specific to it, part of which
has already appeared in the recent publication of the Salesian Dictionary. The SD
is itself an important reference work for translators and this Style Guide.
How to use this house style guide.
We have preferred to take a simple alphabetic approach with some minimal cross-
referencing. The PDF version additionally has an index. Anyone using the web
version can search all the text with CTRL+F.
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Given that more people than we realise have some degree of colour-impairment,
we have chosen to use icons to assist with such things as indicating our
preferences or providing additional information.
in the PDF version, our preferences will show a black and
white triangle with an exclamation mark; in the online
web version a red flame, a ‘caution’ icon.
Additional useful information will show up with a black
and white ‘tip’ icon or light bulb in both the PDF and web
versions.
A ‘note’ icon will be used for any other information deemed
interesting but not essential beyond that. In the PDF version
this is a notepad with pencil in black and white. In the web
version it is an ‘i’ on a blue circle.
If viewing the web version offline, these icons will be replaced by their names:
CAUTION, TIP, NOTE respectively.
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1
Abbreviations, acronyms and
initialisms
• abbreviations in the strict sense are formed by omitting the end of a word or
words (Lieut.)
• contractions are formed by omitting the middle of a word or words (Dr).
Informal contractions are widely used but not always appropriate.
• acronyms are formed from the initial letters of words, and pronounced as
words themselves, as opposed to initialisms which are formed that way but
not pronounced as words (BBC).
If the short version is more familiar than the full one, like BBC, FBI or FAQs, you
don’t need to write it out.
If it is not, or if you are not sure how well known it is, put it in full the first time you
use it, then use just the short version from then on. This may often be the case
with Salesian acronyms or initialisms, especially those that refer to the original
language which is not English – Salesian Institutes for Higher Education (IUS).
IUS was initially a simple acronym, until 2001, for Istituzioni
Universitarie Salesiane. In 2001 the semantic range of
Universitarie was extended to include the more generic
institutes of higher education but the letters making up
the acronym remained unchanged. This phenomenon of
maintaining an acronym but adjusting its meaning is not
uncommon in Salesian English — another example is ANS.
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As for punctuation (or not) of abbreviations, contractions, acronyms, initialisms,
follow these general guidelines but also refer to the section on Chapter 30,
Punctuation:
• Traditionally, abbreviations end in full stops while contractions do not: Jun.,
Jr., and Rev. would be normal. These are all abbreviations. Mr and Dr are
contractions. The rule to be followed is that if the shortened form includes the
final letter (making it a contraction rather than an abbreviation), it does not end
with a full stop. This includes St (for Saint) but an exception is made for ‘street’
which is St. with a full stop to distinguish it from Saint.
• Acronyms and initialisms, besides being generally written in capital letters,
usually have no full stops.
• There are other exceptions to the principle that abbreviations have full stops.
For example, abbreviations for eras such as AD and BC have no full stops.
Arabic and Roman ordinal numbers take no full stops (1st, 2nd), nor do book
sizes (4to).
• US usage is different: all abbreviated forms tend to take a full stop (they will
call it a period) at the end.
no. is short for Italian numero and takes a full stop to
avoid confusion. There is not complete agreement in British
usage regarding the plural of this contraction, but the
NOSM helpfully places this question in a broader context
by saying:
A problem can arise with plural forms of abbreviations such
as vol. or ch.: these would strictly be vols and chs, which are
contractions and should not end with a full stop. However, this
can lead to the inconsistent-looking juxtaposition of vol. and vols,
or ch. and chs, so in some styles full stops are retained for all
such short forms. Similarly Bros, the plural form of Bro. brother,
is often written with a full stop.
— New Oxford Style Manual
Our house style leaves the question open. But whatever
form you choose, be consistent throughout a work or series.
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Another matter to consider is whether to use full stops for abbreviations such as
i.e. or e.g.
Our preference is that you use full stops, and that i.e.
and e.g. are not followed by a comma, to avoid double
punctuation.
The Macquarie Dictionary, for example, has a usage note
that indicates that the desire of some writers to reduce the
amount of punctuation in abbreviations has produced some
evidence of ie without stops. Along similar lines, i.e. the
effort to reduce the amount of punctuation, the NOSM tells
us that Oxford style tries to avoid double punctuation where
possible, so for example, if the abbreviation a.m. ends a
sentence, there is no additional full stop: I came back at
3 a.m. For the same reason Oxford style does not use a
comma after i.e. and e.g. though US usage does.
There is the special case of a limited set of referencing abbreviations, where
the plural is formed by repeating a lower-case letter. These take full stops. For
example:
ff. (following) fnn. (footnotes) ll. (lines) pp. (pages)
There is wide disagreement on whether there should be a space after the item
(page number usually) followed by ff. Our preference is that there be a space
(even a thin space), but,
We just ask writers to be consistent in these matters. But be
careful to disinguish nn. (notes) from nos or nos.(numbers).
People tend to use the term ‘acronym’ to describe anything
made up of initial letters, but most dictionaries define
it as ‘a word’. So, NATO is an acronym (because it’s
pronounced as a word) but DNA is an initialism. (Short for
deoxyribonucleic acid.)
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Did you know that scuba is an acronym? It stands for ‘self-
contained underwater breathing apparatus’. You know it
now.
No one quite knows what to call the ones whose pronunciation involves a
combination of letter names and words, like JPEG or MS-DOS. And then there
are the social media ones like BYOB, OMG, FYI. New ones are popping up all
the time. At best they can be called abbreviations, not acronyms, but they are
generally referred to as texting language, or SMS code, since they originate from
the shorthand needed for SMS. But note that they, too, do not normally require
full stops.
What about the use of definite and indefinite articles before an acronym or
initialism? For indefinite articles apply the rule a before a consonant, an before
a vowel or ‘s’ as if the abbreviation following the article were being spoken: an
SDB but a GC28 deliberation. As for definite articles, you need to determine if the
item needs an article: GC28 said that … (note that Italian will use an article where
English does not: Il CG28 indica che …), but the VDB are known as the women
Volunteers of Don Bosco.
Foreign language abbreviations retain the capitalisation of the language they
come from, unless they have been translated into English versions. Be careful
with cf. (confer) which is always to be used instead of the Italian cfr.
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2
Ampersands
Don’t use them unless they are part of a name, like John Wiley & Sons or M&Ms.
The symbol we know as the ‘ampersand’ (&) first appeared
in some graffiti on a Pompeian wall around the first century
AD. It wasn’t called an ‘ampersand’ at the time — it was just
a ligature of the cursive letters ‘E’ and ‘T’ forming the Latin
word et, which means ‘and’. This is why ‘etc.’ is sometimes
written ‘&c’. By the early 19th century, & was the 27th letter
in the alphabet, coming right after Z. Without a title yet, it
was still read as just ‘and’, which made reciting the end
of the alphabet a little confusing — X, Y, Z, and and. Kids
starting inserting the phrase ‘and per se and’ to distinguish
it, and over time, this all got blended together to sound
more and more like ampersand, just like ‘grandpa’ becomes
‘grampa’ when you say it aloud.
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‘And’ and ‘but’: why it’s okay to start
a sentence with a conjunction
All content here taken from TheWriter.com.
‘You can’t start a sentence with “and” or “but”!’
Has someone just spluttered this down the phone at you? Fret not. Here’s all the
evidence you need to prove them wrong.
And the idea that and must not begin a sentence, or even a
paragraph, is an empty superstition. The same goes for but.
Indeed either word can give unimprovably early warning of the
sort of thing that is to follow.
— Kingsley Amis The King’s English (1997)
There used to be an idea that it was inelegant to begin a sentence
with and. That idea is now as good as dead. And to use and in
this position may be a useful way of indicating that what you are
about to say will reinforce what you have just said.
— Sir Ernest Gowers The Complete Plain Words (1954)
There is a persistent belief that it is improper to begin a sentence
with and, but this prohibition has been cheerfully ignored by
standard authors from Anglo-Saxon times onwards.
— RW Burchfield New Fowler’s Modern English Usage
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And (do you see what we did there) if they still don’t like it, here are some more
examples of people doing it. One of them’s from the Bible, for crying out loud.
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was]
upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the
face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that [it was] good: and God divided the
light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day.
— Genesis 1 King James version
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4
Apostrophes
Other than the famous Greengrocer’s apostrophe (see further on), most people
know what to do about apostrophes:
To show belonging
When something belongs to one person or thing:
Hilario’s desk is next to Michael’s.
Words ending in ‘s’
Note the following examples:
Nicolo was pleased with the Salesians’ feedback (the feedback of the
Salesians who responded).
Editors don’t always listen to our writers’ opinions (the opinions of a group
of writers).
Personal names ending in s are these days often given the regular apostrophe s,
whatever their number of syllables or their sound:
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Burns’s poetry, (But TS Eliots' poetry since eliots’s sounds awkward.
Sound will always be a good guide).
Dickens’s novels.
Those who have occasion to refer to classical or biblical names of several
syllables may still prefer the apostrophe alone, as with: Jesus' teachings, Moses'
law, Euripides' plays.
Whatever you do, make sure you are consistent.
When it’s plural and doesn’t end in ‘s’
As exemplified by:
The children’s day (the day for celebrating children).
We don’t interrupt people’s holidays with work stuff (the holidays of a
group of people).
When there’s time involved, but also
apostrophes are no longer used in several kinds of expression where the idea of
possession is tenuous:
one weeks notice
three years work
30 days credit.
Teachers Federation, Kings Cross, Visitors book
In contractions
When you use an apostrophe in a contraction it shows that a letter is missing. So:
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they’re is short for ‘they are’
But note that in won’t, even though there are two letters missing, only one
apostrophe is used.
Remember, the only time it’s needs an apostrophe is when you mean ‘it is’ or ‘it
has’. Even though you’d think the possessive form of ‘its’ (eg ‘the air conditioning
unit has a mind of its own’) would need an apostrophe, it doesn’t. If you find it
confusing, think of ‘ours’ (which is never ‘our’s’).
Not contractions (as they don’t have apostrophes in them) but worth mentioning
are:
• their means ‘belonging to them’
• whose means ‘of whom’
• your means ‘belonging to you’.
The greengrocer’s apostrophe
There was formerly a respectable tradition (17c-19c) of using
the apostrophe for noun plurals, especially in loanwords ending
in a vowel (as in We doe confess Errata’s, Leonard Lichfield,
1641, and Comma’s are used, Phillip Luckcombe, 1771) and
in consonants s, z, ch, sh (as in Waltz’s and cotillions,
Washington Irving, 1804). Although this practice is rare in 20th
c. standard usage, the apostrophe of plurality continues in
… the nonstandard (‘illiterate’) use often called in BrE the
greengrocer’s apostrophe, as in apple’s 55p per lb and We
sell the original shepherds pie’s (notice in a shop window,
Canterbury, England).
— Tom McArthur The Oxford Companion to the English
Language. Oxford University Press 1992
Given this, perhaps we can expect the ultimate demise of the apostrophe
altogether, especially since we already have the arbitrary codification of its and
whose without apostrophe as the genitives of it and who, respectively.
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3 Pages 21-30

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5
Books
Not all text produced at Salesian Head Office becomes a book, but a significant
anount of text does, so it might be helpful to say just a little about book publication
(and the reader is also referred to the Appendix on editing). There is so much
to say about book publishing! Everyone knows a book is judged by its cover, so
perhaps we should limit ourselves to talking about book dimensions and book
parts.
5.1. Book dimensions
The size of a book is generally measured by the height against the width of a leaf,
or sometimes the height and width of its cover.
There are so many ‘standards’ out there, but we can probably mentioned the
United States', the United Kingdom’s cover dimensions, and the ISO 216 paper
sizes used especially in Europe, but increasingly worldwide.
The following table is adapted from the scale of the American Library
Association 1 , in which size refers to the dimensions of the cover (trimmed
pages will be somewhat smaller, often by about 1⁄4 inch or 5 mm). The words
before octavo signify the traditional names for unfolded paper sheet sizes. Other
dimensions may exist as well. US Trade size corresponds with octavo and is
popular for hardbacks. Mass market paperback corresponds with duodecimo.
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_size#United_States
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Book parts
A common paperback size in the UK is B-format. For example, Penguin Classics
are in B-format, which is 129 mm × 198 mm (5 1⁄8 in × 7 3⁄4 in). This contrasts
with A-format (110 mm × 178 mm, 4 3⁄8 in × 7 in) and C-format (135 mm × 216
mm, 5 3⁄8 in × 8 1⁄2 in).
Formerly the descriptions octavo, quarto, duodecimo, etc. were used (see table
above).
The ISO 216 paper sizes include A, B, C. Book publishers are mostly interested
in the A5 of these. The A5 is closest to the British Demy or US Digest size (Digest
being 5.5 x 8.5 inches while A5 is 5.83 x 8.27 inches or, to put this latter in
millimetres, 210mm x 148mm.
Whatever paper size or book size is being considered, remember that printers
require margins. A general rule is 18-20 mm margins but the inner margin usually
needs 20-22 mm.
Photographs and areas of colour (or even just type) that run off the edge of a page
are said to bleed and this may be deliberate, not accidental. Pages that bleed are
printed on a larger sheet of paper and trimmed. Wherever this occurs, a minimum
of 3 mm of extra image area must be supplied outside the trim.
5.2. Book parts
A traditional printed book or other publication may be divided into three sections:
the preliminary pages or prelims, also called front matter, the main text and the
endmatter or back matter.
Prelims
These pages may consist of (see glossary for definitions and descriptions of most
of these):
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Book parts
• a half-title recto page (optional)
• a half-title verso page (if a half-title is included)
• a title recto page
• a title verso (imprint) page
• a table of contents
In a more complex publication there may also be:
• a frontispiece
• a dedication
• an epigraph
• a foreword
• lists of illustrations, figures, tables, maps
• a preface
• acknowledgements
• lists of contributors
• a list of abbreviations
Note that preliminary pages are usually numbered with Roman numerals.
Main text
The main text is generally quite simply structured. The first text page always starts
on a recto with the page number being an Arabic numeral 1.
Main text is often broken up into parts, sections and chapters, depending on the
length and complexity of the publication.
Apart from standard paragraphs, the main text may contain figures, tables,
illustrations, boxed text, call-out text, footnotes, quotations and a variety of other
elements that are treated differently in the text design.
End matter
Everything that follows the main text. This may include appendices, glossaries,
endnotes, bibliographies and indexes. The normal order is as follows:
• list of abbreviations and acronyms
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Book parts
• appendices
• glossary
• endnotes
• bibliography and/or references
• other lists
• acknowledgements
• index
• advertisements
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6
Brackets (parentheses)
Enclosing parenthetic material in round brackets, rather
than commas or en rules, tends to reduce the importance
of the information.
Avoid double use, i.e. brackets within brackets, unless you are using square
brackets within round brackets.
A comma should not appear before an opening round bracket.
When you use brackets as part of a longer sentence, the full stop (or any
other punctuation) goes on the outside. When the whole sentence is within the
brackets, the full stop should come on the inside. This is also a good guide for
punctuating quoted material.
If you’re not sure, take the text in brackets away. If there’s any stray punctuation
hanging around then you’ve got it wrong.
Square brackets […]
We don’t use square brackets very often. You’ll need to use them when you’re
interrupting a quotation to add something or clarify it. Like this:
George is a [client] consultant.
Or, if you have a set of brackets inside a set of brackets. Like this:
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Jan went to the shop with his list of items (Lapsang Souchong, coffee
[ground, not instant] and golf balls), but all he came back with was a
stapler.
Of course, if you are writing mathematical formulas, square brackets are used to
enclose round brackets:
7[4ab – (2nm × 6bm) × nm] + 7a = 1240
Angle brackets <…>
These are used for email and web addresses.
Guillemets «…» (also known as chevrons, or, in Italian, virgolette basse)
Only to be used if an entire text is in, say, French or Italian. Translators need to be
wary of transferring them into English. They are to be replaced with curly
quotation marks.
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7
British vs American English
Here are some of the main differences.
Spelling
One of the biggest differences comes with words ending in -ise. American English
changes pretty much all of these to ‘-ize’ – ‘organize’, ‘recognize’, and so on. It
does the same thing with -yse (‘analyze’, ‘paralyze’).
-ize has been in use since the 16th century and is NOT an
Americanism though it is the usual American form today.
A reputable publisher like Oxford University Press uses -
ize and in fact either termination is acceptable in British
and Australian English. Nevertheless, the OED makes the
following comment regarding usage:
Attempts to distinguish -ize in words based on Greek (idolize,
monopolize) from -ise in words that have come to English from
or through French (realise, moralise) founder on the difficulties
of knowing the precise history of many words. Current Australian
usage clearly favours consistent use of -ise, a practice which has
the advantage of being easy to remember.
It will be clear, then, where our preference lies: -ise for the
sake of consistency and also because it is easier.
Most words ending in -our in British or Australian English end in ‘-or’ in
American English (color, flavor, honor, neighbor, rumor, labor, humor). But note
that Australian English uses Labor in reference to the Labor Party. Note that
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‘contour’, ‘velour’, ‘paramour’ and ‘troubadour’ are spelt the same everywhere.
(In the olden days we used to put ‘u’s in fairly unusual places in British English like
‘ambassadour’, ‘governour’, ‘inferiour’, ‘errour’, ‘horrour’ and ‘mirrour’. True.) (W).
Americans also sometimes like to swap around ’r’s and ‘e’s. So ‘centre’ becomes
‘center’. Same goes for ‘kilometer’, ‘theater’, ‘caliber’, ‘fiber’, ‘saber’ and ‘somber’.
We also disagree on words ending in -ce. Although we both use ‘advice’ as a noun
and ‘advise’ as a verb, American English has abandoned the ‘licence’/‘license’ and
‘practice’/‘practise’ distinction and uses ‘practice’ and ‘license’ for both meanings
(see Chapter 39, Tricky words). American English uses ‘defense’ and ‘offense’,
while we write ‘defence’ and ‘offence’. ‘Defensive’ and ‘offensive’ always have an
‘s’.
And words written with ‘ae’/‘oe’ in British English have a single ‘e’ in
American English, like ‘amoeba’, ‘anaemia’, ‘anaesthesia’, ‘foetal’, ‘haemophilia’,
‘oesophagus’, ‘orthopaedic’ and ‘paediatric’.
Double consonants. Follow the convention of doubling a final -l after a short
vowel on adding -ing or -ed to verbs (sole exception: parallel, paralleled) and
adding -er to make nouns from verbs: level, levelling, levelled, leveller; travel,
travelling, travelled, traveller.
There are so many other differences in spelling. Here is a list which might contain
a few surprises, and one of two of the American spellings are much more likely
to find more general use, e.g. we suggest novitiate be adopted in our texts:
US
behoove
caliper
carburetor
checkered
chili
granddad
jewelry
karat
British
behove
calliper
carburettor
chequered
chilli
grandad
jewellery
carat
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US
licorice
maneuver
mustache
novitiate
pajamas
peddler
phony
pita bread*
plow
pudgy
raccoon
tartar sauce
British
liquorice
manoeuvre
moustache
noviciate
pyjamas
pedlar
phoney
pitta bread
plough
podgy
racoon
tartare sauce
British English spellings mainly follow Samuel Johnson’s
Dictionary of the English Language (1755), while [their]
transatlantic cousins favour (or favor) Noah Webster’s An
American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Most
Commonwealth countries are happy with the British way of
doing things – Canadians, being so close to the US, take
some American ones and some English ones.
Compound words
The US is more ready to accept new words spelled solid (i.e. with no space
or hyphen). An exception is no one which is always two words in the US but
sometimes no-one for us.
Nouns make up the largest group of compound words, and most are readily
understandable without a hyphen. But a hyphen is needed in some instances:
• verb-plus-adverb: make-up, teach-in, go-ahead. The adverb-plus-verb
combination, however, is unproblematic: bypass, downpour, uproar
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• noun-plus-noun: two types are regularly hyphenated: expressions in which
each element has equal status (owner-driver), and expressions in which the
elements rhyme (culture-vulture)
• compound adjectives: pretty much always hyphenated (bitter-sweet) unless
they are set phrases (equal opportunity employer)
• compound verbs: when they consist of adjective plus noun, or noun plus verb,
they are usually hyphenated (to cold-shoulder, to gift-wrap). When they are
an adverb plus a verb they are usually one word (to bypass, to undergo). The
relatively few compound adverbs are usually one word (barefoot, overboard).
See also Chapter 38, To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?
Lexical variations
We say eggplant but the US says aubergine. What is a flat for us is an apartment
in the US. We have lifts and they have elevators. There are many more such
variations.
But note carefully some semantic differences in certain words. So, for example, a
biscuit in the US is more like a roll or scone, and the Christmas crib would be called
a créche in the US. An entree is a main course in the US, and if you call a person
homely there, it is less likely to be a compliment as it means plain, unattractive.
Momentarily will mean 'in a moment' in the US, and to table something means
to remove from consideration rather than to present it for consideration. There is
much grist for the mill of misunderstanding!
Punctuation
Americans are happy with Oxford commas (that’s when you put a comma
before the ‘and’ in a list – see Chapter 11, Commas). This might also be known by
some as the serial comma or even the Harvard comma . And as would be clear
from this comment, Oxford University Press certainly do use the Oxford comma!
We do not, for the most part, but see the comment on commas further on.
They also prefer double quotation marks (see Chapter 31, Quotation marks).
And finally, US usage tends to treat brands, for example Apple, and collective
nouns like ‘team’ or ‘staff’ as single units. So they use them with the singular verb
(unless you’re definitely talking about individuals). So in America you are more
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likely to hear ‘Apple changed its logo’ than ‘Apple changed their logo’. For us it’s
the opposite.
Inflections.
The US does not use -t in past participles like burnt-, _learnt, smelt, spilt, spoilt.
They only use the -ed versions of these words.
Variability in function words.
around/round: The US does not use round as a preposition.
around/about: US English prefers around.
amidst/amongst/whilst: these will not be used in the US. Only amid/among/
while.
toward/towards: The US will use toward rather than towards.
Note that in British English we use -ct- not -x- in connection,
reflection, etc. But note complexion and flexion. Write gram,
kilogram (not gramme, kilogramme). However, use tonne
not ton (‘ton’ refers to the non-metric measure). Write metre
for the unit of length, meter for measuring instruments.
Data-processing usage. Avoid the forms inpu[t]ted and
output[t]ed. Instead use input and output: e.g. 70 000 (or
70,000) items of data were input last month. However, note
the verb to format, which takes the forms formatted and
formatting.
See also:
Chapter 39, Tricky words
Chapter 11, Commas
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8
Bullet points
Bullets or dot points are usually preferable to numbers and letters, but we should
restrict indenting to two levels. Capitalisation follows normal sentence rules. Some
people use semicolons for separating dot points, with a full stop after the last.
A minimalist approach uses no punctuation at the end of a point, and a very
minimalist approach does not even use a point at the end of the last one.
We prefer to do things as follows:
If the sentence before the bullets ends with a colon (like this one):
• start each point with a lower case letter (Word might try to autocorrect you so
watch out for it)
• don’t punctuate at the end of each line
• finish the last one with a full stop.
If the bullets are a self-contained list (i.e. there is no sentence ending in a colon
before them) do them like this:
• Capital letter at the start of each one.
• And a full stop at the end of each one.
If the bullet points are all questions, ignore the above and start them with caps
(even if when preceded by a colon). Because otherwise it looks a bit weird.
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If the bullet points are answering a question, what do you do?
• Capital letter at the start of each one.
• Full stop at the end of each one.
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9
Caps vs lower case
If in doubt, use lower case. Save capital letters for proper nouns (like John or
Rome), acronyms and initialisms.
Headings should generally be sentence case (that’s when the first letter of the
sentence is capitalised and the rest are lower case), unless you are doing
something which needs to look pretty, in which case you might want to use title
case (That’s When Every Word In The Sentence Starts With A Cap). Headings
are not normally followed by a full stop.
… well, almost every word. When it comes to using title case , the formal rule is that
you capitalise all nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives. So you don’t
need to do articles like ‘the’, ‘a’ or ‘an’. Some people say you should capitalise
any conjunction or preposition that’s five letters or more. But that one’s optional.
We could also present this succinctly and clearly by referring to minimum versus
maximum capitalisation.
minimal capitalisation means only first word of a title and any proper nouns and
names are capitalised. Titles of public works are in italics; unpublished works
are set aside by quote marks, as are article or chapters in published item.
Maximal capitalisation involves capitalising all words in a title other than article,
prepositions and conjunctions.
Legislation and periodicals are usually given maximal capitalisation.
Definitely upper case:
References to elements of a publication should be capitalised when mentioned
in running text: Chapter 4.
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The Macquarie Dictionary offers some precise advice on this matter:
The titles of books, films, etc. can be in capital letters throughout, as can some
usually shortish advertisements and headlines in newspapers, but texts of any
kind which are of more significant length, are typically in lower-case letters with
capitals reserved for the first letters only of the first word of each sentence and of
particular words, usually names. The following names are usually capitalised.
Classification
people
institutions
titles
degrees
places
natural features
nations
peoples
languages
established religions
their followers
significant periods
events
special days
festivals
Example
Alice Jackson
Commonwealth Bank
Lady Veronica Hardcastle
Professor Jones PhD
Darwin
Great Barrier Reef
France
Inuit
French
Christianity
Hindus
Middle Ages
Olympic Games
Christmas Day
Ramadan
We should add that adjectives as well as nouns denoting place, language or
indigenous people are capitalised: Aboriginal, Catalan. Related verbs tend to
retain the capital, but note that anglicise and westernise are usually lower case.
To unmask the origin of the capital letter we need to refer to
a script derived from the Old Roman cursive called uncial.
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Uncial is a majuscule script, a synonym meaning 'large or capital letter', commonly
used by Latin and Greek scribes beginning around the 3rd century AD. The word
is derived from the Latin uncialis meaning 'of an inch, of an ounce'.
The first use of the word uncial, and thus the possible origin of its modern meaning,
is from St Jerome’s preface to the Book Of Job and the following passage:
Let whoever will to keep the old books, either written on purple
skins with gold and silver, or in uncial letters, as they commonly
say …
— St Jerome’s Preface on Job Patristic Bible Commentary
It is believed that St Jerome is referring to the uppercase letters within the text.
In addition, as St Jerome makes reference to – the move from the rough writing
surface of papyrus to the smoother parchment and vellum made possible a more
rounded single stroke writing style instead of the former angular, multiple stroke
style.
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10
Colons and semicolons
Colons
Henry Watson Fowler said we should use a colon ‘to deliver the goods that have
been invoiced in the preceding words’.
The colon is a marker of relationship and sequence. The OED quite helpfully offers
the insight that the colon ‘points forward’.
So use them:
To introduce a list
The food must be simple: chicken, salad and wine.
To add to what has gone before
His career was cut short by illness: a great loss to the scientific community.
To introduce a direct question when it amplifies or modifies the preceding
idea
Alex had to choose: The latest Marian Keyes for book club? Or something
more high-brow?
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Note in this instance that no capital is need if there is one question, but in this
case, where there are two questions in complete sentences, capitals are required.
If they were merely sentence fragments, lower case would be sufficient.
For steps
If you’re the last person out of the office, follow these steps: first, rejoice
at having finished for the day, even if it is five hours after everyone else
has left; second, close the windows; third, switch off the lights; fourth, set
the alarm.
Note that steps as indicated above employs semicolons.
US English always uses a capital after a colon.
Semicolons
Linking
Semicolons mark the boundary between main clauses which are juxtaposed in
the same sentence:
He had no further plans; he just wanted out.
Complicated lists
Use it in a list that already contains commas:
‘On Harry’s desk you’ll find: The Oxford English Dictionary, for his wordy
needs; the remnants of a pot plant, long-since dead; and an empty mug,
crying out to be filled up with tea (milk, no sugar).’
The OED explains: without the semicolons, commas would have to serve both
within and between the items listed, and the boundaries between would be less
clear.
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11
Commas
We all know how commas work. But there are a few grey areas, mainly around
the Oxford comma, comma splices and separating adjectives.
Oxford (Harvard, serial) comma
The comma used before a conjunction linking the final item in a series, as in
Portugal, Spain, and France where the comma after Spain is the serial comma.
American English favours using this comma (hence the Harvard comma) but
increasingly it is used only where an ambiguity might result if it were absent.
There is a classic Australian example along the lines of:
The wombat eats shoots, roots, and leaves.
But even here, one could argue that even with the comma you still create a
possible confusion in that ‘leaves’ might be understood to be a verb.
If the wombat eats shoots and roots, and also eats a different category of foods
like bananas and mangoes? Then a comma might help:
In captivity, the wombat eats shoots and roots, and bananas and
mangoes.
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In general, though, our preference is not to use the serial
comma, or perhaps put another way, the real preference
is the use of punctuation to aid clarity. Only use the serial
comma when absolutely needed for clarity.
Comma splice
A comma splice is where you use a comma to separate two independent clauses,
when you should actually be using a semicolon, a dash or a conjunction (like ‘and’,
‘but’ or ‘so’). It is wrong (to be blunt), because commas are used for separating,
not connecting.
Spliced: We are heading for home, we will get there late.
Each clause has a subject and a predicate and forms a complete thought – so it
could stand on its own as a sentence. That means a comma doesn’t work.
Not spliced: We are heading for home; we will get there late.
Or: We are heading for home but will get there late.
Or: We are heading for home – we will get there late.
If you read it out loud you should be able to hear it.
Ah, but:
There are some quite famous comma splices, including:
I came, I saw, I conquered.
Then there is:
… often he sat and looked at the branches of a tree silhouetted
against the sky, it was like a Japanese print…
— Somerset Maugham Of Human Bondage
So splices are sometimes acceptable when the clauses are short and similar, or
as a poetic device.
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Separating a list of adjectives
Ever wondered where to put the comma in a list of adjectives? Well, it depends
on the type of adjective.
Coordinate adjectives
where they describe the noun but each adjective is doing its own bit of describing,
for example, ‘a long, wordy email’. The email is both ‘long’ and ‘wordy’.
Cumulative adjectives
where they don’t separately describe the noun. The adjective directly before the
noun pairs with it, and then the adjective before that describes the pair. For
example, ‘our most experienced in-house trainer’. The person we’re discussing
is an ‘in-house trainer’. And they are the most ‘experienced’.
So how do you know if your adjectives are cumulative or coordinate?
You can rearrange coordinate adjectives (‘a wordy, long email’) and put an ‘and’
between them (‘a long and wordy email’). But you cannot do either to cumulative
ones. An in-house experienced trainer? No way.
So if your adjectives pass the rearranging or ‘and’ test, then you know you’ll need
to separate them with commas.
By the way: in English, we use adjectives in the following order:
• opinion / size / age / shape / colour / origin / material / purpose – NOUN.
Or put another way, in a string of two or three adjectives, the order is normally the
evaluative first, followed by the descriptive and then the definitive.
So: ‘Beautiful, big, old, round, silver, French, metal mixing bowl’. Any other
order sounds wrong:
‘Big, old, beautiful, French, silver, round, metal mixing bowl?’
‘Round, old, silver, big, beautiful, metal, French mixing bowl?’
‘My Greek, Fat, Big Wedding?’
It is no longer considered necessary to put a comma between every adjective,
even if there are several in front of a noun, as in:
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a bright red sports car
The OED is a bit more specific on this, saying that no comma is needed to
separate adjectives of different types: a large black gibbon native to Sumatra.
Nor is a comma needed to separate two or more classifying adjectives where
the adjectives relate to different classifying systems: French medieval lyric poets.
Annual economic growth.
Our preference lies with the earlier mentioned principle of
reducing punctuation where it is possible to do so.
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12
Compass points
Lower case for north, south, east and west, except when it’s part of a name like
South Korea or South Africa.
Also use lower case if it’s a vague area (‘northeast India’) but upper case when
talking about a specific region and using the word ‘the’ before it (like ‘the South’).
And while single capital letter abbreviations are normally followed by a full stop
(La Sapienza U.), Compass points N, S, E, W are not.
Spell out compass points in general text with hyphens as needed: north-westerly.
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13
Currency
It is important to note that there is a difference between currency symbols and
currency codes.
For general writing, currency symbols are generally more recognisable than
currency codes.
So if you are writing about a $13,000 scholarship on an American university
website, use:
US$13,000
On the other hand, if you prefer to use the currency code, place it before the
number, followed by a space:
USD 13,000
As well as US$ (USD) there is A$ (AUD), € (EUR), and £ (GBP). Others can easily
be sought online.
Amounts of money may be spelled out in words with the unit of currency, but are
more often printed in numerals with the symbols or abbreviations: thirteen dollars
or $13.
There is no need to include ‘.00’ – $33 not $33.00. But a minimum of two digits
must always be shown for cents in a decimal fraction. If the number of cents is
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less than ten, a zero must precede it: $0.08[=8 cents], not $0.8[which could be
read as 80 cents].
Round numbers lend themselves to words better than do precise amounts, though
even these may need to be spelled out where absolute clarity is vital.
For anounts of millions and above, and for thousands in financial contexts, it is
permissible to combine symbols, numerals, words and abbreviations according
to the convention of the context in which they appear.
Ranges should be $6,000–$7,000 (not $6,000–7,000, and note the use of an en
dash for ranges).
A dollar sign ($) is fine for Australian and American dollars, but use the appropriate
currency symbol or code if there is any room for confusion.
Use the euro symbol rather than writing the word out in full. So it’s €540, not 540
euros.
See also:
Chapter 40, Useful keyboard shortcuts
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14
Dashes
There are three different weights of dash. A hyphen (which we all know), an en
dash and an em dash. Here they are:
Hyphen -
En dash –
Em dash —
In Britain, but also in much of the publishing industry in English-speaking
countries the en and em dash may well be known as the en and em rule, so from
here one we are calling them a ‘rule’.
Hyphens get their own section: see Chapter 38, To hyphenate or not to
hyphenate?
Em rule
Em rules are often used instead of en dashes to separate out a phrase (like this
in the US, where there is also no space either side: ‘There was no way to make
the words better—or was there?’).
The em rule (with a space either side) signifies:
• an abrupt change, or
• introduces an amplification or explanation, or
• sets apart parenthetic elements.
Despite this, it is common to find an en rule being used for the above purposes!
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Our recommendation is that whichever approach you take
to the above use (or not) of the em rule, it be consistent.
And did you know there is also a 2-em rule? This is to avoid repetition in reference
lists and bibliographies, and to mark an abrupt break in reported speech or direct
speech.
Australian Bureau of Statistics 1999a, Australian demographic statistics,
December quarter 1988. ABS, Canberra.
— 1999b, Australian social trends, cat. no. 4102.0, ABS, Canberra
En rule
Note that in contrast with the em rule, the main function of which is to separate,
the en rule is a linking device.
• Use an en rule, not a hyphen, in a range like 30–40 (only use it if you’re doing
a range of figures – use ‘to’ for things like ‘Monday to Friday’). And for those
ranges, don’t forget to take the spaces out from either side of the rule. Use it
also for time (April–June) and distance (Rome–Florence trains)
• Overuse of the en rule indicates a lack of structural clarity
• We suggest an en rule for showing the range between different chapters in
Scripture references, e.g. Mk 10:21–11:4.
• This one’s a little complicated. Use an en rule to show an association between
words that retain their separate identities: a Commonwealth–state agreement,
cost–benefit ratio. If there is more than one word being linked on one or both
sides of the rule, a spaced en rule should be used: the United States – China
trade negotiations. When the en rule is used this way, the things it links must
be parallel in structure – that is, numbers should be linked with numbers,
nouns with nouns, adjectives with adjectives, and so on: European–Japanese
research teams not Europe–Japanese research teams. To be fair, chances
are no one will notice what rule you use in a situation like this so don’t fret
about it.
• You can link prefixes such as non, pre, or anti by using an en rule instead of
the usual hyphen, if that prefix is attached to more than one word:
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non–English speaking countries, but
non-refundable goods.
However a hyphen is still acceptable in this situation. As above: ‘chances are no
one will notice what rule you use in a situation like this so don’t fret about it’!
By the way, the situation with compound adjectives is similar to the one with
prefixes.
If you type in a hyphen to separate out a phrase within a
sentence, MS Word will generally autocorrect it to an en
rule. But sometimes you might need to put one in manually.
Have a look at the Symbols part of the Chapter 40, Useful
keyboard shortcuts section to see how.
An em dash is called an em dash because it’s (historically)
the width of the capital roman M. En dashes are called en
dashes because … well, you can probably figure that out
(but in fact they are half an em dash).
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15
Dates and times
Format dates like this: 2 March 2020. If you are using a range of dates, go for 2
to 3 March over 2nd–3rd March. It looks nicer. The argument behind presenting
a date as 2 March 2020 is that it is unambiguous, requires no punctuation and
progresses logically from day to month to year. It is typographically preferable to
such forms as ‘March 2, 2020’ or ‘2nd March 2020’, because it avoids the potential
confusion of adjacent numbers in the first, and requires fewer keystrokes than
either.
Grouped years should be 2001–2002 (not 2001–02). And remember to use an
en dash, not a hyphen.
Use the 12-hour clock with a full stop, not a colon. Also use figures and ‘a.m.’ and
‘p.m.’ (unless your habit is not to use full stops) – 2.00 p.m.
The argument for not using full stops is that am and pm can be treated like other
symbols associated with numerals, which are unpunctuated. There may also be
an argument based on the argument of the declining use of punctuation where
it can be avoided …
Whichever you choose, a.m. or am we want you to be
consistent. You will find American English may use AM but
we prefer you do not.
Don’t say 0.5 days when talking about periods of time. Say half a day.
If you are talking about a decade, don’t put an apostrophe in it (1960s).
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16
Ellipses
If you are using an ellipsis to show a pause in speech, an omission, an unfinished
thought or an enigmatic trailing off into silence … then place a space either side
of the three (not four) points. So:
Nats asked us to gather at one end of the office. ‘That’s all I’m saying …’ she
ended cryptically.
This ‘space either side’ is followed by the OED and
Macquarie, and indeed by the New York Times. It is our
choice as well.
If the ellipsis is at the end of a sentence, you do not need to put a full stop after
it. The same goes for before an ellipsis: no punctuation mark precedes it.
When you use an ellipsis to deliberately leave a thought
unfinished in a piece of writing, it’s called aposiopesis.
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17
Etc.
We don’t really like it. Use ‘and so on’, ‘like’.
Same goes for e.g. and i.e.. We prefer ‘like’, ‘such as’ and ‘for example’.
If a list begins with e.g. do not end it with etc.
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18
Exclamation marks
Generally avoid them. They can make you sound like you are shouting (the
influence of the digital world where all-caps and exclamation marks have a
‘shouting’ inference to them).
If you absolutely do need to use one, make sure it is only one.
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19
Foreign words
No need to italicise foreign words that have slipped into common usage (like
curriculum, cliché or faux pas).
Use them for unfamiliar foreign words, e.g. ‘A foreign word may provide the mot
juste for the word of the day.’
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20
Forward slash
The forward slash may be used to mean ‘per’ (km/h) and in fractions (19/100).
Marketing years, financial years, and any other twelve-month periods that do not
coincide with calendar years are also denoted by a forward slash, e.g. 2012/2013,
which is 12 months, rather than by a hyphen (or en dash), e.g. 2015-2016, which
means 2 years.
The forward slash is often used to give alternatives, as in ‘and/or’ and ‘yes/no/
maybe’. It is closed up when separating single words, but is written with a space
either side when one or more of the alternatives is a compound term, e.g.:
Rome/Paris
but
police car / fire engine / ambulance
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21
He, she or they
If you are not sure whether you are talking about a man or a woman, use ‘they’
or ‘their’ as the pronoun.
There’s no singular pronoun in English that covers both sexes. So traditionally
people have gone for ‘he’ or ‘his’ when they didn’t know if they were referring to
a Larry or a Lucy. But singular ‘they’ has actually been around for a very long
time: you can find it in Chaucer, Shakespeare and even the US Declaration of
Independence.
We had a missed call from someone this morning, but they didn’t leave
a message.
One of the people at this morning’s workshop left their notebook on the
table upstairs.
For those who argue that pronouns like they, them and their are grammatically
plural and need to refer to a plural noun, we can suggest that the use of these
plural pronouns shows notional rather than formal agreement. We see this
situation in a sentence such as The police have been alerted. Here, the plural verb
is based on the notion that the word ‘police’ refers to many officers of the law, even
though the word is in singular form. We make lots of choices beteween formal
and notional agreement in English: clergy, committee, crowd, family, government,
orchestra, team to name a few.
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The evolving use of the singular they, them, and their
makes an interesting comparison with the evolution of the
singular use of you in place of thou and thee in early modern
English.
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22
Initials (people)
Once again, the trend towards reduced punctuation has overtaken the convention
of placing full stops and spaces after initials of people’s names.
These days we write Mary J Nagy, or B Bertolucci, or WMJ Steinhauser. Things
are different in the US.
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23
Italics
Italics are used to indicate emphasis or stress; to style titles, headings, indexes,
cross-references.
Italic type is used in English texts for words and phrases that are still regarded
as foreign or need to be distinguished from identical forms. When a word is
sufficiently assimilated to be printed in roman, it may still retain its accents: paté,
or may lose them: elite, facade.
The explanation or translation of a foreign word or phrase may be presented in
any number of ways, using roman type in quotation marks or parentheses, as
appropriate. Foreign proper names are not italicised, even when cited in their
original language: Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma.
Use italics for titles of books, periodicals, plays, films, TV and radio series.
It is worth noting the matter of punctuation and italics: punctuation should be
printed in the same font (roman, italic or bold) as the preceding word or expression
if they belong to that word or epxression. If they relate to the surrounding text as
a whole – which is more often the case – they should be printed in the style of
the text.
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Job titles and team names
The official titles of the principals or chief executives of many institutions are
capitalised. For example: The Archbishop of Milan.
When abbreviated to their generic element, however, most of these titles are
presented in lower case: The archbishop’s view is shared by …
The current incumbents of monarch, foreign heads of state are all capitalised
in official publications truncated or used generically as the case may be: The
President of the United States, President Trump … but reference to previous
incumbents are lower case: She served as vice-chancellor for a decade.
Other incumbents of non-official roles, then, are likely to be lower-cased:
So, Claire Wilkinson, head of verbal identity, John Abrahams is a senior writer
and Sandra Leong is part of the youth ministry team.
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25
Numbers
Writers and editors can have considerable disagreement over this one! So what
normally happens is that a publisher determines the threshold below which
numbers are expressed in words. Assuming non-technical writing (technical
material may determine its own rules), the following is our recommendation:
Write numbers from one to one hundred as words:
The subcommittee will be preparing three separate reports over the next
fifteen months.
But all numbers on websites should be written as figures.
NOSM adds the following helpful information:
Large round numbers may be expressed in a mixture of numerals and words (6
million) or entirely in words (six million). In some contexts it makes more sense to
use a rounded number rather than an exact one, such as a population of 60,000
rather than of 60,011.
In expressing approximate figures some styles traditionally preferred more than
to over. Modern usage tends to treat them as synonyms.
When a sentence contains one or more figures of 100 or above, a more consistent
look may be achieved by using Arabic numerals throughout the sentence: for
example, 90 to 100 (rather than ninety to 100).
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In some contexts a different approach is necessary. For example, it is sometimes
clearer when two sets of figures are mixed to use words for one and figures for
the other, as in thirty 10-page pamphlets.
Spell out ordinal numbers – first, second, third – except when quoting from another
source.
It is customary to use words for numbers that fall at the beginning of sentences. In
such contexts, to avoid spelling out cumbersome numbers, recast the sentence:
The year 1984.
Use figures for ages expressed in cardinal numbers, and words for ages
expressed as ordinal numbers or decades: a girl of 15; in his thirty-third year; in
the twenty-first century.
In less formal or more discursive contexts (fiction) ages may be spelled out, as
may physical attributes: a two-year-old; a nine-inch nail.
Numbers take hyphens when they are spelled out.
Figures are used for:
• parts of books including chapters, pages, and plates
• numbers of periodicals
• scores of games and sporting events
• distances of races
• houses or building numbers
• road or highway numbers in a national system
Put a comma in numbers over 1,000. And remember that every three zeros get a
comma – We were told that the budget was €4,750,350 (we wish).
Use hyphens in phrases where a number is part of the adjective, like four-hour
session or five-year-old child. And in fractions: two-thirds majority.
Spell out million and billion, like 12 million people use them or The company
spent $2 million.
Exceptions
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Exceptions
When the number comes with a unit of measurement, then it’s figures all the way.
‘Three trainers walked for 3km to get to their workshop’, or ‘We split the bill for
after-work drinks between six of us and it came to €8 each’.
Same for page numbers e.g. ‘have a look at page 8’.
‘to’ or a dash?
If you are writing a span, like ‘three to four’ or ‘120–160’, use ‘to’ when you’re
writing words and an en dash (not a hyphen) when writing figures.
See also:
Chapter 13, Currency
Chapter 14, Dashes
Chapter 28, Percentages
Chapter 42, Weights and measures
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It’s okay. Not OK. Not O.K. And not ok.
26
Okay
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Old-fashioned words
They used to be stylish; they’re not any more. So change these dated words for
their oh-so-modern alternatives:
• whilst becomes while
• upon becomes on
• thus therefore becomes so.
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Percentages
We use per cent but you will always find percent in the US. Use per cent where
the number is also spelled out in words: twenty per cent. With figures, use the per
cent sign (%), closed up to the figure, e.g. 25%.
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Proofreading symbols
Most of the marks the editors cover your work with are pretty self-explanatory. But
in case you can’t understand the scribbles, here are the basic marks and what
they mean.
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Punctuation
Punctuation is mentioned many times throughout this guide. Here is a basic
summary of matters regarding standard British English punctuation:
With the exception of dashes (especially en and em rules) and the three-
point ellipsis, punctuation marks in standard English are closed up to the
preceding word, letter or number (which is different from, say, French, which
ensures a space before punctuation involving two elements like a colon or
semicolon).
Only a single space follows any stop, such as a full stop, exclamation mark,
question mark, semicolon or colon. It used to be (in the days of typewriters) that
two spaces followed such stops. This is no longer the case.
A full stop marks the end of a sentence; footnotes conclude with a full stop;
headings do not have a full stop after them.
No full stop is required if a sentence ends with an ellipsis ( … ), with an
abbreviation that takes a point (etc.) or with a quotation complete in itself that takes
a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark before the closing quote (which is
different from, say, Italian, which adds a full stop at the end in this latter case).
Abbreviations which do not include the final letter of the word take a full stop
(Art.), but contractions where part of the middle of the word is left out but the last
letter is included (Mr) do not.
An ellipsis is three points and indicates an omission in the text. If it falls at the
end of a sentence there is no extra full stop needed. When it starts a sentence, it
is followed by a space. The points are not enclosed in round or square brackets
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(as they are in Italian) except when an entire line or paragraph is omitted. Then
the ellipsis is placed on its own separate line between square brackets.
A colon is most often used to indicate that an expansion, qualification, quotation
or explanation is about to follow (e.g. a list of items in running text). The part before
the colon must be a full sentence in its own right, but the second need not be. Do
not use colons at the end of headings.
In British usage a colon does not require the next word to begin with a capital
letter. US usage does.
Use a semicolon not a comma to combine two sentences into one without a
linking conjunction. The misuse of the comma to achieve this is known as the
comma splice.
In a list of three or more items a comma is used to separate them, except between
the last two, which are separated by ‘and’ or ‘or’ (unless there is a need to avoid
confusion).
Coordinate adjectives (adjectives that can be rearranged and conncted with
‘and’) are separated by commas, but if they are not adjectives whch are part of
a series, i.e. they cannot be rearranged or be separated by ‘and’ (sweet red wine)
then a comma is not used.
Commas are used to make an important distinction between two types of relative
construction, often known as ‘defining’ (where commas are used) and ‘non-
defining’ (no commas) relative clauses. The non-defining relative clause merely
adds extra information: The Rector Major who is the 10th successor of Don Bosco
was Provincial in Spain. Compare this with The Rector Major, who is the tenth
successor of Don Bosco, was Provincial in Spain. In the first case we are told
about a particular RM (the 10th successor of Don Bosco). There was at least one
other (Fr Rinaldi) who was a Provincial in Spain but we are talking about the 10th
successor of Don Bosco. In the second case, the emphasis is on the fact that the
RM was Provincial in Spain. That he is also the 10th successor of Don Bosco is
additional and not necessary information. The difference is subtle, but it comes
into play especially when translating from Italian, which has a more rather than
less approach to text. Cf. Appendix C, TRANSLATING ITALIAN.
Question marks, as we know, are used at the end of a direct question, but they
are not used in indirect speech:
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We should ask ourselves how this decision will affect the next six-year
period.
Do not use a question mark after a request or instruction disguised as a question
out of courtesy:
Would you please sign this form.
For quotation marks see the section that immediately follows.
For forward slashes See Chapter 20, Forward slash.
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31
Quotation marks
Use single rather than double quotes. But it is okay to use double quotes when
you have a nice quote in a large font size, like in a PowerPoint presentation or a
proposal title. They look prettier in that context.
If you have a quote within a quote it should go like this:
Carlo said, ‘Is it true that Pedro asked “If you’re a Catholic, does that make you
a Christian?” the other day?’
Punctuating around quotation marks
Pretty much the same rules as when you are punctuating round brackets.
So when the quote you use is part of a longer sentence, the full stop (or any other
punctuation) goes on the outside:
Harry said it was ‘beautifully written'.
When the whole sentence is in speech marks, the full stop should go on the inside
(even with the ‘Harry said’ at the beginning – and notice the cap on ‘It’):
Harry said ‘It was beautifully written.’ Or ‘It was beautifully written,’ said
Harry.
Curly or straight?
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Curly quotes (‘ ’ “ ”) look nicer, so if you are writing for print, go with these. Word/
Libre Office should put them in automatically, but if straight ones show up instead
(' "), which they do sometimes, generally if you’ve copied and pasted something,
see Chapter 40, Useful keyboard shortcuts on how to fix them.
Block quotations do not need to be enclosed in quotation marks, since they are
set off distinctively from the main text by indentation and spacing.
See also:
Chapter 40, Useful keyboard shortcuts
Chapter 6, Brackets (parentheses)
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Roman or roman?
Roman with a capital R refers to numerals, while the lower-cased r is a reference
to type, unless it is the name of a particular typeface, such as Times New Roman,
where it would be capitalised. Not everyone is so fussy about these upper or lower
case differences, though. As there is no arabic type (though there is an Arabic
alphabet, obviously), any references to Arabic, as in numerals, will be capitalised.
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Saints’ names
These names can be problematic, as they exist as titles for individuals, as place
names, and as surnames.
In British usage the English word saint is abbreviated as St, whereas US usage
will always follow that with a full stop (period).
In French a capital S and hyphen are used if the name refers to the name of
a place, institution, or saint’s day, or is a family name: Saint-Étienne. A lower-
case s with no hyphen is used if the reference is to the person of a saint, for
example sainte Jeanne d’Arc. Italian san/santo/sant’ depend on Italian rules for
the indefinite article.
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Small caps
Small capitals are slightly thicker and wider, to match the weight of the lower-case
and capital letters surrounding them. They are often 'faked' by reducing normal
capitals, but should not be. Typefaces often include them, and this is the better
way to produce them.
The main uses of small caps are as follows:
• for specifying eras
• for displayed subsidiary titles and headings, signatures in printed
correspondence, academic qualifications following names displayed in a list
• in some style, for the first word or words of chapters
• in some styles, for author’s names in footnotes and bibliographies.
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35
Split infinitives
Split away, my friends. We do it all the time in speech.
And George Bernard Shaw and Jerome K Jerome have done it in writing, so we
are in good company. Probably the most famous example is in Star Trek – ‘to
boldly go …’.
The most frequently cited split infinitive is from the opening
voice-over of Star Trek: ‘to boldly go where no man has
gone before’. (Star Trek: The Next Generation had ‘one’ in
place of ‘man’ as a timely reminder of the need to be aware
of the shift towards gender-neutral language today.)
The infinitive form of a verb is its ‘root’ form, beginning with ‘to’, like ‘to eat’ or ‘to
sleep’. A split infinitive is when, instead of appearing next to each other, the ‘to’
and the other part of the verb are separated by another word (which is almost
always an adverb), such as ‘You’re going to really love it’. While there may be
nothing wrong with this, be aware that a sentence with a split infinitive may be
ambiguous: does to further cement trade relations mean to cement trade relations
further, or to promote relations with the cement trade?
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That or which?
‘That’ defines. ‘Which’ gives extra information, often in a clause with commas
round it. Or: the reason for distinguishing between the use of that and which in
relative clauses is to avoid ambiguity in some contexts. So,
This is the house that Jack built.
But:
This house, which Jack built, is a roaring success.
As a rule of thumb, if you have commas in there, go with ‘which’.
But the bottom line is really this: where there is no danger of ambiguity, that or
which could be used.
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Titles of books, films, TV
programmes
Use italics rather than quotes. So you would write: ‘Nick Parker has written a book
about how much he loves toast. It’s called Toast.’
See also:
Chapter 23, Italics
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38
To hyphenate or not to hyphenate?
First, look it up in the dictionary. If you’re still not sure, read this.
There are two situations where you are likely to need a hyphen.
When an adjective is made up of more than one word
We call these compound adjectives. This is how they work:
• An adjective describes a noun, e.g. ‘the written word’
• A compound adjective does the same thing, but it’s made up of more than one
word, like ‘round-the-clock support’.
A compound adjective usually gets a hyphen when it comes before a noun, like
in ‘a well-honed piece of writing’.
But if the first word ends in ‘ly’, like in ‘a specially designed workshop’, you don’t
need a hyphen.
When it comes after the noun, the compound adjective usually doesn’t get a
hyphen. So we say an easy-to-remember number, but the number is easy to
remember. Same goes for up to date – if it’s before a noun it needs a hyphen. A
document is up to date but it’s an up-to-date document.
After a prefix
If you are adding a prefix like ‘pre’, ‘un’, ‘non’ or ‘anti’ to a proper adjective
(an adjective made from a proper noun [one with a capital letter] like American,
Japanese, Victorian), use a hyphen: un-American, non-EC countries. Long-
established words like ‘preamble’ and ‘degrade’ don’t need a hyphen as the prefix
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is seen as fully fused. But also note the rather specific case mentioned under en
rules in Chapter 14, Dashes.
Use a hyphen with prefixes or suffixes (such as ‘-like’) when you’ve repeated
letters in a word, but you pronounce them separately, as in shell-like or anti-
inflammatory. Because shelllike looks weird.
Also use a hyphen if there’s a risk of mispronouncing a word. So you’d hyphenate
co-worker, for example, to stop people tripping up over ‘cow’ when they read it.
But coordinator doesn’t need one.
And we hyphenate words that are spelt the same but can have very different
meanings or different pronunciations (called homographs) like recreation (fun)
and re-creation (creating again).
Numbers and fractions. Numbers take hyphens when they are spelled out.
Fractions take hyphens when used attributively, but not when used as nouns:
twenty-eight, two-thirds completed, but an increase of two thirds.
There are also what are called ‘hanging hyphens’: full- and part-time positions.
But fuller wording such as full-time and part-time positions is a way of avoiding
this situation which can, at times, be ambiguous.
Some examples of the difference a hyphen can make:
• A man-eating tiger – a tiger that eats humans.
• A man eating tiger – a man who’s eating tiger meat.
• She re-covered the sofa – she put a new cover on the sofa.
• She recovered the sofa – from where?
Words we don’t hyphenate (there will be others).
cooperate
coordinate
email
online
rewrite
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subtotal
website
The last word
Still confused? Follow these two rules:
1. If you can avoid using a hyphen, do.
2. If you think there’s any risk of ambiguity, add one in.
The hyphen is an endangered species in English. In
2007, the sixth edition of the Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary removed the hyphens from 16,000 entries
including ‘figleaf’, ‘potbelly’ and ‘pigeonhole’.
The Oxford University Press style manual points out that ‘If you take hyphens
seriously, you will surely go mad’. So don’t sweat it too much.
See also:
Chapter 25, Numbers
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39
Tricky words
Words you might not realise you don’t know how to spell.
acknowledgement not acknowledgment.
any more is always two words.
any time or anytime? Use it as one word like this: He said the meeting can be
scheduled anytime. But if you’re using it as an adjective to modify a noun it should
be two words: The Rector won’t have any time until Thursday.
dependent or dependant? In British English, a dependant is someone who’s
dependent on someone else. In American English, it’s dependent for both.
effect or affect? Most of the time you use affect as a verb and effect as a noun:
‘When you affect something, you have an effect on it.’ But not always (obviously).
You can use effect as a verb when you mean ‘to bring about’. So you could say
‘George hoped to effect a change through his extra training’. But why would you?
It sounds horrible. Talking of things that sound horrible, you can also use affect
as a noun when you’re talking about a mood that someone’s in. Like you might
say ‘Paul displayed a sad affect’. Don’t though.
biannual can mean twice a year or once every two years. Biennial means once
every two years. Best to spell out which one you mean.
email is one word with no hyphen. It is different in Italian: e-mail.
every day is two words except when it’s an adjective (‘The Writer helps people
use everyday language’ but ‘John cycles to and from work every day’).
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focusing not focussing, focused not focussed.
in to or into? When ‘in’ and ‘to’ end up next to each other, should you leave a
space between them or push them together? Well it depends on what you’re trying
to say. Into tells us about movement and usually answers the question ‘Where?’
Like, ‘He accidentally put too much sugar into his coffee’. The ‘to’ of in to is short
for ‘in order to’, so we leave a space. For example, ‘We put sugar in [in order] to
make it taste better’.
judgement not judgment (except in legal terms: a judge makes a judgment. But
he can show bad judgement when making that judgment)!
learnt or learned? These days they’re actually pretty interchangeable. But learnt
is traditionally British. If you’re writing for a non-UK audience, you’ll be safer using
learned. US usage does not include the -t participial ending.
licence is the noun, license is the verb.
online (one word, no hyphen).
PowerPoint (one word, capital P in the middle).
practice is the noun, practise is the verb. Except in the US, where it’s practice
for both.
stationary means standing still. Stationery is pens and pencils and all that (‘e
for envelope’ is an easy way to remember it).
straight away not straightaway. It’s okay to say straightaway in the outside world,
but it’s not our way.
web page is two words, but website is one.
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40
Useful keyboard shortcuts
Some you know and some you don’t. But you may not be using a US keyboard,
so not everything below applies. If you are using an international keyboard, an
Italian one perhaps, you will have other ways of solving the issues below.
Before you start: We’re sure you know this but don’t actually press ‘+’. Just hold
down the ‘Ctrl’, ‘Alt’ or the ‘Alt Gr’ key and use the keypad (the number keys on
the right end of the keyboard) to type the number in.
Commands
Ctrl+A – Select all
Ctrl+C – Copy
Ctrl+V – Paste
Ctrl+F – Find
Ctrl+P – Print
Ctrl+F2 – Print preview
Ctrl+Z – Undo
Ctrl+Y – Redo
Shift+F5 – Go back to your last edit point
Formatting (highlight the text you want to format).
Ctrl+B – Bold
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Ctrl+I – Italics
Ctrl+U – Underline
Ctrl+L – Left-justify
Ctrl+E – Centre text
Ctrl+J – Justify it
Ctrl+R – Right-justify it
Shift+F3 – Changes the case of text. Useful if you’ve accidentally HIT THE CAPS
LOCK KEY
Ctrl+= – Makes text subscript
Symbols (these don’t work on laptops)
Alt+0145 – Left single quote (curly quote ‘, not a straight one ') (see Quote marks)
Alt+0146 – Right single quote (curly quote ’, not a straight one ')
Alt+0147 – Left double quote (curly quotes “, not straight ones ")
Alt+0148 – Right double quote (curly quotes “, not straight ones ")
Alt+0150 – Inserts an en dash (–) (see Dashes)
Alt+0151 – Inserts an em dash (—) (see Dashes)
Alt Gr+t – Trademark sign (™)
Alt Gr+c – Copyright (©)
Alt Gr+r – Registered trademark (®)
Alt Gr+4 – Euro symbol (€)
Alt Gr+o – To get an ó (add in the Shift key if you want it in caps)
General
F4 – Repeats your last command – So if you apply a style you can use F4 to
apply it to all other paragraphs – highlight the text and apply the one you want,
then highlight the next piece of text and hit F4.
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F5 – Refresh – For web pages (if one breaks, or to make sure you’ve got the
most recent version) and other stuff like in My Computer (if you’ve deleted/added/
moved files and they’re not showing, F5 should reveal them).
See also:
Chapter 31, Quotation marks
Chapter 14, Dashes
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Web and email addresses
No ‘http://’ at the start of web addresses. No italics. Ditto with email addresses
– no italics needed.
Talking about websites, email or the internet,
• Website is all one word.
• The word email doesn’t have a hyphen in it. It does in Italian, and the French
try to avoid the word and use one of their own_ courrier électronique.
If you’re writing about the internet it should have a lower case ‘i’.
If a web or email address comes at the end of a sentence, it should not have a
full stop after it. Even if it’s at the end of a paragraph. Of course, if the address
is enclosed in angle brackets, closing full stops may be used as normal outside
the closing bracket.
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Weights and measures
A space is required between a numeral and a symbol of measurement (apart from
the symbols for degree, minute and second of plane angular measure). So 10 kg,
but 45° (degree of plane angle). And use figures – don’t spell the number out.
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Glossary: some printing and
publishing terms
accent
a mark on a letter that indicates pitch, stress or vowel quality.
afterword
a short concluding section in a book, typically written by someone other than
the author.
appendix
a section of subsidiary matter at the end of a book or document. Note that
annex is used by some, but in Australia this is generally limited to a document
(annex to a treaty, for example).
Arabic numeral
any one of the numbers 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9; cf. Roman numeral.
artwork
illustrations, figures, photographs or other non-textual material.
ASCII
American Standard Code for Information Exchange, used as a standard
format in the transfer of text (alphanumeric and some symbols) between
computers.
AsciiDoc
a human-readable document format, semantically equivalent to DocBook
XML, but using plain-text mark-up conventions.
back matter
another term for end matter.
bibliography
a list of books or other texts that are referred to in a work. It may also be called
references if it only contains works mentioned in the main body of text.
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bitmap
graphics file made up of pixels.
bleed
(of an illustration or design) be printed so that it runs off the page.
block quote
a quotation that is broken off from the text to begin on a new line. Often set
in smaller type.
bold
(also boldface) a style of type with thick strokes.
caption
a title or brief explanation accompanying an illustration.
caret
a mark ^, or its handwritten version found in proofreading to propose insertion
into the text.
colophon
a publisher’s emblem, usually appearing on the title page of a book.
copy
matter to be published, in particular the text before it is copy-edited.
copy-edit
(also copyedit)to correct, style and mark up copy to make it ready for printing.
copyright
the exclusive legal right to print, publish, perform, film or record literary, artistic
or musical material.
copyleft
a licensing arrangement whereby a copyright holder grants, at no cost, the
recipient of a copy of their work the right to use, modify and redistribute
the work under the condition that the ownership of the original work is
acknowledged and that all derivative works are distributed under the same
terms.
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copyright page
another term for title page verso
corrigenda
(singular corrigendum) a list of errors in a printed book that is affixed to or
printed in the book.
credits
acknowledgements expressing gratitude for permission to use images.
digraph
1 a combination of two letters representing one sound, as in ph. 2 another
term for ligature.
drop cap
(drop capital) a large capital letter at the beginning of a section of text.
dustjacket
another term for jacket.
edition
a version of a book at its first publication and every subsequent publication
for which minor changes are made.
em
a unit for measuring the width of the printed matter, originally reckoned as the
width of a capital roman M in the typeface used, but in digital fonts, equal to
the current typesize.
em rule
(also em dash) a long dash — .
en
a unit of horizontal space equal to half an em.
en rule
(also en dash) a short dash – used in particular between ranges of figures.
end matter
(also back matter) material that supplements the text and is placed after it.
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endnote
a note printed at the end of a book or section of a book.
epigraph
a quotation placed at the beginning of a volume, part or chapter.
epilogue
an author’s short concluding comment on the text.
EPUB
open-source standard and file format for ebooks.
errata slip
(singular erratum slip) a list of errors and their corrections inserted loose in
a book. Distinguish from corrigenda which is fixed in the book.
face
short for typeface.
figure
an illustration that is integrated into the text.
flush
aligned with the left- or right-hand edge of the text.
flyleaf
a blank page at the beginning or end of a book.
folio
1 a sheet of typescript. 2 the page number in a printed book.
font
a set of type of one particular face and size.
footer
text that is repeated at the bottom of the page, such as the page number.
footnote
a note printed at the bottom of the page within the text area and above the
footer.
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foreword
a recommendation of the work written by someone other than the author,
printed before the main text.
frontispiece
an illustration that faces the title page.
front matter
another term for preliminary matter.
full out
aligned (or flush) with the left- or right-hand edge of the text.
gutter
the blank space between facing pages of a book or between adjacent columns
of type.
half-title
the first page of the preliminary matter of a book, bearing only the work’s title.
hard hyphen
a nonbreaking hyphen that is keyed and appears whether the word containing
it is split across the end of a line or not; cf. soft hyphen.
header
text that is repeated at the top of the page, such as a chapter title or main
heading.
heading
a title at the head of a page, a section of a book, or a table.
headword
a word that begins a separate entry in a reference work such as a dictionary.
HTML
Hypertext Markup Language, a standardised coding system for tagging text
files to achieve formatting, graphic and hyperlink effects on websites.
imposition
the layout on the quad sheet of the pages of a publication so that when the
sheet is printed and folded they will fall in the correct order.
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imprint
the name and other details of a book’s publisher.
ISBN
International Standard Book Number.
ISSN
International Standard Serial Number.
italic
a sloping style of type.
jacket
(also dust jacket) a removable paper cover used to protect a book.
JPEG
a bitmap file format that compresses the image data to produce a smaller file.
justified
(of text) adjusted so as to fill the width of the text area and align at the left
and right margins.
kern
a part of a printed character that overlaps its neighbours.
kerning
adjustment of the spacing between characters in a piece of text.
label
explanatory description of a feature in an illustration.
landscape
a format of printed matter which is wider than it is high; cf. portrait.
LaTeX
not to be confused with latex! A high-quality typesetting system; it
includes features designed for the production of technical and scientific
documentation. LaTeX is the de facto standard for the communication and
publication of scientific documents. LaTeX is available as free software.
leader line
a labelled line added to an illustration to point out a salient feature.
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leaders
a series of dots or dashes across the page to guide the eye.
leading
(pronounced leding with a short e) the amount of blank space between lines
of print.
leaf
a single sheet of paper, forming two pages in a book.
legend
another term for caption.
ligature
a character consisting of two or more joined letters, such as æ.
linefeed
the distance between one line of type to the bottom of the next.
lower case
small letters as opposed to capital letters (upper case).
margin
the white space around the text area on a page.
markup
1 the process or result of correcting a text in preparation for printing. 2 the tags
or codes (or, in the case of lightweight markup languages, keyboard symbols
like underscore, asterisk and so on) used in markup languages.
markup language
a system for coding text so that content can be described for output in print
or digital media.
octavo
(abbrev. 8vo) a size of book page that results from folding each printed sheet
into eight leaves (sixteen pages).
offprint
a printed copy of an individual article or essay that originally appeared as part
of a larger publication.
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opening
a double-page spread (see spread).
orphan
the first line of a paragraph set as the last line of a page or column, considered
undesirable.
Oxford comma
another term for serial comma.
page proof
pages composed in DTP (Desktop Publishing) software with all the elements,
e.g. text, running heads and images laid out in the final form.
parentheses
(also parens) round brackets ().
PDF
Portable Document Format, a file format for capturing and sending electronic
documents in exactly the intended format. A PDF always has a source file
which can be adjusted, rather than the PDF itself.
pica
a unit of type size and line length equal to 12 points (about 4.2 mm).
pixel
picture element; single physical point in a bitmap image.
point
a unit of measurement for type sizes and spacing. It was traditionally 0.351
mm in the US and the UK but is now standardised as 0.356 mm.
portrait
a format of printed matter which is higher than it is wide; cf. landscape.
preliminary matter
(also prelims) the pages preceding the main text of a book, including the title
page, title page verso, contents page and preface.
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preface
a section in the preliminary matter where the author sets out the purpose,
scope and content of the book.
proof
a trial impression of typeset text which is checked for errors before final
printing.
proofread
read proofs, mark any errors and make a final check of the material.
quad sheet
the large sheet of paper that is printed with text and the folded and cut to
produce separate leaves.
quarto
(abbrev. 4to) a size of book page resulting from folding each printed sheet
into four leaves (eight pages).
ragged right
(of text) justified only at the left margin, with the result that the width of lines
is variable.
ream
500 (formerly 480) sheets of paper.
recto
the right-hand page of a spread, having an odd page number; cf. verso.
reprint
a republication of a book for which no corrections or only minor corrections
are made.
roman
an upright style of type used for text that requires no special emphasis or
distinction.
Roman numeral
any of the letters representing the numbers in the Roman numerical system
(I or i = 1: V or v = 5; X or x = 10, etc); cf. Arabic numeral.
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round brackets
parentheses ().
running head
(or foot) a book title, chapter title or other heading which appears at the top
(or bottom) of every page or spread.
sans serif
a type of style without serifs.
serial comma
(also Oxford or Harvard comma) a comma used after the penultimate item in
a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’.
serif
a slight projection finishing off a stroke of a letter.
small caps
(capitals) capital letters which are of the same height as a lower-case x in the
same typeface.
soft hyphen
a hyphen inserted automatically into a word when it is divided at the end of
a line of text.
spread
(also double-page spread) a pair of pages (left-hand and right-hand)
exposed when a book is opened at random; cf. opening.
style sheet
1 house style guidance for authors and editors on the client’s preferred forms
of text, such as variations in spelling, hyphenation and capitalisation, and
treatment of reference lists, quotations and numbers. 2 a list of the word-
processor or DTP styles used in a particular project.
table
an arrangement of data in columns and rows.
tag
a set of plain text characters used in markup languages to describe content.
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text area
the part of the page in which the text and images of the book are
accommodated; the area inside the margins.
title page
a page at the beginning of a book containing the complete title and subtitle of
the work, the name of the author or editor, and the publisher’s name.
title page verso
the verso of the title page, on which is printed the statement and clauses
that establish the copyright of the material, the identity of the work and its
publication history.
type
characters or letters that are printed or shown on a screen.
typeface
a particular design of type.
typescript
the text of a publication in paper form.
typeset
arrange or generate the type or data for a piece of text to be published.
typography
1 the style and appearance of printed text. 2 the process of setting and
arranging text in type for printing.
Unicode
an international encoding system by which each letter, digit and symbol is
assigned a unique numerical value that applies across different platforms and
programs.
upper case
capital letters as opposed to small letters (lower case).
vector image
a graphics file with mathematical descriptions of the objects within, e.g. a line
or the boundary of a shape.
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verso
the left-hand page of a spread, having an even page number; cf. recto.
widow
a last word or short last line of a paragraph falling at the top of a page or
column, considered undesirable.
x-height
the height of a lower-case x, considered characteristic of a given typeface or
script.
XML
Extensible Markup Language, a system that allows users to define their own
customised markup languages, especially in order to dispolay documents on
websites.
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Appendix A. Clear English
Tips for translators and writers who know their work will need to be
translated
Here are some tips to help translators avoid copying structure and wording from
other languages that would be awkward in English. This will happen where any
two languages are involved, and is called ‘interference’. Since Salesians are often
translating between Italian and English, it is helpful to understand the chief points
of interference that may be involved. There is a separate appendix on Appendix C,
TRANSLATING ITALIAN which deals with many of these interferences..
These more general tips should be useful to non-native speakers of English too,
but may also serve as handy reminders for native speakers.
1. Use simple words where appropriate: English is a simple, concise, precise
language. We prefer begin or start to initiate for example.
2. Leave out unnecessary words: a person designated as responsible team
leader can be rephrased more simply as a designated team leader. Apply
Occam’s Razor to your English! (Entities should not be multiplied without
necessity.)
3. Prefer a verb to an abstract noun: rather than proceed to the counting of the
votes, just count the votes.
4. Prefer a gerund to an abstract noun: rather than saying through the
acquisition of new skills, talk about acquiring new skills.
5. Prefer participles to relative clauses: the team which is planning the project
is even clearer when written as the team planning the project. And if you can
eliminate the participle altogether, better still: the team’s project.
6. Use the passive voice sparingly: A meeting was held in Rome between the
two provincials, will read just as well if we say The two provincials met in Rome.
7. Where possible replace negatives with positives: It is not uncommon for
requests to be rejected, could easily read it is common for requests to be rejected.
8. Use short forms and pronouns to avoid repeating full names: The
Formation Sector is planning a new document. In this way the Formation Sector
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hopes to enourage ongoing formation. This might be just as clear in context if
written as Formation is planning a new document. In this way the Sector hopes
to encourage ongoing formation.
9. Express conditions, including hidden ones, with ‘if’ …: In the event of
something going wrong, could read If something goes wrong.
10. Keep the subject close to the beginning of the sentence: this is particularly
important when translating fromn Italian, which will often have adverbial clauses
and other factors coming before the subject.
11. If a sentence is too long pull out some of the information and make different
sentences with it. This too is important when translating from Italian, which can
have very long sentences.
12. English may use different number, articles, gender or words from other
languages: be particularly aware of uncountable nouns or nouns English prefers
to keep in the singular. Compare Italian riflessioni e discussioni sull’argomento
with the English reflection and discussion on the matter.
13. Use ‘the’ rather than ‘this’ to refer back to a document: Regulation 23 …
this Regulation … could be written as Regulation 23 … the Regulation …
14. Consider alternatives to ‘of’, especially if translating from Italian. An English
with too many ‘of’s looks foreign and cumbersome.
15: And finally, be very, very aware of false friends. Read on …
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Appendix B. FALSE FRIENDS
Sometimes an Italian word can be correctly translated by looking for similarities
with English words, but in many cases the word has a different meaning. False
friends are words which look or sound similar to an English word but differ
significantly in meaning. Some false friends have more than one translation
between Italian and English, and so it is very important to recognise the different
possible meanings of some English words compared to their Italian ‘friend’. The
use of loanwords, too, often results in the use of a word in a restricted context,
which may then develop new meanings not found in the original language, thus
also creating a false friend.
A
Italian
accidente
accomodare
ad hoc
affluente
affrontare
False Friend
accident
accommodate
ad hoc
affluent
affront
Comment
Mostly means a stroke,
a fit, damn! Could be
‘accident' but that would
normally be incidente
Means to fix, arrange.
‘To accommodate' would
normally be alloggiare
Means specially made.
‘Ad hoc' as we use it
in English would be
improvvisato
Means a tributary.
‘Affluent', as we use it
inEnglish would be ricco
Means to face someone.
‘Affront' (cause affront)
as we use it in English
would be oltraggiare,
offendere
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Italian
agenda
anticipare
argomento
arrangiare
attendere
attico
attuale
avvertimento
B
124
False Friend
agenda
anticipate
argument
arrange
attend
attic
actual
advertisement
Comment
Means a diary. ‘Agenda'
as we use it in English
would be l’ordine del
giorno
Means to bring forward.
‘Anticipate' would be
prevedere, aspettarsi
Means topic. ‘Argument'
in Italian would be
discussione, litigo
Means to fix, manage.
‘Arrange' as we use
it in English would be
sistemare, disporre
Means to wait for.
‘Attend' as we use it
in English would be
frequentare
Means a penthouse or
top-floor flat. ‘Attic' as
we use it in would be
soffitta
Means current (can
mean actual). But
‘actual', as we most
often use it in English
would be effettivo, reale
Means a warning,
notice, caution.
`Advertisement' would
be annuncio, inserzione

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Italian
baldo
bendare
box
bravo
brina
C
Italian
candido
cantina
carta
cautione
False Friend
bald
bend
box
brave
brine
False Friend
candid
canteen
card
caution
Comment
Means courageous.
‘Bald' is calvo
Means to bandage.
‘To bend' is curvare,
inchinare, piegare
Afraid not! It is a loan
word that has changed
meaning in Italian and
means a garage or
parking space. Box is
scatola
Means well done!
Clever, good. ‘Brave' is
coraggioso
Sorry, but it refers to
hoarfrost. ‘Brine' would
be acqua salata
Comment
Means pure, honest.
‘Candid' is schietto
Means cellar, basement.
‘Canteen' is mensa
Could mean card
but more often, in
a Salesian context,
it will mean charter,
document. ‘Card' could
be tessera, biglietto
Means bail. ‘Caution' is
cautela
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Italian
cava
caldo
collegio
comodità
comprensivo
conduttore
coerenza
collaboratore
colloquio
126
False Friend
cava
cold
college
commodity
comprehensive
conductor
coherence
collaborator
colloquium
Comment
Means pit, quarry. ‘Cave'
would be caverna
Means the opposite –
warm. ‘Cold' is freddo
Means boarding school.
‘College' (US) would be
istituto universitario
Means comfort,
convenience. ‘Comodity'
is prodotto, merce,
materia prima
Means understanding,
inclusive, sympathetic.
‘Comprehensive' is
esauriente
Means driver (tram,
bus). ‘Conductor'
is bigliettaio (tram),
direttore d’orchestra
(music)
Means consistent
(viewpoint). ‘Consistent'
as for texture would be
consistenza
Could mean this but
also partner, co-worker.
The negative sense
of the word in English
would be informatore,
collaborazionista
Could ‘colloquium' is a
seminario accademico

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Italian
confetti
confrontare
consistente
D
Italian
delusione
diffidenza
disgrazia
docile
domandare
E
False Friend
confetti
confront
consistent
False Friend
delusion
diffidence
disgrace
docile
demand
Comment
Means wedding sweets,
sugared almonds.
‘Confetti' as we use it in
English is coriandoli
Means to compare.
‘Confront' as we use it in
English is far fronte a
Means substantial,
solid. ‘Consistent' would
be coerente, costante
‘Convenient' as we use
it in English is adatto,
comodo, opportuno
Comment
Means disappointment.
‘Delusion' is illusione
Means distrust.
‘Diffidence' is sfiducia
Means bad luck,
misfortune. ‘Disgrace' is
vergogna, disonore
Could be docile but
more likely well-
behaved, obedient.
‘Docile' is also
arrendevole, mansueto
Means to ask. ‘To
demand' is pretendere,
esigere, insistere
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Italian
editore
educazione
False Friend
editor
education
effettivo
emotivo
energetico
esibizione
eventualmente
effective
emotive
energetic
exhibition
eventually
F
Italian
fastidioso
fatale
False Friend
fastidious
fatal
128
Comment
Means publisher. ‘Editor'
is direttore, curatore
(books)
Very ofen means
upbringing, good
manners. ‘Education'
is cultura, formazione,
istruzione and also
educazione
Means real. ‘Effective' is
efficace
Means emotional.
‘Emotive' is che desta
impressione
Means energy.
‘Energetic' is energico,
attivo
Means performance.
‘Exhibition' is mostra
Means if necessary,
possibly. ‘Eventually' is
alla fine, finalmente
Comment
Means annoying.
‘Fastidious' is esigente,
scrupoloso
Means inevitable though
can also be fatal. ‘Fatal'
is mortale, fatidico

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Italian
fattoria
formazione
frequentare
False Friend
factory
formation
frequent
G
Italian
geniale
globale
False Friend
genial
global
gregario
gregarious
I
Italian
impressionante
inabitato
incaricato
False Friend
impressive
inhabited
incharge
Comment
Means farm. ‘Factory' is
fabbrica
Could be, but could also
be education.
Mostly means to attend
(e.g. school). ‘Frequent'
can also be frequentare
Comment
Means brilliant, gifted.
‘Genial' is simpatico,
amichevole
Can mean global but
more often overall.
‘Global' could be
mondiale
Means backup or
support. ‘Gregarious' is
socievole
Comment
Can mean impressive
but especially shocking.
‘Impressive' is notevole
Actually mean
uninhabited! ‘Inhabited'
is abitato
Incharge doesn’t exist.
‘Individual in charge'
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Italian
False Friend
incidente
ingiuria
interrogazione
irrilevante
incident
injury
interrogation
irrelevant
L
Italian
libreria
liminalità
False Friend
library
liminality
linguaggio
lurido
M
130
language
lurid
Comment
does, or ‘appointee' or
similar. An incaricato is
also an addetto
Means an accident. An
‘incident' is an evento
Means insult. ‘Injury' is
ferita, danno
Means an oral exam
(school). ‘Interrogation'
is interrogatorio
Means insignificant
(can mean irrelevant).
‘Irrelevant' is normally
non pertinente
Comment
Means bookshop.
‘Library' is biblioteca
Means a frontier
situation. The rather
special meaning of
liminality in anthropology
is disorientamento
Can be language but
also style, expression.
‘Language' can be
lingua
Means filthy. ‘Lurid' is
spargiante, pacchiano

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Italian
maggazzino
mansione
marmellata
marrone
miseria
monsignore
morbido
moroso
N
Italian
nominare
novella
False Friend
magazine
mansion
marmalade
maroon
misery
Monsignor
morbid
morose
False Friend
nominate
novel
Comment
Means warehouse.
‘Magazine' is periodico,
rotocalco
Means duty, task.
‘Mansion' is villa, blocco
di apartamenti
Means jam (any kind
of jam). ‘Marmalade' is
marmellata di agrumi
Means brown. ‘Maroon'
is rosso fegato or rosso
granata
Means poverty. ‘Misery'
is sofferenza
Means bishop,
archbishop….
‘Monsignor' (with its
meaning of a special
title for a priest) is also
monsignore
Means soft. ‘Morbid' is
morboso
Means in arrears (rent!).
‘Morose' is scontroso
Comment
Means to name.
‘Nominate' is proporre
per una candidatura
Means a short story.
‘Novel' is romanzo
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O
Italian
occasione
occorre
orfano
organico
organismo
P
Italian
parenti
pastorale
132
False Friend
occasion
occur
orphan
organic
organism
False Friend
parents
pastoral
Comment
Means this but also
opportunity, bargain.
‘Occasion' is not always
occasione. It could be
evento, momento
Means something is
needed. ‘Occur' is
accadere, venire in
mente
Means orphan but in
Italian, an orphan may
have lost only one
parent, e.g. orfano di
padre
Means systematic,
holistic, complete.
‘Organic' is more
likely to be biologico,
ecologico, naturale
Can be organism but
think more in terms of
an organisation.
Comment
Means relatives.
‘Parents' are genitori
Yes, but in Salesian
context it refers to
ministry or pastoral
ministry.

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15.1 Page 141

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Italian
patente
paternità
pavimento
petrolio
preoccupato
presbiterio
pretendere
prevaricare
procura
False Friend
patent
paternity
pavement
petrol
preoccupied
presbytery
pretend
prevaricate
procure
Comment
Means licence. A
‘patent' is a brevetto
Means fatherhood,
authorship. To be
‘fatherly' (fatherliness) is
(essere) paterno
Means floor.
‘Pavement' (footpath) is
marciapiede
Means oil. ‘Petrol' is
benzina
Means worried.
‘Preoccupied' is assorto
Means the sanctuary in
the church. ‘Presbytery'
is casa parrochiale or
canonica
Means to claim
(Pretender to the
throne!). ‘To pretend' is
far finta
Means to abuse (use of
power). ‘Prevaricate' is
tergiversare
Salesian usage
suggests it might be a
Mission office. But the
noun ‘procure' does
not exist in and the
verb ‘to procure’ has an
insalubrious meaning!
To be avoided. Call it a
PDO or Mission Office.
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Italian
protocollo
puntura
Q
Italian
questionare
qui pro quo
R
Italian
rapa
rata
134
False Friend
protocol
puncture
False Friend
question
quid pro quo
False Friend
rape
rate
Comment
Means register, register
number, registry office.
‘Protocol', instead,
is etichetta, though
it would be protocol
if it refers to a draft
document or treaty
Means sting (wasp, i.e.
puntura di vespa). A
‘puncture' is foratura di
pneumatico
Comment
Means to argue or
quarrel. ‘To question' is
interrogare
One letter makes the
difference! A ‘qui pro
quo' is a mistake, a
misunderstanding. ‘Quid
pro quo' is quid pro quo
and means ‘tit for tat',
‘You scratch my back I
scratch yours!'
Comment
Means turnip. ‘Rape' is
stupro
Means installment.
‘Rate' (depending on

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Italian
realizzare
retribuzione
ricordo
ricoverare
rilevante
ritenere
rude
S
Italian
salario
sano
scarsamente
False Friend
realise
retribution
record
recover
relevant
retain
rude
False Friend
salary
sane
scarcely
Comment
context) is tasso, livello,
velocità
Means to carry out or
fulfil or achieve. ‘Realise'
is accorgersi, capire
Means remuneration,
salary. `Retribution' is
punizione, ricompensa
Means a memory, a
reminder. ‘Record' is
disco, or appunto
Means to admit (to
hospital). ‘Recover' is
guarire (da), recuperare
Means important,
remarkable. ‘Relevant' is
pertinente
Means to think,
consider. ‘Retain' is
conservare, trattenere
Means rough and ready.
‘Rude' is maleducato,
offensivo
Comment
Means wages. ‘Salary' is
stipendio
Means healthy. ‘Sane' is
equilibrato
Means rarely. ‘Scarcely'
is a stento, appena
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Italian
scolaro
sconvenienza
False Friend
scholar
inconvenient
scuole pubbliche
public schools
sinergia
simpatico
sopportare
suggestivo
T
Italian
tenente
territorio
136
synergy
sympathetic
support
suggestive
False Friend
tenant
territory
Comment
Means pupil. A ‘scholar'
is a studioso
Means a failure of good
manners, unseemly.
‘Inconvenient' is
disturbo, scomodità
It means state schools.
`‘ublic schools' can
have other meanings
in different parts of the
English-speaking world.
They could be private
schools charging high
fees (UK).
Might be synergy, but
might also be simply
‘teamwork'.
Means nice, pleasant
character. ‘Sympathetic'
is more likely to be
comprensivo
Means to put up with.
‘Support' is sostenere
Means full of
atmosphere, evocative.
‘Suggestive' is allusivo
Comment
Means lieutenant.
‘Tenant' is inquilino
Might well be territory,
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Italian
tremendo
triviale
U
Italian
udienza
urna
V
Italian
vicario
vile
False Friend
tremendous
trivial
False Friend
audience
urn
False Friend
vicar
vile
Comment
it can often be glossed
simply as ‘local area'.
Means awful, terrible.
‘Tremendous' is
fantastico
Means vulgar, indecent.
‘Trivial' is banale
Comment
Can mean audience
but usally hearing.
‘Audience' is pubblico
Can mean urn but would
normally be translated
as casket when used,
for example of Don
Bosco’s remains or
relics. An urna is also a
ballot box in Italian. An
urn could also be a vaso
Comment
Yes, but also a vice-
rector.
Means cowardly. ‘Vile' is
brutto, orribile
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Appendix C. TRANSLATING
ITALIAN
Table of Contents
C.1. In general ....................................................................................... 139
C.2. In particular .................................................................................... 141
C.1. In general
Many things could be said about the key differences between Italian and English,
and the In particular section below will mention a number of these, in the hope that
it alerts the translator to some of the issues that result in a translation sounding
unnecessarily ‘foreign'. A degree of foreignness may well be a good thing, but
that will occur naturally.
What needs to be avoided are those elements of difference that turn the reader
off, which is the last thing any translator intends to do! What the translator is after
is what we might call ‘a good match' between the two languages and cultures.
The most overlooked factor in Italian to English translation is style.
Consider the following key factors in style differences between the two languages:
REGISTER
Register, as understood in linguistics, is the way a speaker uses language
differently in different circumstances. We think immediately of formal versus
informal, for example. Or ‘fancy' language versus ‘common' language.
One of the first things that strikes the reader (or listener) of Italian is that it
uses what we would call ‘fancy' words in English, where we would choose more
‘common' words. This is all to do with the history of the two languages – Italian
derives largely from Latin.
English has some Latin, and a considerable amount of Germanic influence (Anglo-
Saxon) as well, but history intervenes in another way. The clergy and the educated
spoke Latin (or French, deriving from Latin) in places where the English language
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In general
was developing into what it is today, whereas the common people spoke the more
Saxon-oriented English.
Anglo-Saxon and Latinate words have a very different sound and feel to them:
Anglo-Saxon words are concrete, shorter, more blunt and guttural, ‘of the body',
feeling words. Latin words are abstract, polysyllabic, of more elevated diction, ‘of
the mind', thinking words.
Think of ‘chew' versus ‘masticate', ‘ask' versus ‘inquire', ‘friendly' versus
‘amicable’, ‘go' versus ‘depart'. Italian will happily talk about a ‘protagonist' or
‘protagonism', but you will not hear that word in any English conversation in the
bus on the way home! So when translating, bear this very important stylistic
difference in mind. If not, the English translation will sound snooty, puffed up and
beyond the comprehension of the ordinary reader. Don Bosco was well aware of
this problem, even in dealing with the perhaps less marked difference between
Piedmontese and Tuscan (Italian as we now know it) and would get his mother
to check things out for him!
NAMES AND PLACES
Italian, like many Romance languages (but not only – it can be the case in
Asian languages too) does not like to stress an individual’s (the ‘protagonist’s!)
or a place’s name too much. Very often, rather than saying ‘I' did something,
the Italian will say ‘we'. Or an indirect passive verb form will be used rather
than the direct active voice, to take the stress off a direct action (and verb
endings in Italian also mean that the subject needs less reference – it will be
clear from the verb ending).
Another side of this phenomenon is that if a paragraph mentions ‘Rome’, for
example, English has no difficulty mentioning Rome for the five times that word
might appear in the paragraph. Italian will not do that. Initially it will be Rome, the
next time the ‘Eternal City', a third time it will be ‘the capital of Italy', a fourth time
maybe ‘the city on the Tiber', and a fifth time perhaps a little historical knowledge
will be required of the reader – ‘heart of the ancient Republic and Empire'.
But the translator does not need to subject the reader to his or her version of ‘The
Chase' or any of the other well-known TV quiz shows!
The Rector Major is who he is, and does not need to be further described as ‘of
the Salesians', or coming from Spain, or Argentina, or even ‘the tenth Successor
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In particular
of St John Bosco', unless those pieces of information are especially significant
for the piece in hand.
MORE VERSUS LESS
Italian prefers more, English less. It is as simple as that!
The translator needs to think about reducing sentence or paragraph size without
losing what is essential.
Italian also has a fascination with the semicolon, where English will use a full
stop. The semicolon keeps ideas linked, and the free-flowing stylistic approach of
Italian has a preference for this linking.
It appears in another form as well: link words like infatti, inoltre, or a sentence that
begins with E, Ma. Many of these link features can be simply ignored in English.
OVERALL STRUCTURE
This is one area, possibly the most challenging of all in translation, that
probably cannot be removed, but it does need to be kept under control. Italian
thinking structure as it applies to the essay is different to the way we were all
brought up in English (introduction, a couple of paragraphs of development, a
conclusion). The Italian ‘essay' will have ideas flitting off in different directions,
all needing to be pulled together somehow at the end. More so, perhaps, in
spoken Italian, the English listener shudders when he hears In conclusione…,
which is likely to be an essay in itself.
The number of ideas and references, in Italian writing, to what might sound to
us like esoteric and unconnected ideas, is prized over how these might actually
relate to one another. One translator has called this the ‘Hegel and the price of rice
in China' phenomenon. It calls for some very astute reflection by the translator to
determine whether or not it all needs to be included.
C.2. In particular
Maybe the best way to highlight some of the particular issues that come into
play with style, is to give an example from a master of written English who
deliberately attempted to show the stylistic difference between Italian and English.
The example is taken from Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway’s 1929 novel
that propelled him onto the literary stage:
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In particular
“How are you, baby? How do you feel? I bring you this — ” It was
a bottle of cognac. The orderly brought a chair and he sat down,
“and good news. You will be decorated. They want to get you the
medaglia d’argento but perhaps they can get only the bronze.”
“What for?”
“Because you are gravely wounded. They say if you can prove
you did any heroic act you can get the silver. Otherwise it will
be the bronze. Tell me exactly what happened. Did you do any
heroic act?”
“No,'' I said. “I was blown up while we were eating cheese.”
“Be serious. You must have done something heroic before or
after. Remember carefully.”
“I did not.”
“Didn’t you carry anybody on your back? Gordini says you carried
several people on your back but the medical major at the first
post declares it is impossible. He has to sign the proposition for
the citation.”
“I didn’t carry anybody. I couldn’t move.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said Rinaldi.
He took off his gloves.
“I think we can get you the silver. Didn’t you refuse to be medically
aided before the others?”
“Not very firmly.”
“That doesn’t matter. Look how you are wounded. Look at your
valorous conduct in asking to go always to the first line. Besides,
the operation was successful.”
“Did they cross the river all right?”
“Enormously. They take nearly a thousand prisoners. It’s in the
bulletin. Didn’t you see it?”
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In particular
“No.”
“I’ll bring it to you. It is a successful coup de main.”
Pioneering a technique that he would use even more masterfully in his Spanish
Civil War novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway offers us a novel
in Farewell to Arms that plays on the linguistic gap between Italian and English,
which he uses in this case to mirror the confusion of war. He has an American
fighting for the Italians in the First World War, so he needs to present him speaking
English for readers, and he also needs Italians speaking in a way that shows they
spoke very good Italian, but in English!
The passage above is indicative of the quality of dialogue whereby he achieves
this. His character, Frederic Henry, also had to speak but was allowed to make
mistakes, and his accent gave him away anyway. At one point his own officers
thought he might have been German and nearly executed him. A doctor treating
him thought he was French. A barber thought he might be an Austrian officer.
A southern Italian sergeant thought he might be a northerner, and a bartender
thought he was a South American!
This is excellent stuff for a translator to read! But being congratulated for achieving
a level of prose worthy of Hemingway (in this instance) would be a left-handed
compliment, and besides, there is enough evidence that he wasn’t that great a
linguist anyway!
Word choice
It starts with ‘baby’ — sounds almost American, as it may have been then,
or ‘Globish’ today, but as addressed to a young soldier? Not really. ‘Gravely’
wounded is not inaccurate if that were really the case, but there is a slight
difference between ‘grave’ (death is imminent) and ‘serious’ for the native English
speaker; the brief context available to us in the passage tells us they are swilling
cognac and the wounded man is flippant — his injuries may not even be serious
let alone grave!
Is ‘Remember carefully' correct? Would not ‘recall' sound just a bit more native?
Does an army cross a river ‘enormously'?
A ‘proposition' for a citation sounds a mite pompous to us, but not to an Italian.
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In particular
There are countless words in Italian which seem to invite literal equivalents in
English. Persone is usually better translated as ‘people' rather than ‘persons'.
Realtà might often be just ‘thing/s'. Situazione might be ‘circumstance', and so
on. These are words to be found in the thick of ordinary conversation and text,
but there is a stratosphere of terms in erudite and scholarly Italian which can
lead the translator to grasp the nearest calque or loan word and hope for the
best – with inevitable disappointment. Does strenua lotta mean a strenuous
fight? No, it means putting up a brave one. Does stringente mean stringent?
Well, no, it actually means ‘cogent' ‘persuasive'. Does suggestivamente mean
‘suggestively'? That can cause trouble! It implies ‘meaningfully' rather than
‘bawdily'. Is dolce `sweet'? It can be, but dolce, dolcemente, dolcezza in our
Salesian context often refers to ‘gentleness'. Is inutile ‘useless'? Yes, often, but
in the phrase è inutile ripetere it probably means ‘pointless' or ‘redundant' or ‘no
real point in….'
Tense
‘I bring you this.' Perfect Italian — present tense to suggest a present action,
except that in English the speaker would have said ‘I have brought you this.' ‘They
take nearly a thousand prisoners' is historic present, but English, which does
employ this feature, would not use it in this instance.
Italian has more complicated uses of past tense with conditional tenses and
moods than does English. Lui promise che ci avrebbe messo una buona parola
seems to invite the translation ‘He promised he would have put in a good word',
whereas English uses the present conditional: ‘He promised he would put in a
good word.'
Grammar
When we read ‘asking to go always to the first line' there is a question of word
order: adverbial position. Similarly, earlier in the passage, ‘get only' which is good
Italian, should be ‘only get' to be good English. It goes a little further than this
in the case just quoted. What appears to be grammatically correct other than
the word order is in fact not saying what it should be saying in the light of the
previous sentence. The object (you) has been omitted, partly because the word
order adopted would now make it awkward to include unless ‘you' is switched for
‘they'.
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In particular
Stock phrases
We are not yet finished with ‘asking to go always to the first line.' Here is a stock
Italian phrase, prima linea, translated literally as ‘first line'. English might just say
‘the Front'. We suspect that ‘first post' is something similar, and in a war context it
is too reminiscent in English anyway of the ‘Last Post' which is an entirely different
matter!
Hemingway uses this particular technique in all kinds of ways. He has someone
say, elsewhere in the novel, ‘Just as you like', which is fine in English until you
realise it is come vuoi which would be better translated as ‘You can think what you
like!' Or he has a character reply ‘Nothing’ in a situation where an Italian would
say di niente, meaning ‘you’re welcome' or ‘don’t mention it'.
The final phrase in the passage is French, and quite ambiguous: it could mean a
swift attack (it does mean that in the context) but it can also mean a helping hand!
And why include it in this dialogue? It suits Hemingway’s purpose excellently to
create a little more confusion.
In the light of this, it would be our experience that any number of stock phrases
in Italian can play similar havoc with our translations.
We can have almost instinctual assumptions about words and phrases and their
meaning and use. In other words, in our experience a word or a phrase is always
used in a certain way and therefore when we see it in the source text we don’t
really think about it or consider its context, our brain supplies the usage we
have always seen and moves on. When this happens the chances that we have
missed the context and thus the meaning are pretty good. Hemingway is indirectly
showing us the danger of straight borrowing.
It can be a question of regularly used phrases in expository texts like, for example:
In questo orizzonte di senso — it would be unwise to translate this literally as ‘in
this horizon of meaning'; that sounds either ridiculous or pompous or both. Either
orizzonte or prospettiva will turn up in our texts on a very regular basis in a phrase
similar to the one above, and if translated literally they create a stilted effect on
the translation. Consider the following stock uses of such items as:
Ampliamento di prospettiva: could also be broadening one’s outlook on things
in prospettiva: has a temporal sense, future — in the future, in view of…
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In particular
in prospettiva di: with … in mind
In una prospettiva: with an aim to
ampliare l’orizzonte della ricerca: as used here, orizzonte can be scope,
boundaries, angle (almost anything except `horizon'!)
There are many Italian phrases which appear to have simple, literal equivalents
but where adopting that belief creates problems. In considerazione di seems to
invite ‘in consideration of' (which it could be) but very often in context it means
`on account of this'.
In effetti: try ‘actually' rather than ‘in effect', which it almost certainly isn’t, or in
some contexts it may mean ‘That’s right!' The discourse feel of the phrase is lost
if we go for ‘in effect'.
Infatti often has a different discourse function in Italian than its too obvious
translation has in English. In many instances it would be better translated as
‘indeed'. The English ‘in fact' looks backward to what has been said while the
Italian infatti looks forward to what is about to be said. Here is a very good example
of this from a recent document:
Mi sembra infatti importante non solo informarvi di quanto è stato fatto, ma anche
presentarvi le prospettive di futuro che riusciamo a intravvedere. ‘Indeed I think it
is important not only to let you know what has been done but also offer you what
we can glimpse of the future.'
Or it could be forever translating Italian connectives! That can become tedious
and the translation sounds too heavy. It is much more common for texts in Italian
to be explicitly structured by the use of connectives like e, dunque, magari,
pure, appunto, però, tuttavia, mentre, infatti or they may be phrasal in nature,
like in tal senso, in modo tale che, per tali motivi… In a similar vein, Italian will
often introduce qualifying phrases like più o meno, quà e là which could well be
translated literally — or be omitted. An English text where all these phrases have
been translated, and literally too, is off-white compared to white and at best stilted
in style.
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Appendix D. Editing process
Table of Contents
D.1. Introductory comment ...................................................................... 147
D.2. The traditional editing process ......................................................... 148
D.2.1. Items to be considered ......................................................... 148
D.2.2. Onscreen editing .................................................................. 149
D.2.3. Copyediting techniques ......................................................... 149
D.1. Introductory comment
Before looking at what publishers would regard as the ‘normal’ publishing
processes, it might be important to realise that the world is changing and that
digital transformation is already here and deeply affecting the publishing industry.
But for all kinds of reasons, book publishers are still “reacting” to change rather
than driving it or working alongside it and with it.
In some parts of the world it would seem that the only digital/software approaches
available to the population in general involve the well-known ‘Windows’ (aka
Microsoft) and the rather more high-end ‘Apple’ (aka Macintosh). This largely
ignores the Linux world – and the mentality that goes with it. Yet in many other
parts of the world things are different. Whole cities and states have adopted Linux
as their basic approach, along with the consequences that flow from this decision.
That aside, it needs to be recognised that modern production methods are not
as linear as the traditional ones, and are focused on creating content that can be
repurposed for many different publishing outputs, not just print.
This point is made because the text you are now reading is the result of this
latter mentality, which includes, among other things, a toolchain substantially
different from the Word-InDesign-PDF one. This text was produced using a
markup language (AsciiDoc, but there are many of them, including the high-level
LaTeX often used for academic publishing) which is basically plain text. From this
single text file, output is then possible to HTML, PDF, EPUB, Docbook, or even
LaTeX.
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The traditional editing process
The content is stored in a neutral format. This may be text coded with XML tags,
or it may be a light-weight markup language such as Asciidoc. These approaches
allow content to be structured, stored and transmitted in a form independent of
software or hardware.
Crucially, XML tags or light-weight markup languages describe content rather than
presentation, e.g. a tag such as <strong>, or a markup which uses asterisks either
side of a word, can be rendered as bold text in print, but might become red text
on a website.
The original text file, if needs be, could still go through the Word-Indesign-PDF
toolchain. It would involve either converting the markup to Word, or stripping the
markup (relatively trivial) and reintroducing it to Word that way.
The advantage of the markup approach for the author is that it does not distract
greatly from the authoring process, and the content will always be safe and
manipulable, since that is the nature of text-only digital files.
The digital workflow involves pre-editing (basic file cleanup and tagging/markup),
and the processes involved in editorial quality (editing, checking, testing) are
flexible – old boundaries between initial editing and later proofreading are less
applicable.
There are few style guides or editors’ handbooks that deal with the above.
D.2. The traditional editing process
Since this is an appendix, and since there are also books available for further
reading, we only wish to indicate here some broad outlines regarding what
happens when you, the author, have completed your draft of the text you wish to
be published, and present it to a publisher for consideration.
D.2.1. Items to be considered
Style.
The editor will consider matters of style. There is not single standard style, but a
publisher may have a ‘house style’.
Consistency.
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Onscreen editing
The editor will look at things like consistency. Inconsistencies in the spelling of
names, layout of tables, structure of chapters, presentation of figures will all cause
unease. Even if the narrative seems to flow smoothly, readers may decide that
the publication is ‘hard to read’.
Grammar, spelling and word use.
Many of the prominent issues are addressed in the house style, but
other references, particularly dictionaries and quite specific niche references,
depending on the material involved, may be consulted.
D.2.2. Onscreen editing
Few publishers and editors still work in hard copy only. Onscreen editing offers
significant advantages such as the ability to track editorial changes electronically,
to switch between a marked-up and corrected view, insert queries for the author,
apply global corrections, run checks on spelling and grammar, reduce double-
handling, make backups … among many others.
The common Word shortcuts have already been indicated in the house style.
We will not go into the matter of electronic styles here, since these can be read
up on elsewhere, but suffice it to note that Word’s in-built styles are invaluable.
D.2.3. Copyediting techniques
Basic requests from editors to authors
Do
• adopt the house style consistently and as much as possible
• supply a word list of the spelling and usage of terms in the manuscript
• apply electronic styling to semantically identify parts of the text, such as
headings, quotes, boxed text, poetry and emphasised characters
• insert manual intructions about the treatment of text if it has not been
electronically styled
• use Word’s (or Libre Office’s or …) Table facility to create tables
• use automated footnotes or endnotes
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Copyediting techniques
• include a header or footer that contains the names of the publication, the
chapter and page number
• use standard typefaces such as Times New Roman or Arial, to ensure
compatibility supply artwork according to the publisher’s requirements,
including clear labelling of files
• use unique and useful file names, including chapter number or name for text
files, and figure numbers for figures, and always add the date to make it clear
which is the latest version keep backups of files, and save files frequently while
working supply a printout or PDF of the manuscript against which to compare
the Word version.
Don’t
• apply manual formatting to the text – use electronic styles
• use more than the minimum amount of styling required
• insert manual hyphenation in non-hyphenatied words, line breaks or bullets
• create tables using tabs, spaces and/or columns – use Word’s Table facility
• add extra paragraph returns, tabs or spaces – one of each at a time is enough
• underline text or apply special formatting such as outlining or drop shadows
• use Word’s Text box feature for boxed text
• use all caps (all capital letters).
There could be much more to say, but let the above suffice.
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References
European Union, (2016, 2019), English Style Guide: A handbook for authors and
translators in the European Commission.
European Union (2014), Clear English: Tips for Translators.
Macquarie Dictionary online subscription service (2019), Macquarie Dictionary
and Thesaurus, <www.macquariedictionary.com.au>.
Oxford University Press (2019). The online dictionary name is <Lexico.com>.
Oxford University Press (2012), New Oxford Style Manual, 2nd Edn, 2016 reprint,
Oxford University Press, New York.
The Writer Limited (2020), <TheWriter.com>.
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Index
A
a.m., 3
abbreviations, 2
acronyms, 1, 2
adjectives, 27, 28, 34, 42, 95
compound, 22
adverbs, 22, 27
ampersand, 5
and and but, 7
apostrophes, 9
appendix, 15
Arabic, 83
Arabic numeral, 15
article
definite
indefinite, 4
AsciiDoc, 147
B
back matter, 14
bleed, 14
book parts, 14
book sizes, 13
brackets, 17
British vs American English, 19
bullets, 25
C
capitalisation, 27
capital letters, 27
cf., 4
chapter, 15
colon, 25, 25, 31, 31, 45, 77
comma, 33
compound words, 21
contractions, 2
copyediting, 149
currency
code
symbol, 39
D
dashes, 41
digital workflow, 148
dot points, 25
E
e.g., 3
em rule, 41
endmatter, 14
en rule, 42
etc., 49
exclamation mark, 77
F
ff., 3
foreign words, 53, 61
forward slash, 55
front matter, 14
full stop, 77
G
greengrocer’s apostrophe,
H
hanging hyphens, 96
Harvard comma, 22, 33
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hyphen, 21, 22, 37, 42, 96, 97
I
i.e., 3
initialisms, 2
italics, 61
it’s, 11
J
Jesus, 10
judgement
judgment, 100
K
keyboard, 101
L
ll., 3
M
maximal capitalisation, 27
N
no., 2
nouns, 21, 27, 28
collective, 22
proper, 27, 27
numbers, 2, 3, 25, 40, 42, 45, 65
O
Oxford comma, 22, 22
P
parentheses, 17
part, 15
pp., 3
154
prefixes, 42, 96
preliminary pages, 14
prelims, 14, 14
pronouns, 27, 57
punctuation, 2, 3, 17, 22, 25, 36, 45, 45,
47, 59, 77
clarity, 34
italics, 61
quotes, 81
Q
question mark, 77
quotation marks
curly, 81
R
ranges, 40
recto, 15
roman, 83
Roman, 83
Roman numeral, 15
rule
em
en, 41
S
Saint, 2
saints
names, 85
section, 15
semicolon, 25, 31, 34, 77
sentence case, 27
serial comma, 22, 22, 33
small caps, 87
SMS code, 4
social media, 4

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spelling, 19
St., 2
street, 2
suffixes, 96
T
texting language, 4
they, 57, 57
title case, 27, 27
towards, 23
trim, 14
U
uncial, 28
US usage, 2, 3, 21, 22, 23, 32, 33, 41,
59, 78, 85, 99, 100, 100
V
verbs, 27, 28
compound, 22
verso, 15
W
website, 105
X
XML, 148
155

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156