151 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
151 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
topics
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about-us
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style-book
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simon-heffers-style-notes
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5495158
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-----
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# Style notes 21: June 3 2009
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1:03PM BST 10 Jun 2009
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Dear Colleagues
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My apologies for the gap since the last of these notes: we've all been rather
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busy.
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First, some changes to what we have done in the past. We need to observe a
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distinction between the adjectives Islamic and Islamist. The former relates to
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Islam; the latter to Islamic militancy and fundamentalism. So it is not
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"Islamic terrorists" but "Islamist terrorists". Also, we should abbreviate the
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RAF rank of squadron leader in future as "sqn ldr" and not as before, as this
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is consistent with RAF usage. Finally, the additional costs allowance does not
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need to be capped (except perhaps in financial terms). We do tend to be rather
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liberal with initial caps but there are many instances where we don't need
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them, such as with geographical features - the Swat valley, the Niger delta
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and the Rocky mountains, for example.
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We have been either ignoring or ignorant of the rules for capitalising words
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at the beginning of stories. Please refer to the style book entry on p61 for
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clarification. There is no need for a colon after a bold kicker. However,
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where you use a colon legitimately please be sure that it is followed by a
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word beginning with a lower case letter, unless it is a proper noun or the
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beginning of a quote. I must also emphasise that when we talk of a 19-year-old
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girl it is hyphenated thus, whereas a 19 year-old as a noun has only the one
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hyphen.
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Homophones continue to be a problem. The latest batch includes sewing crops,
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the knave of York Minster (which we, incidentally, decided to call "the York
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Minster"), silver-guilt and security grills. We have also had curb for kerb
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(not the first time: enough is enough), won for one and broaches for brooches.
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Other slips of words were where we wrote of "the ongoing sandal of MPs'
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expenses" and a "sceptic tank". We need also to note that pheasants are hung
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but men are hanged, and we must stop confusing "ancestor" with "descendant".
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We have also confused "homonym" with "homophone". Also, the writer who spoke
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of the "enormity" of Jenson Button's victory did not quite mean that.
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Since we are not an American newspaper we should not write about forms being
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filled out, but of their being filled in. We also still have difficulties with
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participles: "Several Japanese tourists filmed the couple for up to 20 minutes
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before being arrested" prompted inquiries from readers about what the tourists
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had done to deserve being arrested. The distinction between "who" and "whom"
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remains important. "Who" is the subject of a clause, "whom" is its object.
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Thus it is "No-one knows who sent it" but "no-one knows to whom it was sent".
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A brief word about headlines: they should not, in the news pages, pass comment
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except with the express permission of the editor, or when on humorous stories.
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And we should avoid headlines loaded with tabloid words, especially in the
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sports pages. "Chelsea fury as they crash out" was not really becoming of a
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broadsheet quality newspaper.
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Two other geographical points: Niagara may rhyme with Viagra but it has one
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more "a". Rocester and Rochester are two different English towns, one in
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Staffordshire, the other in Kent.
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Finally, the round-the-world sailor Jesse Martin: when we wrote of "her"
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achievements we rather missed the point that "she" is a man.
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With best wishes
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Simon Heffer
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Associate Editor
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The Daily Telegraph
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notes/5495158/Style-notes-21-June-3-2009.html
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## [Simon Heffer's Style Notes][6]
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Share:
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* [ ][1]
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