The Times Style Guide: A guide to English usage. Ian Brunskill

Copyright

      Published by Times Books

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      First published 2003

      Second edition 2017

      © Times Newspapers Ltd 2017

       www.thetimes.co.uk

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      Ebook Edition © April 2017 ISBN: 9780008146184

      Version 2017-04-27

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

Acknowledgments

Aa

Bb

Cc

       Dd

       Ee

       Ff

       Gg

       Hh

       Ii

       Jj

       Kk

       Ll

       Mm

       Nn

       Oo

       Pp

       Qq

       Rr

       Ss

       Tt

       Uu

       Vv

       Ww

       Xx

       Yy

       Zz

       About the Publisher

Introduction

      This updated version of The Times Style Guide aims to provide writers and sub-editors with a quick reference to contentious points of grammar and spelling, and to guide them through areas where confusions have arisen in the past. It is a guide, not a straitjacket. Consistency is a virtue, but it should not be pursued at the expense of clarity, elegance or common sense.

      By the standards of its predecessors this is a permissive volume. It avoids unnecessary prescription and prohibition. It tries to distinguish linguistic superstitions from grammatical rules. It hesitates to condemn common usage that neither baffles nor offends. English is not a language fixed for all time. Speech changes and its written form should change too. The Times must use the language of its readers, but that language at its best, clearest and most concise.

      The guide sets out the paper’s detailed preferences in such fields as capitalisation, hyphenation and variant spelling. More general entries are intended to encourage reflection about words and the way we use them. While all Times journalists should follow house style, they should not do so unthinkingly. Considered exceptions can (and often must) be made, especially in direct quotes, in features, diaries and other less formal kinds of writing, and with columnists whose individual voices should be heard and whose flow of argument should be preserved.

      Where extra guidance is needed, and for all spellings, hyphenations etc not covered by the guide, staff are expected to use as their first point of reference Collins English Dictionary. Other helpful resources are the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors (Odwe), the Concise Oxford or Chambers. For place names The Times Comprehensive Atlas of the World should be consulted.

      Further