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  • About this guide
  • Credits – Disclaimer
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Writing guide

  • Folder icon closed Folder open iconPreparing to get your message out
    • The message
    • The audience
    • Packaging
    • Drawing up a skeleton
  • Folder icon closed Folder open iconWriting to be read
    • How people read: print and online publications
    • Practical tips for achieving a plain, clear writing style
    • Plain language
    • Plain structure
    • The paragraph
    • Tools for effective writing
  • Folder icon closed Folder open iconStyle
    • UK English vs US English
    • Words to use and words to avoid
    • Nouns and Verbs
    • Capitalisation
    • Hyphens
    • Compound words
    • Singular and plural
    • Digital dialect
    • Numbers and dates
    • Abbreviations and acronyms
    • Countries and currencies
    • Signatures and names
    • Punctuation
  • Folder icon closed Folder open iconFormatting
    • Chapter titles and headings
    • Lists
    • Visuals: tables, graphs, diagrams
    • Table of contents
    • Headings
    • Quoted matter
    • Bold and italics
    • Footnotes
    • Other tools
  • Folder icon closed Folder open iconReferences and bibliographies
    • References
    • Bibliographies
    • Sample bibliographical entries
Style

UK English vs US English

The ETF follows British English usage in spelling. This is a choice. It does not mean one is ‘more right’ than another. It does mean, that when you write for the ETF, you should write in British English and not in US or ‘international’ English.

The ETF uses –ise (rather than –ize) endings in words such as organise and unionise, in line with the standard almost universally adopted in publishing in the UK and Ireland (the notable exceptions to this are the Oxford dictionaries and The Times newspaper).

Watch out for words that are spelt differently in British and American English. There are many, but here are some that are particularly relevant in our line of work:

British spellingAmerican spelling
colourcolor
favouritefavorite
enrol/enrolmentenroll/enrollment
cataloguecatalog
analyseanalyze
programmeprogram
ageingaging
tonneton
labourlabor
greygray
centrecenter
(kilo)metre(kilo)meter

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