B - Editorial Style Guide

Feb 17 2010

B  

BAA: Not British Airports Authority

BT: Not British Telecom

Balance: Ensure that all stories are balanced, fair and accurate. Both sides must be given a chance to have their say over a contentious issue

Balloting/balloted: With one t (like benefited and targeted)

Bank Holiday Monday: All caps, but bank holiday

Banned: Swear words/sexually explicit copy, clichés, jargon, slang, derogatory references to nationalities (Frogs, Hun etc). Bloody, arse and crap are okay – if in a quote from council meeting/court. Buggery is serious sexual assault. Oral sex is a “sex act on him/her”

These words are banned in all copy and headlines: boozed-up, cops, dosh, folk, kids, nutter, psycho. SEE Clichés

Barbecue: Not BBQ

Barons Court: No apostrophe

Barnardo’s: Note still has apostrophe.

Bear in mind: Not bare in mind!

BhS  

Bi-annually: Bi-annually is twice a year. Do not use bi-monthly or bi-weekly as it causes confusion. Say every two months/weeks or twice a month/week

Biennial: Every two years

Bible: Caps for Bible, lower case for biblical

Billion: £1billion (for £1,000 million pounds), then use £1bn thereafter. See figures, million, money, numbers

Blasted: Avoid, it is a cliché

Blond: Without the e for male, blonde for female

Booze: To be used sparingly

Boy/girl: Use up to the age of 17, then man/woman from 18 upwards

Boy Scouts: Do not exist, they are scouts or cubs, lower case

Breath-tested: Hyphenated. Not breathalysed or breathalyser which is a trade name

Breeds: Capped when referring to a geographical area.
Eg. a Labrador, Siamese cat, Yorkshire terrier

Brownies: Are lower case brownies except in full title: 5th Chesham Brownies. Same applies to scouts, cubs, beavers and guides

Burnt: Use burned

By-election: with hyphen

Bylaw: One word no hyphen

Bypass: One word, no hyphen

Bungee: Note spelling

Bupa: Not BUPA

Back benches: But backbenchers, backbench revolt

Bullet point lists: Initial cap, full point only after last blob paragraph, no indent

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