House Style Guide for external publications
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Contents
Abbreviations and acronyms – page 3
American usage – page 4
Ampersand (&) – page 4
Apostrophe – page 5
Bullet points – page 6
Capitalisation – page 7
Colon – page 9
Comma – page 10
Dates – page 10
Duplication – page 11
Ellipsis – page 11
Email – page 11
En rule – page 11
Full stop – page 12
Hyphen – page 12
Internet – page 13
Italics – page 14
Names – page 14
Numerals – page 14
Paragraphs – page 15
Parentheses – page 16
Percentages – page 16
Possessive case – page 16
Proper names – page 16
Question mark – page 17
Quotations – page 17
Quotation marks – page 18
Semi-colon – page 18
Spellcheckers – page 19
Split infinitives – page 19
Time of day – page 22
University– page 23
Visuals – page 23
Websites – page 24
Sources of information – page 24
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House Style Guide
Abbreviations and acronyms
Be cautious of using abbreviations and acronyms that might be very familiar to you
but may not necessarily be known to your reader. Question whether your reader will
understand them before you use them, especially if you are considering our
international readers..
As a general rule, all terms that can be expressed as abbreviations and acronyms
should be written in full at first mention, followed immediately by their abbreviation
or acronym in brackets: for example, the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA) or the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Wales (HEFCE).
Exceptions: It is not necessary to use the full titles of academic awards (eg, Bachelor of
Arts) as their abbreviations are in universal use within higher education
There are a few abbreviations that have been so fully absorbed into the
language that they are more widely known and understood than the full name
for which they stand (for example, BBC)
We recommend that you avoid overuse of acronyms, as they can look awkward and
clutter up the text with initials. If you need to refer to the same term repeatedly in a
relatively short document, consider, where possible, using an alternative to the
abbreviation or acronym (for example,‘the Agency’ for the QAA or ‘the Council’ for
HEFCE) to avoid monotony.
The University house style does not use full stops in acronyms or abbreviations.
This rule covers:
All academic awards and degrees – BA, BSc, MA, MSc, PhD, MPhil, PGDip,
PGCert
Abbreviations of ‘for example’, ‘that is’, and ‘and so on’ – eg, ie, etc
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Abbreviated titles – Dr, Mr, Mrs, Ms (Please note that in external publications we
do not abbreviate Professor to Prof.)
Abbreviations for ante meridiem and post meridiem – am, pm
American usage
In general, British rather than American conventions of usage and spelling should be
used; for example:
–ise rather than –ize in words such as emphasise
–ogue rather than –og in words such as catalogue
single rather than double l in words such as fulfil
meet rather than meet with
transport rather than transportation
American usage is standard in some specialised contexts; for example: program in
computing, and specialty in medicine.
Ampersand (&)
Always write the word ‘and’ in publication titles, headings and normal text.
Only use the ampersand if:
It is used as part of a company’s name, such as Procter & Gamble, Marks &
Spencer, Allen & Unwin
When writing references, as in a bibliography, or when sourcing a quote, in which
case you must use the ampersand if it appears in the original work
Apostrophe
Apostrophes have two main uses:
To show possession, as in ‘the professor’s lecture notes’, or ‘the student’s
portfolio’
To mark the omission of one or more letters , as in contractions such as don’t,
can’t and we’ll
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Singular and plural
To show possession or belonging when the possessor is a single thing, you add an
apostrophe before the letter s, as in ‘the tutor’s desk’; however, if the possessors are
plural and the word already ends in the letter s, you add an apostrophe after the final
s, as in ‘the girls’ study room’. When plurals don’t end in ‘s’ (men, women, children,
people) you use an apostrophe s (‘s), as in ‘the children’s favourite books’.
Names ending in ‘s’
When names end in ‘s’ and you want to show possession, it is acceptable to use
either of the following: Professor James’ degree programme’, or ‘Professor James’s
degree programme’: to make the right choice, read the text aloud and opt for the
version that sounds better.
Numbers, dates, letters and abbreviations
We no longer use apostrophes in the plural form of numbers, dates, letters or
abbreviations; for example: ‘He got four As and two Bs’ rather than ‘He got four A’s
and two B’s’; ‘This programme began in the 1960s’; ‘We have ten PhDs in our
department’, and ‘We have done well in all RAEs’.
Time and money
We do use apostrophes in time and money references, as in: ‘We will meet in one
hour’s time’; ‘I am taking a week’s holiday’, and ‘The Selly Oak Campus is about one
mile’s drive from the main campus’.
Companies, organisations and institutions
Knowing whether or not you have to use an apostrophe when referring to
commercial companies, organisations, or institutions and their belongings can be
tricky, as some choose not to use it; for example:
Barclays Bank, Lloyds TSB, Tescos Travel Insurance, Bassetts Liquorice
Allsorts, Trades Union Congress, Partners Stationers (no apostrophe)
Sainsbury’s Bank , Cadbury’s chocolate, Kellogg’s Corn Flakes, Hartley’s jam,
Robertson’s marmalade, McDonald’s hamburger (apostrophe)
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If in doubt, check on their respective websites to see what they do. If you find
confusing/conflicting examples of usage and non-usage, go with what is
grammatically correct.
Bullet points
Bullets are meant to draw attention to a piece of information and should convey key
points only. They are ideal for lists (eg, modules in a programme) and outlining the
steps in a process (eg, how to apply for a course). They should be fairly short and
punchy in style. We begin bullet points with a capital letter, but have no full stop at
the end unless each bullet contains more than one sentence.
NB. The text that introduces your bulleted list must agree grammatically with each
bullet; always check that this is the case by reading your text aloud.
Capitalisation
Initial capital letters make a word or words specific in their reference: distinguishing,
for instance, between ‘the white house’ (a house painted white) and ‘the White
House’ (the official residence of the President of the United States): thus, titles
should be in initial capitals when referring to specific individuals or institutions but
lower case when used generically.
In the context of the University, we write about ‘heads of colleges, schools and
departments’ (all lower case) but use initial capital letters for specific examples such
as ‘Professor I M Crackers, Head of the School of Metaphysics’. Similarly, we
capitalise specific colleges, schools and departments such as ‘the College of Arts
and Law’, ‘the School of History and Cultures’ and ‘the Department of History’ but in
generic references we write about the University’s academic schools, departments,
divisions and institutes.
Capitalise the names of academic subjects only in the context of specific
programmes, courses and examinations; for example: ‘he read Chemistry’, and ‘he
sat the Chemistry examination’, and ‘he received a degree in Chemistry’, but ‘he
gained a chemistry degree’, or ‘he enjoyed chemistry above all other subjects’.
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Lower case should be used for compass points (east, west, north, south), except
when part of a name or recognised geographical or political group (North Korea, the
West Midlands).
Headlines, headings and sub-headings within our publications should be treated in
the same way as sentences; there is no need to use initial capital letters for any
words other than the first word and any proper nouns.
The following always take initial capital letters:
Titles of government departments and postholders – Department of Health,
Ministry of Defence, Secretary of State for Education
Titles of courtesy, honour and rank – Her Royal Highness, Vice-Chancellor, Pro-
Vice-Chancellor, Vice-Principal, Pro-Chancellor, and Professor
Titles of degree programmes, modules and courses of study – the MA in Modern
European Cultures comprises six modules including Ideas of Europe and Nations
and their Neighbours.
Titles of books and other publications, poems or songs (also usually italicised) –
A Tale of Two Cities, Woman’s Own, The Four Quartets, and My Way.
The word University whenever it refers specifically to the University of
Birmingham
Colon
A colon separates two clauses that are logically related, fulfilling the same function
as the following words and phrases:
as
as follows
because
for example
namely
such as
that is
therefore
It is principally used:
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a) When the first part of the sentence is complete in both sense and construction,
and the following part naturally arises from it in sense, though not in construction,
as in: ‘The professor had given lectures all over the world: I should like to be a
professor’.
b) To lead from introduction to main theme, as in ‘The question is one of universal
interest: what is the secret of a long and happy life?’
c) To lead from cause to effect, as in ‘It started to rain: the match was abandoned’
d) To lead from a general statement to an example, as in ‘Birmingham has some
excellent restaurants: Simpson’s in Edgbaston has a Michelin star’
e) To introduce a list of items, especially after such expressions as ‘for example’,
and ‘including’
A colon may also be used before a quotation instead of a comma to give the
quotation added emphasis.
Comma
The comma is used in a wide range of ways to structure sentences and clarify
meaning; for example:
a) To separate clauses within a sentence
b) Between adjectives that qualify a noun in the same way
c) When a phrase would mean something completely different without it; for
example: ‘Mozart’s 40th Symphony, in G minor’ as opposed to ‘Mozart’s 40th
Symphony in G minor’
d) To separate items in a list of more than two items
e) To mark the beginning and end of a parenthetical word or phrase; for example:
‘Edward Elgar, Peyton Professor of Music, was appointed in March 1905’
f) Before a quotation, although a colon can be used for an increased weight of
sentence
g) In numbers of four or more figures, as in 4,500
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Oxford comma
This is an optional comma used before the word ‘and’ at the end of a list. It is not
generally necessary to use a comma after ‘and’ or before the last item unless it
helps to clarify the sense and avoid ambiguity:
Examples
We have five colleges: Arts and Law, Engineering and Physical Sciences, Life
and Environmental Sciences, Medical and Dental Sciences, and Social Sciences.
The membership of this group included James Watt (pioneer of the steam
engine), Joseph Priestley, who discovered oxygen, and Matthew Boulton.
The notebooks are available in black and white, red and yellow, and blue and
green.
Dates
Dates should be written in the following ways:
Tuesday 27 October 2009
27 October 2009
27 October
When abbreviating dates we use 27.10.09, and when using periods of years we
express them as 2009–10 (using an en rule not a hyphen), unless the dates involve
changes of century, when they are written in full.
Duplication of punctuation
This should be avoided – a comma should not precede or follow a dash, nor a full
stop an exclamation or question mark. It is not necessary to use an en rule after a
colon (:–) before beginning a list.
Ellipsis
This is the omission of words and consists of three full stops (…) used to mark that
omission. When used at the end of an incomplete sentence, a fourth full stop is not
required.
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We always write ‘email’ as one word (no hyphen), capitalising the initial letter at the
beginning of a sentence – Email. Our house style is to use lower case letters
throughout in all email addresses:
[email protected]@bham.ac.uk
To ensure your email information is clear and accessible to all users, we
recommend using Arial font with a font size of 12–14 points. You should not use
coloured text or background colours as this can create difficulties for visually
impaired users.
For further advice on emails and email signatures from Online Communications, visit
https://www.intranet.bham.ac.uk/onlinecomms/housestyle/emailsignature.shtml
En rule
An en rule (–) is longer than a hyphen (-) and should be used in the following ways:
As a parenthetical dash in informal contexts to replace a colon
To express a more profound break in sentence structure than commas and to
draw more attention to the enclosed phrase than brackets, as in: ‘Managing your
finances is a vital – and sometimes difficult – aspect of student life’
In these instances the en rule should be spaced.
An unspaced en rule should be used:
In ranges of numbers, dates or days of the week; for example: pages 13–25,
1939–45, Monday–Friday, where it stands for the word ‘to’
To join words that have equal importance in phrases such as ‘Labour–Liberal
alliance’, ‘cost–benefit analysis’, ‘on–off switch’, where it stands for ‘and’
To find the en rule on your keyboard, hold down the Control button and
simultaneously press the hyphen symbol on your Number key pad (Ctrl + –);
alternatively, choose ‘Insert’, then ‘Symbol’, then ‘Special Characters’: the en rule is
second on the list.
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Full stop
A full stop is used at the end of all sentences that are not questions or exclamations.
Full stops are not needed for:
Headings (whether in text or tables)
Sub-headings
Bullet points (unless they contain more than one sentence)
Captions
We do not insert full stops in abbreviations or acronyms or in initial letters. It is not
necessary to use a further full stop at the end of a sentence that concludes with a
quotation itself ending in a full stop, quotation mark, or exclamation mark.
Hyphen
Hyphens are used:
To join two or more words to form a compound expression (punch-drunk), and in
phrases to clarify the sense, as in ‘a blood-red hand’, or ‘ a well-known man’
To join a prefix to a proper name or date, as in anti-Darwinian, or mid-1990s
To separate a prefix from the main word to avoid confusion with another word, as
in ‘re-cover the chair with material’ to distinguish it from ‘recover the costs’
To separate two similar consonant or vowel sounds in a word, as an aid to
understanding, as in co-operation, or bio-organic
To prevent misunderstanding by linking words; for example: ‘a little-used car’, as
opposed to ‘a little used car’
To represent a common second element in all but the last word of a list; for
example: short- and long-term
In fractions (see Numerals)
In a sequence of non-inclusive numbers, as in ISBN 0-123-45678-9
Here at the University the following are always hyphenated:
Vice-Chancellor
Pro-Chancellor
Pro-Vice-Chancellor
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Vice-Principal
We no longer use hyphens within telephone numbers. The STD code is separated
from the main number by a space alone, as in 0121 414 3344
Internet
There is still debate about how to capitalise words associated with the internet.
Most dictionaries capitalise ‘Internet’, ‘World Wide Web’ and ‘Website’, but modern
practice is leaning away from this; therefore, we now recommend that you:
Use lower case in both specific and generic references to the internet, unless the
word starts a sentence and takes an initial capital:
We are linked to the internet
This is an internet-based resource
All rooms have internet access
Internet access is available for all students
Use lower case for ‘worldwide web’ (worldwide as one word) and ‘website’,
unless the word starts a sentence and takes an initial capital, as in ‘Website
addresses can be found on page six’
The most important principle is consistency within a document and within an
institution.
Italics
Italics are used:
a) As a method of emphasising or distinguishing words; for example: ‘The weather
was so cold last winter’
b) For the titles of books, newspapers, magazines and other publications
c) For the titles of plays, films, TV and radio series, and CDs
d) For the titles of paintings, sculptures and other works of art
e) For the individual names of ships, trains, aircraft, spacecraft, and other means of
transport
f) For foreign words or phrases that are not naturalised
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We do not use italics for quoted material.
Names
Always check that you have correctly spelled people’s names (especially foreign
names, such as Dostoyevsky) and that you have also included their correct title.
Misspelling someone’s name can cause offense. Also check the spelling of:
Place names (Pontrhydfendigaid)
Company names (Rolls-Royce)
Less familiar or specialist naming words belonging to various academic
disciplines (Deoxyribonucleic acid)
Numerals
We write words for numbers from one to ten but in keeping with most modern
practice, we use figures for all numbers over ten. Where fractions are used with
whole numbers in the one-to-ten range, they are also spelt out, as in ‘three and a
half’. Where fractions are used with whole numbers in the over ten range, figures
should also be used, as in 16½.
Figures are also used for decimal fractions, percentages, and in sets linking more
than two numerals where some are higher and some lower than ten; for example:
‘Deaths from this cause in the past three years were 14, 9 and 6’.
Avoid starting a sentence with a figure; write the number in words instead; for
example: ‘Eighty-six places will be available on this programme in 2010’.
Simple fractions should be spelt out in words and hyphenated, even when figures
are higher than ten; for example: two-thirds, five-eighths, one-twentieth.
In statistical material, fractions are written numerically: ¼, ½, ¾.
The following are expressed in figures only:
Dates – Tuesday 27 October
Degrees of heat – It is 32°C in the shade
Money – £5.50, £25.00
Races (for distance and time)
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Scores in games and matches
Specific gravity
Statistics
Time of day, when followed by am or pm
Numbers of votes
Weights when abbreviated units, such as grams or kilograms, are given
Page numbers
(Note: in non-academic texts page ranges should be expressed as pages 21–30
rather than pp 21–30)
Million and billion are spelt out as words, preceded by the amount on digits, whether
referring to people, objects or sums of money – 5 million people, 5 million donations,
£5 million.
Paragraphs
We denote paragraphs with a single line break and do not indent the initial word.
Start a new paragraph as often as possible to present your reader with manageable
chunks of information rather than weighty blocks of it. Consider adding subheadings
(using key words) to denote a change in theme.
Parentheses
Parentheses (round brackets) are used:
As a means of definition, explanation, reference, or translation – for example:
Parentheses (round brackets); Machtpolitik (power politics)
To supply ancillary information such as abbreviations, references, cross-
references and variants – for example: Animal Biology (see page 230), Times
Literary Supplement (TLS)
When using reference figures or letters within text, such as (a), (b), (c)
In normal running text, try to avoid brackets within brackets: where this is inevitable,
double parentheses are preferable to square brackets.
Percentages
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All percentages should be written as figures followed by %, as in 62%.
Possessive case
When using the possessive case, the apostrophe must be used with proper and
common nouns; for example: ‘
The University’s parking facilities
Professor Smith’s students
In singular or plural nouns that end in a letter other than s, the apostrophe must
precede the added s, as in ‘the Queen’s Jubilee’. In plural nouns that end in s, the
apostrophe must follow the s, as in ‘ the students’ essays.
In singular words ending in s, the possessive case normally takes a second s after
the apostrophe (James’s), in line with their pronunciation. When the final s is silent in
speech, it is generally omitted, as in ‘for goodness’ sake’.
Proper names
See ‘Names’ on page 14.
Question mark
This should follow every question where a separate answer is required.
How is Birmingham different from other universities?
How are you enjoying reading these guidelines?
A question mark may also be placed before a word or date when the accuracy is
doubted.
Leonardo da Vinci,? 1452–1519
A rhetorical question, where there is no expectation of a reply, may be punctuated
by a question mark, or exclamation mark.
I’m supposed to be grateful am I?
You can’t be serious!
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Indirect questions do not require a question mark.
The professor asked the students what they were doing.
Many students ask why they should attend all lectures.
Quotations
All extracts in the exact words of the original have quotation marks:
At the beginning
At the start of each paragraph
At the end of the extract
Punctuation within the extract should be exactly as the original and the concluding
full stop goes within the quotation marks when it is part of the original.
When a whole sentence is a quotation, full stops, commas and other punctuation
marks are placed inside the quotation marks.
Example
‘Most people use clichés in everyday speech and writing whether they are aware of
it or not.’ Source: Munro: Clichés and How to Avoid Them; Chambers, 2005, p.3)
If the quoted matter forms only part of the sentence, and the punctuation mark is not
part of the quote, it comes outside the quotation marks.
Example
The report praised the ‘tireless efforts of the dedicated and hard-working staff’.
Quotation marks
There are two types of quotation marks, or inverted commas: single (‘ ‘) and double
(“ “). We follow standard British practice, enclosing quoted matter between single
quotation marks (see note on Quotations within quotations).
Single quotes and roman (regular) type are used when citing the titles of articles in
magazines, chapters of books, essays and songs. They may also be used to
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enclose an unfamiliar term, or one being used in a specific technical sense. Usually
this is only necessary for the first occurrence of the word or phrase.
Quotation marks are not used for the titles of any books of the Bible, where the
substance only of an extract is given, or where the tense or the person has been
altered.
Quotations within quotations
These are indicated by the use of double quotation marks within single inverted
commas:
Example
‘When I say “immediately”, I mean some time before April,’ said the spokesman.’
Semi-colon
A semi-colon separates those parts of a sentence between which there is a more
distinct break than would call for a comma, but which are too closely connected to
be made into separate sentences.
It should separate clauses or phrases that are similar in importance or grammatical
construction:
Example
I know the city well; I’ve lived there all my life.
In a list in which any of the elements contain commas, semi-colons are used to
clarify the relationship of the components:
Example
I should like to thank staff at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge; King’s College,
London; and the School of Medicine, University of Birmingham.
Spellcheckers
While it is a good idea to run a spelling and grammar check on your documents,
please be aware that spellcheckers do not spot all the errors and may even be
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responsible for creating some. If in doubt, try keying in the following text and run a
spell check on it:
They’re know miss steaks in this peace off righting cause we used special soft wear
witch checks your spelling. It is mower or lass a weigh too verify. However is can
knot correct arrows inn punctuation ore usage: it will not fine words witch are miss
used butt spelled rite.
If you do use a spellchecker, make sure that it is programmed for UK English.
Split infinitives
The most famous split infinitive of all time was delivered by William Shatner in his
Star Trek role as Captain James T Kirk :
‘Space – the final frontier: these are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise; its five-
year mission – to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new
civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before.’
Here the word boldly splits the ‘to–infinitive’ to go. What Captain Kirk should have
said was ‘to go boldly’ – but it doesn’t have as much impact and it shifts the
emphasis or stress from ‘boldly’ (the word they intended to emphasise) to ‘go’ (the
word they didn’t want to emphasise so much). So, in this instance, the infinitive was
split for deliberate effect.
In modern practice, it is not frowned upon to split infinitives, but some people do
have a preference for not doing it, including our own Vice-Chancellor.
Most of us do it when we speak to emphasise a point or convey the way we are
feeling and we do it in writing because in English we can (you can’t do it in many
other languages); it can be an effective tool for conveying written thoughts and
feelings in a different way; so it has some impact.
The argument not to split infinitives is that the infinitive is a single unit and, therefore,
should not be divided. The infinitive is the base form of a verb; one that describes
an action or occurrence. There are two types of infinitive:
The to–infinitive, as in ‘They decided to go’
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The base–infinitive, which is without the word ‘to’, as in ‘We saw him go’
To split the infinitive is to insert one or more words (usually adverbs – words that
describe or qualify the action) between the infinitive-marker or base-marker and the
verb that follows, as in the following examples:
They decided to quickly go rather than They decided to go quickly
We saw him swiftly go rather than We saw him go swiftly
An infinitive verb fulfills the function of a noun and is most commonly formed with ‘to’
to take
to laugh
to be
to dream
to educate
to work
Some people feel that it is bad style to split an infinitive by inserting any kind of
modifying word or phrase after the ‘to’, as in the following examples.
to greedily take
to enthusiastically laugh
to finally be
to lazily dream
to successfully educate
to slowly work
The best advice in terms of modern good practice is to avoid splitting infinitives if
you can do so without distorting the sentence; but that sometimes a split infinitive is
the lesser of two evils. A good example of this is given in Butcher’s Copy-editing:
The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-Editors and Proofreaders (CUP, 2007:
p.165), as follows:
Without split infinitive: Very honourable exceptions were Italian restaurants, said positively to like children, and Chinese ones, said positively to love them.
With split infinitive: Very honourable exceptions were Italian restaurants, said to positively like children, and Chinese ones, said to positively love them.
In some cases, moving the adverb creates an ungrammatical sentence or changes
the meaning. In Mind the Gaffe (Penguin Books, 2001) R L Trask uses this example
where the word ‘gradually’ is moved to different positions within the sentence to
avoid splitting the infinitive; the split version comes first:
She decided to gradually get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
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‘Gradually’ splits the infinitive ‘to get’. However, if the adverb were moved, where
could it go?
She decided gradually to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
This might imply that the decision was gradual.
She decided to get rid of the teddy bears she had collected gradually.
This implies that the collecting process was gradual.
She decided to get gradually rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
This sounds awkward, as it splits the phrase "get rid of".
She decided to get rid gradually of the teddy bears she had collected.
This is almost as awkward as its immediate predecessor.
The sentence can be rewritten to maintain its meaning, however, by using a noun or
a different grammatical aspect of the verb:
She decided to get rid of her teddy bear collection gradually.
She decided she would gradually get rid of the teddy bears she had collected.
She decided to rid herself gradually of the teddy bears she had collected.
Examples of split infinitives we might use at the University include:
We aim to successfully find you a course
The University will try to generally improve its position in the league tables
We wish to carefully consider issues of equality and diversity on campus
Our responsibility is to gently support you through your degree programme
Historically, the University has tried to systematically push forward the boundaries
of knowledge
New ideas and research are to always be carried forward
These would need to be re-written as:
We aim successfully to find you a course
The University will generally try to improve its position in the league tables
We wish carefully to consider issues of equality and diversity on campus
(Note that the meaning has now been changed: are we ‘carefully wishing’; or ‘carefully
considering’? This one would have to be changed to avoid having to make the split; the easiest
way is to remove the adverb ‘carefully’)
Our responsibility is gently to support you through your degree programme
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Historically, the University has systematically tried to push forward the boundaries
of knowledge
New ideas and research are always to be carried forward
If not splitting the infinitive alters your intended meaning, or sounds awkward and
ambiguous (has more than one meaning); you need to rewrite your sentence – or
accept the split! Remember also that infinitives can be split for comic (ironic) effect,
as in: ‘It was a beautiful sunny morning; perfect to not read the student’s essays.’
Time of day
The time of day is always written as figures, with a full stop to indicate the minutes
and no space between the time and am or pm:
9.00am
10.15am
11.45am
1.30pm
3.45pm
8.00pm
You may find that some spelling and grammar checkers will highlight the am and
pm, insisting that you insert spaces, full stops or even capital letters (11.45 a.m.;
11.45 A.M.): please ignore these requests, as the house style over-rules them.
We do not generally use the 24-hour clock, although this may be different for the
International Office and is acceptable in some publications. You may consider giving
the time of day in both 12-hour and 24-hour clock formats, if you feel it is more
accessible to your target audience or current students:
The concert will start at 7.30pm (19:30)
Please arrive at the airport by 15:45 (3.45pm)
This works well when your text only contains a few time references, but if it contains
a large number of them, it might be wiser to stick with one format.
University of Birmingham
The word the has now been dropped from the word marque (logo) of the University.
This means that it no longer appears in our address, which should now be written:
University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, B15 2TT.
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In the general run of text, 'the' should still be used but with a lower case t, eg,
Welcome to the University of Birmingham.
We always use an upper case initial ‘U’ when referring to our own University.
Visuals
If a picture speaks a thousand words: we need to make sure it says the right thing.
Everyone at the University has a legal duty not to discriminate against students (or
fellow staff) on the grounds of race, gender, disability, age, religion, sexual
orientation or belief. It is possible to discriminate by not including, or not paying
attention to the needs of all. Any photographic or graphic images you use should
include representatives from as many diverse groups as possible.
Photographs and images should also reflect the content of the text. If you are
promoting a course that you say is ‘new, active and exciting’, it is not appropriate to
show a photograph of two tired-looking students eating a sandwich on a bench
during their lunch break! Similarly, if you are explaining how Birmingham welcomes
disabled students, you need to support it with images of disabled students taking an
active part in university study and life.
No images used should cause offense to particular groups of applicants.
Please refer to the University Copywriting Guidelines 2009 for further information.
Websites
Website addresses should be written in the following way: www.bham.ac.uk with no
full stop or other punctuation marks immediately afterwards. If possible, website
addresses should not appear within the main body of text but in a separate box
under the heading Learn more, usually placed at the end of a piece of copy. This is
a standard element of publications within the new brand.
The word ‘website’ is always written as one word but ‘web pages’ as two.
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Sources of informationThe following have been used in compiling this guide:
The Economist Style Guide (ISBN-1-86197-535-X)
The Guardian Style Guide – www.guardian.co.uk
The Oxford Guide to Style (ISBN 0-19-860564-1)
The Times Style and Usage Guide – www.timesonline.co.uk
Butcher’s copy-editing: The Cambridge Handbook for Editors, Copy-editors and
Proofreaders, Fourth Edition; Butcher, Drake and Leach, Cambridge University
Press, 2006.
Mind the Gaffe : R L Trask, Penguin Books, 2001
The University of Birmingham House Style and Grammar Guide (October 2009)
SCRBD online punctuation – http://www.scribd.com/doc/21245751/puncuation
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We are always in the process of reviewing our house style and copywriting guidance
with a view to incorporating further advice about writing for University printed and
online publications.
If you have any comments about this or any other guidance notes we have
produced, or have suggestions for other writing issues we might cover, please
contact us by telephone or email.
We would also be interested to hear how you think we might make this document
more user friendly.
Carole Wale Peter Kiddle
Tel: 42582 Tel: 46683
Email: [email protected] [email protected]
University of Birmingham
Corporate Relations
Creative Media – Design and Publications
Aston Webb Building
Edgbaston, Birmingham
B15 2TT
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