D - Editorial Style Guide

Feb 17 2010

D  

Dates: The 50s or 1950s. No apostrophe.

Date style is Wednesday, February 3. Style is based on current issue: Today (Wednesday). Yesterday (Tuesday).

Tomorrow (Thursday).

Dates must ALWAYS follow our style, whether in copy, letters  to the paper or quotes.

  - Thursday, July 23, 2006

- Thursday, July 23, at 8pm BUT on Thursday at 8pm

- fourth, 20th century

- Swinging Sixties

- noon and midnight
- spring, winter, summer, autumn (no caps)

- in listings use a dash between dates eg. February 10-12 but in copy write out eg. February 10 to 12

- IF UNCLEAR WHEN SOMETHING IS CLARIFY DATES IN BRACKETS and always use dates in court copy

- the new year (no caps) but New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year  

Deaths: Give the cause of death and avoid phrases such as tragic death, sudden death, the deceased, passed away

Dependant: Noun. A person who depends on another for support

Dependent: Adjective. Depending on something else

Despite: Not in spite of

Dietician: Not dietitian

Different: From, not different to or than

Dilapidated: Note spelling

Disability: Don’t refer to people’s disabilities unless they are relevant. Write about disabled people, not the disabled or the handicapped

Disney: Disneyland (California) Walt Disney World (Florida) and Disneyland Paris (France)

Dispatch: To send away, not despatch

Doctors: GPs should be referred to as Dr. Refer to surgeons and consultants as Mr

Dog breeds: Use capitals accordingly. See breeds, cats and dogs

Double-decker: Note hyphen

Down’s syndrome

Drink-driving: And drink-drive, never drunk-driver. Also the campaign against drink-driving, not anti-drink-driving campaign. The limits are:

Breath: 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath

Blood: 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood

Urine: 107 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of urine

Drug ring: Not drugs ring

Due to: Do not use this instead of because of. E.g. ‘The tap kept dripping due to Fred’s inability to turn it off properly’ should read ‘The tap kept dripping because of Fred’s inability to turn it off properly’.

Due is only used in terms of an expectation of something happening or arriving – it is time related. ‘The train was due to turn up at 11am.’

‘During the past xxx years’, not ‘over the past xxx years’

Dwell/dwelling: Use live in, home

Site Tools