R - Editorial Style Guide

Feb 17 2010

R

Race: Never refer to race, colour or religion unless relevant to the story as code of practice. Cap up Asian, British etc

Racecourse: One word as racetrack, racehorse

Rainforest: One word

Range Rover: No hyphen as Land Rover, but Rolls-Royce. See tradenames

Ranks: Spell in full first time then abbreviate. Always spell out certain ranks like admiral, air commodore, petty officer etc. Do not use any abbreviations for fire service ranks. Title first time then Mr. See Church and Police

Lieutenant Commander     Lt Cmdr

Lieutenant                            Lt

Lieutenant General Lt Gen

Major General                     Maj Gen

Colonel                                Col

Lieutenant Col                     Lt Col

Wing Commander  Wing Cmdr

Squadron Leader               Sqn Ldr

Flight Lieutenant                 Flight Lt

Sergeant                              Sgt

Corporal                              Cpl

Regent's Park: Apostrophe

Register office: Not registry

Reorganise: No hyphen

Reopen: No hyphen

Residents’ Association: Note apostrophe

R ’n’ B

Rock ’n’ roll: Note spaces

Robbed/robber: Different to thief/theft and burglar/burglary.

Robbery involves physical force or threat of physical force. Theft does not.

Do not call a thief a robber, or vice versa.

Romania: Not Rumania

Rosy: Not rosey

Royalty: Lower case for royal household but Royal Family, Royal Dukes (keep the caps at subsequent mentions unlike other dukes. The Queen is referred to as Her Majesty (caps)

Rushed to hospital: Ambulances don’t dawdle. Casualties are taken to hospital

Russia: Ukraine, Georgia etc are republics of the former Soviet Union. They should not be called Russia