English for Journalists, 4th Edition

Appendix

Bulletin style guide

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Bulletin 16/24 is a local email newsletter circulating in the Charente and Dordogne departments of France.

a (not an) historian, hotel etc (but an heir, honour etc)

• omit a/an from the titles of organisations (but not books etc)

abbreviations: units of measure are abbreviated and set close-up: a 30m drop, 120kph, a 5kg hammer. But distances and sums of money are not: he fell 20 metres; it cost £1 million.

• Most organisations should be written out in full when first mentioned (the World Health Organisation), then abbreviated (the WHO) but note: the BBC, the IRA.

• Some titles are cumbersome so prefer BSE, mad cow disease; the Gaullist party, the RPR.

• Abbreviations ...