Language Style Sheet
American English
Last updated: October 2012
ABBREVIATIONS
3
BOLDFACE
3
CAPITALIZATION
4
COLONS
4
COMMAS
5
CURRENCIES
6
DATES
6
DASHES AND PARENTHETICAL REMARKS
6
DEGREES
7
ELLIPSES – “…”
7
FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES
7
GENDER
7
HYPHENATION
7
ITALICS
8
NAMES
8
NUMBERS
9
POSSESSIVES
9
QUOTATION MARKS
9
SINGULAR/PLURAL
10
TELEPHONE NUMBERS
10
TIME
11
UNITS OF MEASURE
11
WEBSITES
11
WHICH VS. THAT
11
BRITISH VS. AMERICAN ENGLISH
12
BRENN-WHITE GROUP SPELLING LIST
14
PROOFREADING CHECKLIST
15
POSTPRODUCTION PROOFREADING
15
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ABBREVIATIONS
American English
Full stops in titles; acronyms are nearly always written upper-case.
Dr. Mr. Mrs. Prof. AIDS i.e. a.m. cm St. etc.
Names of people
Use full stops but no spaces between the letters.
L.W. Montgomery
Names of places
Commas after names of American states within sentences. No periods between state
abbreviation letters.
Harvard University, in Cambridge, MA, is one of the most prestigious schools in the world.
Names of organizations
Unless an abbreviation or acronym is so well-known that it is used more often than the full
form (BBC, NASA), write the name out when you mention it first, then the abbreviation in
parentheses. After that, try to avoid repeating the abbreviation in every other sentence and
write things like “the agency” or “the organization” instead.
Please check online for correct organization/company names. There are some idiosyncratic
ones out there, such as “NAFSA: Association of International Educators”.
If the acronym used in the text is based on a foreign-language name, write out the foreign
name at the first occurrence in parentheses , followed by an n-dash and the foreign acronym
The German Academic Exchange Service (Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst –
DAAD) is a large organization.
Units of measure
Use your discretion in order to optimize readability, e.g., if there is a single reference to an
area, the indication “kilometers” should be spelled out. If there is a series of measurements,
abbreviations might be more suitable. When abbreviating, do not put a space before the
abbreviated measurement.
The highway is 300km long. The lecture hall is 3,000ft2
Dates
A date with AD or BC should be written as 400 BC
BOLDFACE
For translations: please use boldface on any text that was bold in the source document.
For marketing materials: you can use boldface in the text to highlight certain words, for
example: interview partners; special events; key words
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CAPITALIZATION
Headlines / publication titles
Standard US headline capitalization (first and last word, all major words: nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs, pronouns)
Official titles
Capitalize all official titles when they are used immediately preceding the name:
Prime Minister Mulroney, Vice Rector Hansman
Don’t capitalize when the name is separated from the title by a comma or otherwise:
Ronald Reagan, former president of the United States. Jan Jedermann is the chancellor of
University of Thistown. The pope will speak on Sunday.
Specific words and phrases
Refer to the Oxford (BE) or Webster’s (US) Dictionary, and see Brenn-White Group Spelling
List
Academic disciplines and departments
Capitalize department names; don’t capitalize disciplines.
She studies mathematics in the university’s Department of Mathematics
Do not capitalize references to a university, etc. after stating the proper name
Harvard University is old. The university has many employees.
Book titles, films, albums, songs
The first and last words, and all major words (i.e., NOT words like a, the, to, an, for,
prepositions) are capitalized:
The World of Adventure; Youth Language: What Young People Are Saying
Non-English titles are NOT capitalized according to English grammar, but according to the
rules applying in the respective language.
 If a capitalized abbreviation of a proper noun has been introduced, capitalize this
abbreviation throughout the text.
 Department of Mathematics (capitalized) but "he studies mathematics" (lower case)
Periodical titles: “The” is italicized if it is part of the name of the periodical e.g. The New
York Times but the Financial Times
COLONS
Use colons to list things that have been mentioned before the comma
They brought presents: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
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You can use colons before a whole quoted sentence, but not before a quote that’s a
sentence fragment:
She said: “I studied abroad.” She added that it had been “an absolutely amazing
experience.”
Capitalization after a colon
In general, don’t do it. Colons are followed by lower case letters, no matter if it’s a list of
words or a complete sentence. Only if the colon is being used to introduce paraphrased
speech should it be followed by a capital letter.
He asked a simple question: Who was first?
COMMAS
Items in a series
We generally prefer to use serial commas, to prevent any confusion among non-native
English readers. Use a comma before the last item in a list.
They saw commas, periods, and question marks.
Change of subject
Insert a comma to separate two complete statements (i.e. subject and verb in each half of
sentence).
She showed him the style sheet, and he smiled with delight.
Restrictive and non-restrictive clauses
If you cannot eliminate the clause without changing the meaning of the sentence
(restrictive) do NOT set it off from the rest of the sentence by commas. If the clause is
merely additional information (non-restrictive), use a comma.
Restrictive clause:
Non-restrictive clause:
Women who can’t drive are silly.
Women, who can’t drive, are silly.
Too and however
There are commas around the words too and however:
I, too, am excited to start the project. He, however, prefers to sleep.
Don’t put a comma before “too” at the end of a sentence:
I thought that too.
Etc.
There is a comma before “etc.” and a period after it. Avoid using etc. when it is preceded by
only one item.
We talked about our studies, our families, etc.
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CURRENCIES
One-character monetary symbols are followed immediately by the amount; multiplecharacter symbols are followed by a space, then the amount.
£75.10
$29.95
CAN$ 6 million
€100
It is also OK to spell out currencies, if done consistently: 100 euros (not Euros)
Use the following symbols
Australia
Australian dollar
Canada
Canadian dollar
European Union Euro
Hong Kong
Hong Kong dollar
Malaysia
Malaysian dollar
New Zealand
New Zealand dollar
Singapore
Singapore dollar
UK
pound Sterling
USA
dollar
AUS$
CAN$
€
HK$
M$
NZ$
S$
£
$ (or US$, if context is unclear)
Currencies other than the one that is used in the country where the texts will be published
should be converted into the domestic currency, given in parentheses.
DATES
American English
1960s
60s
May 1, 1998 (American English)
Be consistent: Write from 1968 to 1970 or 1968-70, but not from 1968-70.
(There are no spaces around the hyphen – and it’s also not a dash.)
Capitalize culturally important eras – the Swinging Sixties or the Roaring Twenties.
DASHES AND PARENTHETICAL REMARKS
Dashes should be used to set off parenthetical remarks within a text, instead of parentheses
(unless the source document for a translation does so). Dashes can also be used to transition
into a new idea within a sentence.
In general, use en-dashes, surrounded by spaces:
This example is silly – but then again, so are we.
em-dashes can be used (consistently) instead of en-dashes in longer published texts, such as
books or longer booklets. However, never use em-dashes in website content.
This article—the longest one in the series—deals with punctuation.
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DEGREES
Angles
A 180-degree turn and 180° turn are both OK but avoid using both styles in the same text.
We tend to use the ° symbol.
Temperatures
British English and non-US clients in general: give Celsius temperatures and provide
Fahrenheit temperatures after in parentheses. Don’t leave a space between the number on
the one hand and the degree symbol and C on the other.
The water temperature rose to 65°C (150°F).
ELLIPSES – “…”
Use no more than three marks whether the omission occurs in the middle of a sentence or
between sentences. When you omit one or more paragraphs within a long quotation, use
ellipsis marks after the last punctuation mark that ends the preceding paragraph.
FOREIGN WORDS AND PHRASES
Foreign words and phrases (unless fully assimilated in English) in text are italicized.
Whenever possible, foreign terminology should be translated into English. But for cases
where there is no equivalency, or when companies/organizations have specific German titles
that should be kept for branding reference, the foreign term can be left in italics, with an
English explanation given in parentheses.
Roman letters of non-English alphabets which do not exist in the English alphabet should be
kept (ä, č, ë, ł, ñ, ö, ß, ž, etc.).
GENDER
Wherever possible, try to be “fair” to both sexes without going too far overboard or
sacrificing grammatical correctness.
Try to avoid “he/she” cases. If unavoidable, “their” is permissible in journalistic/marketing
copy. Official/formal documents should use “he or she” / “his or her.”
HYPHENATION
Ages A 14-year-old boy.
A 14-year-old.
He is 14 years old.
Ambiguities
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A little-used car is not the same as a little used car. Hyphenate a compound noun in
adjectival use if there is even the slightest chance that leaving the hyphen out would make it
ambiguous: “miniature-horse trainer” rather than “miniature horse trainer” or “miniature
horse-trainer.” Do not hyphenate compounds made of an adverb ending in -ly and an
adjective (write “brilliantly lit room” rather than “brilliantly-lit room”).
Capitalization
In title capitalization, capitalize the word after the hyphen
Part-Time Study Program
Ranges
Use hyphens, not en- or em-dashes, to show a range of numbers.
The daily hours of operation are 9:00-11:00 a.m. We will be closed November 22-27.
Word splits
On the printed page, try to avoid having more than one hyphen in a word. For example,
avoid things like “stain-” on one line and “less-steel table” on the next.
Do not split words in headlines, titles, people’s names or text that has been bolded or is
otherwise meant to stand out from the text.
ITALICS
In print materials, use italics for names of albums, books, epics, films, TV series,
newspapers, magazines, plays, ships (but not HMS, SS, etc.) and works of art. (See
“Quotation marks” for things that are not written in italics.)
Online, quotation marks are generally preferable to italics as they are easier to read.
Please use italics for foreign words and phrases in an English text (don’t use quotation
marks). Refer to Oxford/Webster’s if you’re unsure whether a foreign word is actually
assimilated into the English language (e.g. kindergarten, angst).
You can occasionally use italics to stress words within a text. Excessive emphasizing should
be reduced to a reasonable level.
NAMES
On first mention of someone’s name, write the full name, including academic titles. . On
subsequent mention, write the last name. First names may be repeated later in longer texts.
Sam Smith is an undergraduate student from New York. When Smith studied abroad…
In the case of nation-specific titles, e.g. German “Prof. Dr.”, just use “Professor” in
journalistic texts. More official texts and documents can keep “Prof. Dr.”
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In general, in official documents and texts, do not make an attempt to translate a foreign
academic qualification into an Anglo equivalent
Dr. Ing.
Dipl. Ing.
NUMBERS
Spell out one through nine, use numerals starting with 10.
When a spelled and a numeral number appear together, referring to the same thing, use
numerals when there are other numerals associated with it. For example:
Four- to ten-year-olds, but 10- to 15-year-olds.
Put commas in numbers of a thousand or more: 1,000.
In general, do not abbreviate the words hundred, thousand, million, billion trillion, etc. –
unless you are working with lists of data/statistics or other layouts where repetition or space
is a factor.
When writing ordinal numbers, use superscript:
25th anniversary, NOT 25th anniversary
Fractions and the word percent (AE) / per cent (BE) should generally be spelled out in
journalistic and online texts. Use discretion elsewhere.
Never have a sentence begin with a numeral. Either change the sentence order or write out
the number.
POSSESSIVES
If a singular noun or name ends in -s, treat it like any other singular noun and add ’s
(Thomas’s, James’s). Exceptions: In names ending in -es, esp. older and foreign names
(Xerxes’ fleet, Demosthenes’ rules).
Tricky possessives:
anyone else’s
attorneys general’s
bull’s eye
each other’s
one another’s
Karen and Martin’s apartment (if jointly owned)
Karen’s and Martin’s apartments (if separately owned)
Proper names: Spell them as the companies, magazines, etc., themselves spell them:
German Rectors’ Conference, Pikes Peak, the Veterans Administration, MacDonald’s
QUOTATION MARKS
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Quotation marks should only be used if:
 The author quotes verbatim;
 If a certain “concept” is introduced for the first time
The following order of quotation marks applies – for both British and American English:
1. Double quotation marks (“-”) and
2. Single quotation marks within double quotation marks.
Quotation marks are used for names of articles, essays, poems, exhibitions, songs and maxisingles.
Don’t use quotation marks around foreign words – use italics (unless the foreign word is a
proper title, in which case put quotes around the italicized term).
Punctuation: When someone is quoted with a full sentence, the punctuation is inside the
quote:
“It was,” the professor said, “the first time I discovered my love for teaching.”
If the quoted or emphasized text is just a word or part of a sentence,
 American English: commas and periods inside quotation marks. All other
punctuation outside.
Why did you call me “stupid,” and then tell me I was “brilliant”?
SINGULAR/PLURAL
Corporate entities take the singular.
Harrods is having a sale.
British English commonly uses the plural verb when talking about a group of people in an
organization, team, band, club, etc.:
The committee have decided to appoint her to a professorship.
The Jones family celebrate Thanksgiving.
Tricky plurals: secretaries general, courts martial, pros and cons, VIPs, UFOs.
TELEPHONE NUMBERS
We generally do not use hyphens between phone number units – but in translations, try to
format as the original does.
US: +1 (215) 887 4586
Britain: +44 (171) 123 4567
Germany: +49 (89) 67 45 32
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TIME
Time should be expressed in 12-hour cycles referring to a.m. or p.m. with a colon between
the hours and minutes, a space after the time, and periods between a.m.
12:59 a.m.
UNITS OF MEASURE
Please provide the metric or English equivalent in parentheses directly after the
measurement, to make sure all international readers can understand.
She is six feet two inches tall (1.85m).
You don’t have to “metricize” the word “mile” when it is used in a non-specific context:
You can see for miles, I walked for miles and miles
WEBSITES
Unless a translation source document does so, do not include “http://”
Please check that they actually work.
WHICH VS. THAT
Which informs, that defines.
This house, which Jack built, is now falling down. This is the house that Jack built.
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BRITISH VS. AMERICAN ENGLISH
When in doubt, check the Oxford Spelling Dictionary (UK) or Webster’s (US).
-ise and -ize
We follow traditional British English spelling, using the ending –ise/-isation endings.
In American English, -ize/-ization endings are used.
However, beware of the following exceptions:
advertise, advise, apprise, arise, chastise, circumcise, comprise, compromise, demise,
despise, devise, disguise, emprise, enfranchise, excise, exercise, franchise, improvise, incise,
merchandise, premise, revise, supervise, surmise, surprise, televise.
Double “l”
The double “l” is more common in British English. e.g. traveller, cancelled, modelling,
woollen. But NOT with the following: fulfil, instalment, distil, enrolment, wilful, skilful.
-our and -or
British English tends to spell words with a -our where US English spells them with -or. For
example: colour, humour, neighbour
BE
AE
advert (also ad)
ad (only)
amongst
among
angry with
mad at
anticlockwise
counterclockwise
anymore
any more
anytime
any time
at school
in school
athletics
track and field
BA, MA, PhD
B.A., M.A., Ph.D.
backwards
backward
biscuit
cookie
boot
trunk
braces
suspenders
buses
busses
chips
(French) fries
cinema
movie theater
cooperation
cooperation
degree course
degree program
 some clients prefer degree programme to distinguish from a single taught course
on a course
in a (degree) program
crisps
chips
for weeks
in weeks
form
grade
get, got, got
get, got, gotten
goodbye
good-bye
ground floor
first floor
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hire
home town
in a team
in future
in Wall Street
lift
lorry
mark
mum
on holiday
pants
per cent
practise
queue
railway
return ticket
round
rubbish
secondary school
shop
speciality
state school
storey
sweets
team-mate
tin
to hospital
to post
torch
town centre
trousers
underground/tube
(at the) weekend
rent
hometown
on a team
in the future
on Wall Street
elevator
truck
grade
mom
on vacation
underpants
percent
practice
line
railroad
round-trip ticket
around
garbage/trash
high school (unless non-US system)
store
specialty
public school
story
candy
teammate
can
to the hospital
to mail
flashlight
downtown / town center
pants
subway
(on the) weekend
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BRENN-WHITE GROUP SPELLING LIST
Note: Client-specific terminology lists always supersede the rules listed below!
USE
NOT
Act (of Parliament)
bachelor’s / master’s (degree) Bachelor’s /
Bachelor
DC
disc
D.C.
disk
email
the euro, euros, the dollar,
dollars
gender
German federal and state
governments
the government
international
e-mail
LA
OK
United States (first instance),
US
classroom
cooperation
internet
webpage
website
L.A.
okay
USA, U.S.A.
why
Only capitalize when part of a degree
program title: “She finished MIT’s
Bachelor’s in Communications
program.”
only use “disk” when related to
computing
sex
the Government
foreign
When it comes to describing students
and scholars from abroad – more PC
City abbreviations like Los Angeles
co-operation
Internet
Web site
Page 14 of 15
PROOFREADING CHECKLIST
**** Before sending us any document, please: ***
1. Run spell-check.
2. Do a search-replace search for extra spaces between words before submitting work
(though beware if multiple spaces have been used to format the document – e.g. in
lieu of tabs).
(Editors delivering work in track-changes:)
3. Go to the “Review” tab in Word and view the document in “Final” mode to make sure
no typos or extra spaces have slipped in.
Cross-references: Verify cross-referenced page numbers. These can change!
Proper names: Verify that spelling is consistent throughout whole article.
Paragraph alignment: Check that this is consistent throughout the text (left aligned, right
aligned or justified).
POSTPRODUCTION PROOFREADING
Widows and orphans: No column should begin or end with just one line (no widows or
orphans). Try to add to or subtract from (or stretch) the text so that at least two full lines
occur at the beginning of a column.
Word breaks (for proofreading postproduction texts): Check all word breaks in the Oxford
Spelling Dictionary. Word breaks are not necessarily bad. However, avoid having multiple
word breaks in one paragraph.
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