Capitalization - Abbreviations
|
|
Capitalization - Abbreviations |
|
Capitalization |
Capitalize present titles immediately
before name ... German Foreign Minister Joschka
Fischer, U.S. Vice President Al Gore, PLO Chairman Yassir
Arafat, United Nations Secretary General Kofi
Annan. This only applies to public offices (in governments, state administration, U.N. bodies, etc.), not those in corporate life or organizations (Ford, Amnesty International, etc.) Don't capitalize titles when used alone or set apart from the name by commas ... Gerhard Schroeder, the German chancellor ... the
late Indian prime minister,
Rajiv Gandhi. We don't capitalize past or future
titles ... former chancellor Helmut Schmidt, prime
minister-designate Joe Bloggs.
Avoid putting too many titles before names, e.g. we did not write "Nigerian
President General Sani Abacha", but would
call him president on first reference and general later on.
Use caps for full names of organizations, institutions and legislative or government bodies ... the French Foreign Ministry, the U.S. Defence Department, the Bank of England, the South Korean National Assembly, the U.S. Congress, the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. Security Council. Government departments, cabinet posts, partial names of official bodies should be lower case when standing alone ... the finance ministry, the economics minister, the commission, etc. Note the following form in apposition: the Knesset, the Israeli parliament. Capitalize geographical names ... Khuzestan province, the Gulf (not "Persian Gulf"). Capitalize North, South, East, West when they form proper names or refer to regions ... the former East Germany, Northern Ireland, Southeast Asia, the Western World, the East Bloc. See also European Place Names and CIS Place Names. Capitalize nationalities, races, religions, historical periods and holidays ... Arabs, Jews, French, Islam, Protestant, Middle Ages, Reformation, New Year's Day. Capitalize all proper names: the Social Democratic Party, the Christian Democrats, but the Social Democratic and Christian Democratic parties. (See also the list of European Parties). Capitalize Olympic Games, Winter Olympics, World Cup.
|
Abbreviations |
Capitalize abbreviations, e.g., GMT and IBM, including acronyms like NATO, ASEAN, UNESCO, UNITA, OPEC, NASDAQ, and AIDS, (all without periods). Exceptions: dpa (lower case) and Itar-Tass. Use periods in the two-letter abbreviations U.S., U.N., E.U., except in sluglines. In general, spell out abbreviations on first reference, with the abbreviation following in parentheses. One abbreviation that never needs to be spelled out is GMT. Where a body is best known by its abbreviation - NASA, NATO, OPEC, CNN, the CIA, BBC, IMF, U.S., E.U. and U.N. - it is permissible to use this abbreviation on the first reference, e.g. the NATO alliance or the U.S. space agency NASA, and spell out the full name later in the story. A selection of World Organizations and their websites are listed separately in this Style Guide. Do not abbreviate months or days of the week.
|
| Style Guide Home | Index of Key Words | World Organizations |
 |
 |
