When the plural doesn’t end in an s, add an apostrophe followed by an s (the children’s pens, the people’s princess). Use an apostrophe in phrases such as two days’ time, five years’ training where the time period modifies a noun, but don’t use where it modifies an adjective (three weeks old). If in doubt, test by putting into the singular. Never use an apostrophe to denote a plural: use 1960s, CDs (not 1960’s, CD’s) Introduce a list with a colon. Follow each point with a capital letter. Don’t use commas or full stops between each bullet- pointed item, but use a full stop between two sentences contained in a single bullet point. Full stops can be used at the end of the list. Bullet points should be round and equivalent in size to the body font. Use a colon to deliver what has been promised in the preceding words: “A number of emergency services attended the scene: Police, ambulance and fire service.” Avoid using wherever possible. A semi-colon is often used to join two sentences, as in ‘it was the best of times; it was the worst of times’. However, can often be replaced by a full stop Commas tell the reader when to draw breath and which word to stress. They also prevent ambiguity. Check where commas are needed by reading written words out loud. Avoid using unless you have to! The rare occasion when it is acceptable to use is when quoting someone: “Help!” And then please keep it singular. Hyphenated words often lose the hyphen as they gain wider use. Drop the hyphen wherever possible unless it looks odd. Hyphens are nearly always needed in noun/adjective combinations, such as a large-scale map. See A to Z below for correct usage of commonly-used words Use double quote marks for speech, except for quotes inside quotes, eg “He clearly told me ‘I was faced with a difficult task’ when I asked him last week.” Not necessary for names of books, plays, etc. Style for quoting someone is a colon followed by double quote marks. When there are multiple, consecutive paragraphs of quoted speech, start with opening quotes for each paragraph and closing quotes at the end of the final paragraph. Do not use, except in company or team names when they do, eg P&O
Bullet points
•
Colon :
Semi-colon ;
Comma ,
Exclamation mark !
Hyphens -
“ Quotation marks ”
Ampersand &
Abbreviations All but the most common abbreviations, eg BBC, should be written in full for the first mention (with the abbreviation in brackets), so as not to alienate the one (or more) reader who doesn’t know what the abbreviation stands for. After first mention, use
Anchor Language and Style Guide v20 300724
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