Style guide

part of ScottishPower

song of praise; paeon metrical foot of one long and three short syllables; peon peasant

etc but Page 3 girl

roof of the mouth, sense of taste; palette used by an artist to mix paint; pallet hard bed, wooden frame moved by forklift truck

best used for the occupied territories (the West Bank and Gaza); if referring to the whole area, including Israel, use "historic Palestine" (but Palestine for historical references to the area prior to 1948)

the authority on second reference

A man, a plan, a canal. Panama!

(Cannes film festival)

(1927-86) Swedish prime minister who was assassinated in a Stockholm street (not Olaf)

a pretentious or self-important person in authority

of Afghanistan

not pantihose

plural paparazzi; named after a character in Fellini's 1960 film La Dolce Vita

but paper round

etc

or Paralympics

see brackets

no hyphen

"Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion"

but cap up those parliaments referred to by their name in the relevant language, eg Knesset, Folketing, Duma, etc

but parmesan cheese

official name, recognised by both Britain and Greece, for the Elgin marbles

one in a series of regularly published supplements or magazines

lc in name of organisation, eg Labour party

(singular Pashtun; they speak Pashtu) make up about 40% of the Afghan population (called Pathans during the British Raj); a significant proportion of Pakistan's population is also Pashtun

plural passersby

strive for active verbs, especially in headlines: compare "the mat was sat upon by the cat" with "the cat sat on the mat"

now part of the Identity and Passport Service

with accents

now the Intellectual Property Office, responsible for copyright, designs, patents and trademarks

are discharged from hospital, not released

use American English spellings for US placenames

plural peccadilloes

cyclist; peddler drug dealer; pedlar hawker

plural pedalos

white grape grown in Spain (and type of sherry); Pedro Giménez white grape grown in South America

Avoid writing "Lord Asquith's Liberal government", or "Lady Thatcher took power in 1979"; when talking about people before they were given peerages use their names/titles at the time (eg Herbert Asquith, Mrs Thatcher). Also avoid the construction "Lady Helena Kennedy": in this case we would write Lady Kennedy or Helena Kennedy, or – if really pushed – Lady (Helena) Kennedy (but never Baroness Kennedy)

noun; pendent adjective

noun; peninsular adjective

do not call them "old age pensioners" or "OAPs"; older people is preferable to "elderly people" or (even worse) "the elderly".

While this term is useful in headlines, it should be avoided in text as a description of an individual. As one of our readers notes: "This usage defines older people by their non-participation in the workforce and immediately typifies them as dependents or drains on the public purse. Rupert Murdoch and Michael Caine are never described as 'pensioners' because they are perceived as still contributing to the economy, so does the term only apply to the little people?" Reporters should ask what job people used to do and then describe them as a retired banker/powerboat racer or former whatever (including homemaker)

flower

TM; a brand of cola; the company is PepsiCo

avoid; use English: "She earns £30,000 a year" is better than "per year". If you must use it, the Latin preposition is followed by another Latin word, eg per capita, not per head. Exception: miles per hour, which we write mph

% in headlines and copy

probably our most common lapse into "mythematics": an increase from 3% to 5% is a 2 percentage point increase or a 2-point increase, not a 2% increase; any sentence saying "such and such rose or fell by X%" should be considered and checked carefully

Peruvian diplomat and former UN secretary general

not Rights

supporters of the nationalist/populist ideology of the late Argentinian president Juan Domingo Perón

Pep

No! They are people (can you imagine Barbra Streisand singing "Persons who need persons"?)

TM

Kurdish armed fighters (it means "those who face death")

plural phenomena

inhabited by Filipinos (male) and Filipinas (female); adjective Filipino for both sexes, but Philippine for, say, a Philippine island or the Philippine president

electronics company; Phillips auctioneers, screwdriver; Phillips & Drew since 2002, part of UBS Global Management

no apostrophe

adjective; phosphorus noun

noun (one who pickets), not picketer; picketed, picketing

verb or noun

plural pigsties

(contraceptive)

the most popular version is Pimm's No 1 cup, which has gin as its base (the others are or were No 2, whisky; No 3, brandy; No 4, rum; No 5, rye; and No 6, vodka)

or pin number not Pin or PIN number

suit etc, not pinstriped

(1830-1903) French impressionist painter; his son Lucien (1863-1944) was also an artist

an image divided into pixels, the basic unit of representation on a television or computer screen, or to display a person or object in pixels to disguise their identity

drunk

a higher plane, not a higher plain (unless literally)

cap up planets of our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune; note that Pluto is now classified as a dwarf planet, along with Ceres and Eris; the sun and the Earth's moon are lc, but named moons are capped up,: Europa, Io, etc

not "forward planning"

handles planning inquiries and appeals in England and Wales

plural plateaux

TM but you can say play-dough

an overused phrase

not PLC

words used all the time by journalists (particularly when writing headlines), but only rarely by normal people

not pled

not plebian, one of our most common errors

but pocket money

A suggested method is to separate the lines with spaces and a slash; italics are acceptable: I struck the board and cry'd, 'No more; / I will abroad.' / What, shall I ever sigh and pine? / My lines and life are free; free as the rode, / Loose as the winde, as large as store.

(ballet); on pointe, not on point or en pointe

no accents

A form of language used mostly by gay men and lesbians, derived in part from slang used by sailors, actors and prostitutes and popularised in the 1960s BBC radio comedy Round the Horne by the characters Julian and Sandy. Example: "Vada the dolly eke on the bona omee ajax" (Look at the gorgeous face on that nice man over there); "naff" is an example of Polari that has passed into more general use, as are "butch", "camp" and "dizzy"

or on pole means starting from the front row in a motor race, so be careful if using metaphorically

Metropolitan police (the Met after first mention), West Midlands police, New York police department (NYPD at second mention), etc; but note Police Service of Northern Ireland

PC on all references to police constable (never WPC), other ranks full out and initial cap at first reference; thereafter abbreviation plus surname: Sgt Campbell, DC, Insp, Ch Insp, Det Supt, Ch Supt, Cmdr, etc (or just Mr, Ms or Mrs)

lc: anti-terrorist branch, flying squad, fraud squad, special branch, vice squad

a term to be avoided on the grounds that it is, in Polly Toynbee's words, "an empty rightwing smear designed only to elevate its user"

lc for word "party"; abbreviate if necessary (for example in parliamentary reporting) as C, Lab, Lib Dem (two words), SNP (Scottish National party, not "Scottish Nationalist party"), Plaid Cymru, SDLP (Social Democratic and Labour party), SF (Sinn Féin), UUP (Ulster Unionist party), DUP (Democratic Unionist party), Ukip (UK Independence party)

not poncy

and papacy, pontiff; normally no need to give his name in full

TM; say portable building, portable toilets

not Portmadoc

PLA on second mention

not postmen

UK postal services regulator; its full name (which you do not need to use) is Postal Services Commission

TM

cap up the organisation, but you buy stamps in a post office or sub-post office

in text, symbol £ only when figures are used (Britain saves the pound; John Brown saves £1; pound (weight) abbreviates to lb, eg 2lb

one word; musical genre defined by nostalgia for the 60s, in the form of chiming electric guitars and vocal harmonies. Its proponents often profess to being inspired by the Beatles and the Byrds, but are never as good as either

noun; practise verb

Do not use this expression, or the equally grotesque "active homosexual"; where it is necessary to discuss someone's sex life, for example a story about gay clergy, it is possible to use other expressions, eg the Anglican church demands celibacy from gay clergy but permits the laity to have sexually active relationships

redundant in such newly fashionable words as pre-booked, pre-reserved, pre-ordered, and even pre-rehearsed

singular and plural

not predeliction

only when constitutionally correct (eg leaders of Australian states or Canadian provinces), therefore not for Britain – do not use in headlines for British prime minister; the Chinese traditionally give their prime minister the title of premier, eg Premier Wen Jiabao

no accent

(no longer FA Premier League or Premiership) in England; in Scotland it was briefly the Premierleague, now the Scottish Premier League or more commonly SPL

of buildings and logic

or (if you must) prenup

appeal against, protest against/over/at, not "appealed the sentence", "protested the verdict", etc.

Schoolchildr