Style guide

Israeli newspaper

the Netherlands; Harlem New York City

not Hapsburg

is best avoided, even if you manage to spell it correctly, as it has become a cliche – in expressions such as "haemorrhaging cash" – and completely wrong as an adjective meaning big, eg "in the face of haemorrhaging financial losses"

always cap up "The"

Australian umpire who officiated at the abandoned Test between England and Pakistan at the Oval in 2006

all one word

is not an island: Haiti and the Dominican Republic make up the Caribbean island of Hispaniola

pilgrimage to Mecca; a Muslim who has made such a pilgrimage is a haji

Maori war dance, as performed by the New Zealand All Blacks rugby team

its appearance in 1997 prompted mass suicide in the Heaven's Gate cult

no hyphen when used adverbially: you look half dead; half wine, half water; his trousers were at half mast; the scores were level at half time.

Hyphen when used adjectivally: a half-eaten sandwich; a half-cut subeditor; hard-hearted Hannah; half-time oranges. The boy is six and a half; a six and a half-year-old boy

(radioactivity)

founded in Manchester by Karl Hallé in 1857

no apostrophe

plural haloes

former boxer; Hamed at second mention

not Academicals; nickname the Accies

no hyphens

Do not use to refer to people with disabilities or learning difficulties

aircraft

clothes

the woman was found hanged; the sheet was hung out to dry

An unfortunate example from a leading article in the paper: "Due out in January as a white paper, Ms Kelly may be unable to overcome Mr Blair's apparent determination to stick with A-levels ... "
see dangling participles

avoid

known less vulgarly in Japan as seppuku

one word, whether noun or adjective and whether you are talking about music, rubble, a hardcore of rebels or hardcore pornography

adjective, hard line, hardliner nouns

not hairbrained

never use: say cleft lip or cleft palate

north London borough, one ward of which is Harringay

former prime minister of Lebanon, assassinated in Beirut in 2005

US fashion magazine marketed as Harper's Bazaar UK in Britain, where it was known as Harpers & Queen from 1970 to 2006

60s US harmony group and exponents of "cotton candy rock", named after the magazine

in south-west Wales, not "Haverford West" as we managed to say

(not Haversham) in Dickens' Great Expectations

(not Hawkeye) tracks the ball in cricket and tennis

the Guardian Hay festival takes place at Hay-on-Wye

Scientists use hazard to mean a potential for harm and risk to mean the actual probability of harm occurring; though headline writers may feel more at home with risk than hazard, the distinction is worth bearing in mind

(not HBoS) created in 2001 by the merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland

but butt should normally suffice

but head-on

can be used as a singular ("a large headquarters") or plural ("our headquarters are in London"); HQ, however, takes the singular

What makes a great,or at least memorable, headline? They can be historic ("Man walks on Moon"), campaigning ("A liar and a cheat"), classical ("Between Cilla and Charybdis"), subtle ("Flo quiets the Dons"), funny ("Super Caley go ballistic – Celtic are atrocious"), notorious ("Gotcha!"), or downright absurd ("Freddie Starr ate my hamster"). There is no magic formula but here are a few guidelines.

Use active verbs where possible, particularly in news headlines: "Editor updates style guidelines" is much better than "Style guidelines updated".

Avoid tabloid cliches such as bid, brand, dub and slam, and their broadsheet counterparts such as insist, signal and target. Imagining that you are describing an event, in words, to real people, is a good antidote to journalese: no one in a pub says "Did you see that Brown slammed Blair in a dramatic power bid?"

Just as we would in copy, we need to take care with words such as debacle, farce and fiasco, especially when combined, which we contrived to do in the headline "Hips fiasco descends into farce"– the fact that "Hips farce descends into fiasco" would work just as well tells you something is probably wrong here.

Strive to be fresh: tired plays on the phrase "Mind the gap", heard only occasionally these days by passengers on the London underground, have become tedious, as well as either baffling or infuriating to readers who do not happen to live in the capital.

Take care over ambiguity:" Landmine claims dog UK arms firm", which appeared in the paper, contains so many successive nouns, some of which may or may not be verbs, that you have to read it several times to work out what it means.

Exclamation marks – look, I've written something funny! – should never be used. Question marks are also to be avoided, as are quotation marks, unless essential to signify a quote or for legal reasons. And we should resist the temptation to save space by replacing "and" with a comma: "Blair and Brown agree euro deal" not "Blair, Brown agree euro deal".

Puns are fine – "Where there's muck there's bras", about a farmer's wife who started a lingerie business from a barn, was voted headline of the year by our staff – but do not overuse, or resort to tired puns such as "flushed with success"(this story has got a plumber in it).It is possible to try just a little too hard ("To baldly grow where no mane's grown before"). In the 1970s and 80s the Guardian suffered from a reputation for excruciating puns; today, we want to be known for clever, original and witty headlines.

Unexpected twists, or subtle plays on words and phrases, show the subeditor's craft at its best: a power failure in a theatre became, in the Guardian, "Bad lights stop play". A light touch can work beautifully: "Drop dead, gorgeous", on a story about office jealousy, added one comma to a well-known film title to create the perfect headline. When Tate Modern exhibited a giant sun, to create its own indoor climate, the beautiful headline written by the Guardian's Steve Chamberlain – "But is it weather?" (a rare example of a question mark being required) – deserved to be framed and exhibited in a gallery in its own right.

Be careful when making references to popular culture: "Mrs Culpepper's lonely hearts club banned" works, because most people are familiar with the Beatles' Sgt Pepper album, but allusions to your favourite obscure prog-rock LP are likely to pass over most readers' heads. Long after most people had forgotten the 1960s movie Charlie Bubbles, tabloid sports subeditors continued to mystify their readers by using the headline "Charlie bubbles" whenever anyone called Charlie scored a goal. "Book lack in Ongar", about a shortage of resources in Essex libraries, remains one of the all-time great headlines, but it only works if you get the reference to John Osborne's 1956 play Look Back in Anger (or at least it did until Oasis helpfully recorded a song called Don't Look Back in Anger).

It's time for some formulaic headlines to be given a decent burial, or at least a long rest. "The kids are alright"(based on a song by the Who, and subsequently a film) crops up, with minor variations, on a weekly and sometimes daily basis in British newspapers: "The kids are alright online", "The kids are all right (and left)","The kids are all right, left and centre", and so on.

Even more ubiquitous are "Size isn't everything" and its close relative "Size doesn't matter", used to refer to a car (in two different newspapers), school uniforms, the actor Simon Callow's height, a hotel in Turkey, new houses, national economies, motorbikes, a footballer, the gallery following a golf tournament, and – once – penis size.

The ever-popular "Brighton rocks" and its variations are an allusion, still common, to the Graham Greene novel and subsequent film, both more than 50 years old. How many people still understand the reference? "So lucky, lucky, lucky", a recent headline we used above a photograph of Kylie Minogue, quoted lyrics from a hit she had in nearly 20 years ago. How many of our readers would be aware of this? You have to use your judgment.

HSE on second mention

exclamation of approval that we have misspelt as "here, here" on more than one occasion

but heart-rending, heart-throb

Edinburgh football club commonly known as Hearts; said to be named after a dancehall that in turn took its name from Sir Walter Scott's 1818 novel The Heart of Midlothian

or simply Heathrow; not "London's Heathrow"

Convert to acres in brackets at first mention by multiplying by 2.47, so 10 hectares is 24.7 acres; to convert acres to hectares, multiply by 0.4, so 10 acres is 4 hectares (we get this the wrong way round embarrassingly often)

in metres with imperial conversion, eg 1.68 metres (5ft 7in)

someone certain to inherit from a deceased unless he or she dies first or is taken out of the will; don't use to mean "likely successor"

not hallo (and certainly not "hullo", unless quoting the Rev ARP Blair)

no apostrophe

help to decide or help decide, not "help and decide"

northern hemisphere, southern hemisphere

generally avoid if what you mean is "in Britain"

pen name of Georges Remi (1907-83), Belgian creator of Tintin

scarf people; Hermes Group fund manager

or HP

it means "party of God"

Edinburgh football club commonly known as Hibs

not hiccough

how we listened to music in the days before iPods (short for high fidelity)

sent from one Commonwealth country to another (rather than an ambassador)

noun; high-flying adjective

(Scotland)

lc in retail spending stories: "the recession is making an impact in the high street"; capped only in proper name: "I went shopping in Cheltenham High Street"

covering for the head and face worn by some Muslim women

of movable objects only, not of schools, embassies, etc

a walk, not an increase in interest rates; "Motorists face new petrol hike" (not one of our better headlines) suggested a long walk to a garage rather than simply a price rise

language

religion

home information pack

plural hippopotamuses

plural hippies

TM (picture of Nipper the dog with gramophone)

use a not an, unless in a direct quote

no hyphens

a virus, not a disease, but do not call HIV "the Aids virus" or an HIV test an "Aids test"; an HIV-positive man (hyphen) is HIV positive (no hyphen)

or Her Majesty for the Queen, not HRH

Her Majesty's Ship: does not need the definite article, so it is "HMS Pinafore" rather than "the HMS Pinafore"

a hoard of treasure; a horde (or hordes) of tourists

a "choice" between taking what is offered and nothing at all

formerly Saigon

common people, the masses; "the hoi polloi" is acceptable, even for speakers of ancient Greek

Do not use when you mean the Netherlands (of which it is a region), with the exception of the Dutch football team, who are conventionally known as Holland

Do not trivialise by comparing piles of cattle during the foot-and-mouth outbreak to the Holocaust, or through phrases such as "Belsen-skinny" which, incredibly, found its way into a story about Kate Winslet

home of Scotland's parliament, in Edinburgh

the Queen's official residence in Scotland

is generally preferable to homeowners, unless they have paid off their mortgage

not hone in

but home town

but home secretary (although the official title is "Secretary of State for the Home Department")

uniform, of the same kind; homogenous (biology) having a common descent; the latter is often misused for the former

like Taiwanese and Korean names, Hong Kong names are written in two parts with a hyphen, eg Tung Chee-hwa (Tung after first mention)

of parliament

plural honorariums

are not given titles, so it is still plain "Geldof" rather than "Sir Bob"

Use just surname after first mention, except in leader columns.

So: Gordon Brown at first mention, thereafter Brown; Harriet Harman at first mention, subsequently Harman; Sir Richard Branson at first mention, thereafter Branson; Lord Adonis at first mention, subsequently Adonis; Prof John Wells, at first mention, thereafter Wells; Dr Bill Bailey (and all other medical and scientific doctors and doctors of divinity) at first mention, subsequently Bailey; the Rev Clifford Richard at first mention, thereafter Richard, etc.

As always, use common sense: in a story where two people have the same name (eg a court case about a husband and wife or brothers), it may be necessary to use Mr and Mrs or Ms, or forenames. In news stories particularly we should use an honorific if it sounds jarring or insensitive not to do so – for example, a woman whose son has been killed on active duty in Iraq should be "Mrs Smith" and not "Smith". We need to use our judgment and be guided by the tone of the piece.

Follow traditional Guardian style in leading articles (but not other comment pieces and columns on leader pages): use honorifics after first mention, unless writing about an artist, author, journalist, musician, criminal or dead person; use Ms for women on second mention unless they have expressed a preference for Miss or Mrs.

So: at first mention Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Sir Richard Branson, Lord Adonis, Prof John Wells, Dr Bill Bailey, the Rev Clifford Richard; thereafter Mr Brown, Ms Harman, Sir Richard, Lord Adonis, Prof Wells, Dr Bailey, Mr Richard, etc

always use quotes; as a reader says: "There is no honour involved in these murders and calling them honour killings belittles the victims and plays down the crime"

a hooded top, as well as someone who wears one

sounds like a rather ugly combination of horrific and tremendous, but is in fact from the Latin for fearful; horrific is generally preferable

not horticulturalist

do not use; say someone was taken (never "rushed") to hospital