Halcrow Group Limited

Halcrow style guide

November 2003

Corporate communications team

Halcrow Group Limited

Vineyard House, 44 Brook Green, Hammersmith, London W6 7BY
tel +44 (0)20 7602 7282
fax +44 (0)20 7603 0095
[Link]

© Halcrow Group Limited 2004

Contents
1 Introduction 1

2 General tips on writing style 3

3 Abbreviations 5
Mr and Dr 5
ie, eg, aka and asap 5
etc 5
Punctuation 5
Qualifications 5
Months and days 5
Millions 6
Numbers 6
Tables and graphs 7
Percentages 7

4 Acronyms 7
First use 7
Capital letters 7
Qualifications 8

5 Addresses 8
Layout 8
Commas 8
Email addresses 8

6 American English 8
Location 8
ise and ize endings 9

7 Ampersands (&) 9

8 Bullet points 9
Where to use bullets 9
Bullet style 9

9 Capital letters 10
 Overuse 10
Names 10
Titles 10
Halcrow 10
Company names 11

(See also Abbreviations.) 11

Job titles 11
Acronyms 11
Places 11
Watch words 11

10 Captions 11

11 Countries 12
North, south, east and west 12

12 Currencies 12
Style 12
Dollars 12
Euro 12

13 Dates 13
Style 13
Punctuation 13

14 Double spaces 13

15 Emails 14
Read through and check 14

16 Emphasis 14
Bold, italics, underlining 14
Capital letters and exclamation marks 14

17 Halcrow 15
Halcrow is singular 15
The company 15
Departments 15
 Company acquisitions 15
Business groups and teams 15
Capital letters 15

18 Industry words 16
Common words 16

19 Non-English words and phrases 16

Greek and Latin 16
Spelling 17

20 Numbers and measurements 17

Numbers up to ten 17
Millions 17
Thousands 17
Numbers as words 17
Percentages, measurements and time 17
Hyphens and dashes 17

(See also Abbreviations.) 18

Age 18
Fractions 18
Page numbers 18

21 Political correctness 18
Codes of behaviour 18
He or she 18

22 Publications 19
Names in italics 19

23 Punctuation 19
Its and it’s 19
Contracted words 19
Numbers 19
Extra information 20
Punctuation 20
Aiding meaning 20
‘And’ with commas 21
 Speech 21
Description 21
Joining words 21
Hyphens 21
Adjectival phrases 22
Avoiding hyphens 22
‘ly’ words 22
Hyphens in words 22
Dashes 22
Semi-colons 23
Colons 23
Bullet points 23
When to use them 23
Speech 24
Continued speech 24
Use the right punctuation 25

24 Spelling 25
Use your spell check 25
Use the right word 25
‘ise’ and ‘ize’ endings 25
Contracted words 26
Problem words 26

25 Telephone numbers 26
UK numbers 26
International numbers 26
Style 27

26 Time 27
am and pm, and 24-hour clock 27
Style am and pm 27
Style 24-hour clock 27

27 Letters and memos 28

Addressing letters 28
Memos 28
1 Introduction

A piece of writing tells the reader as much about the writer and the
company they work for as its subject matter. A well-written piece that
flows, is informative and to the point will create a much better impression
than an over-long piece without structure.

The detail is also important. The occasional inconsistency or inaccuracy

may seem unimportant, but a simple comma in the wrong place can
change the meaning of a sentence. Nobody at Halcrow would dream of
publishing inaccurate figures; the prose in a document is just as important.
Whether it is supporting technical data or is the primary conveyor of
information, the writing must be clear and accurate with a consistent style.

This style guide is aimed at everyone in Halcrow. It’s designed to help

people write clearly and precisely and to avoid inaccuracies and
ambiguities, whatever the document.

Like the English language, styles evolve over time. Standards that were the
norm ten years ago may now be out of date or inappropriate. Problematic
areas have been discussed at length in the preparation of this style guide
and they are included alongside the universally accepted standards of
grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. Where a dictionary or another
source of information offers variations and alternatives, the Halcrow style
guide provides the preferred option. It is not the case, necessarily, that the
alternatives are wrong, but it is important that Halcrow adopts a consistent
approach.

In addition to observing the style guide, it is essential that any piece of

written work is spell-checked, although beware of words that are correctly
spelt but the wrong word for the context. The grammar check tool in
Microsoft Word can also be helpful, although writers should again be
careful, as the alternatives given are not always appropriate – and
sometimes they’re just plain wrong. Ensure that the language on your PC
is set to UK English and not US English, assuming you are not in north
America or writing for that market.

In preparing the Halcrow style guide, we have drawn from the approaches
taken by The Economist Style Guide, The Oxford English Dictionary, Fowler’s
Modern English Usage, the Financial Times and The Penguin Guide to Punctuation.

1
These publications are all well respected as leaders in written
communication and can be used as reference documents. Other reference
sources you may find useful are Roget’s Thesaurus and, for north-American
English, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Thesaurus.
An online version of these latter two is freely available at
[Link].

The Halcrow style guide covers the issues writers have to address most
often. It is by no means exhaustive. If you can’t find what you need, or are
in any doubt about anything, please refer to the publications mentioned or
contact Lizzie Sparrow (email sparrowl@[Link]), Garry Whitaker
(email whitakerga@[Link]) or Matthew Wernham (email
wernhamm@[Link]) in the corporate communications team.

2
2 General tips on writing style

A piece of writing will impress through its clarity, simplicity and

conciseness, rather than through complex sentence structures and flowery
vocabulary.

The kind of writing Halcrow staff members generally tackle is

informational and functional, so leave the fancy stuff and the opinion
pieces to newspaper columnists and feature writers. Focus in on what you
want to say, break it down into the salient points and keep it concise.

Consider your audience. A good rule of thumb is to think how you would
explain something verbally to someone. When you check the text through,
reading it out loud will help you see whether it flows and makes sense.
Also, don’t assume your readers have the same level of knowledge as you
do. Ensure you explain yourself clearly.

Don’t use jargon and acronyms unless you are absolutely certain you
won’t confuse your readers. Avoid clichés – through overuse these have
generally lost their meaning and just take up space. Where possible, use a
simple word instead of a more complex one – help instead of facilitate,
use instead of utilise, you instead of yourselves. In short, say what you
mean in as everyday language as possible.

Avoid excessive use of words like that, then and currently, which add
nothing to the meaning of the sentence, as in this example:

If you feel that you are in need of further help, then you could consider attending
one of the courses that are currently run by the institute.
Try
If you feel you need more help, you could attend one of the courses run by the
institute.

The shorter the sentence, the more likely it is to be understood. With

more complex sentences, the reader is more likely to get confused or lost,
or syntax errors can creep in. Also, short paragraphs and short documents
are more likely to be read all the way through than long ones. If they’re
too long, the reader will be tempted to skip them.

Where you want to deliver a number of key points quickly and succinctly,
bullet points can be useful, but make sure you keep them brief.
Subheadings can also be useful when introducing a new subject or
concept. For longer documents, an executive summary is helpful.

3
Check your facts and figures before committing them to paper as it’s
unlikely that anyone will question them once they’re written down. People
tend to assume that because something is in print it must be correct and
that they can use the information elsewhere. Be sure of your facts and be
able to supply the source of the information.

When you receive information from someone else, watch out for
inaccurate spellings (particularly of names), decimal points in the wrong
place and figures that don’t add up. If in any doubt, check it.

Starting a sentence with words like and, but, so, then or however is not
strictly correct in terms of grammar, but is becoming more acceptable. In
a formal piece of writing you may want to avoid doing this, but in less
formal work which lends itself to this kind of style you can use these
words sparingly to good effect. The more you use it, however, the less
effective it becomes, so don’t overuse this device.

Some or all of the things in this style guide may be obvious to you, but for
others they are not – especially those for whom English is not their first
language. This document is a point of reference for everyone at Halcrow.
It is not designed to eliminate your individual style, merely to help provide
consistency across the company.

4
 3 Abbreviations

Mr and Dr Abbreviations are fine in their place, although as a general rule it is better
not to use them in more formal prose. As always there are exceptions,
though. Among these are Mr or Dr.

ie, eg, aka and Examples of abbreviations you would normally avoid are ie and eg,
asap although you can use them in a table or graph where space is at a
premium. In their place use that is and for example instead. Don’t use
things like aka (also known as) or asap (as soon as possible). Write these
out in full.

etc Don’t use etc. It looks lazy and suggests you’ve run out of things to say.
See the example below for ways to avoid using it.

Instead of ‘There were a lot of things to arrange, like entry tickets, passports
etc.’,
try ‘There were a lot of things to arrange, including entry tickets and passports.’

Punctuation As we have adopted an open style of punctuation, abbreviations do not

have full stops after them – this includes Mr and Dr and county name
abbreviations such as Herts or Lancs. Ensure you always use the
standard abbreviations in these instances. Abbreviations are fine for
addresses, but write county names out in full in prose.

The only place you would use punctuation with an abbreviation is to

conform with a company’s name or branding, for example, R. Bloggs &
Son., p.l.c.. Ordinarily, Co (as in company), Ltd (as in limited) and plc (as
in public limited company) would have no punctuation. In general,
however, for simplicity you should simply drop the plc, Ltd or Co, except
on a legal document or a letterhead.

Qualifications Higher education and professional qualifications often have a mixture of

capitals and lower-case letters, for example, PhD, BSc, BA Hons. Make
sure you get the correct combination.

Where any abbreviation is likely to cause confusion, write it out in full.

The no 12 bus, for example, becomes the number 12 bus.

Months and days The months of the year and days of the week should always be written in
full – don’t use Sept, Jan, Mon, Weds and so on. Abbreviations of these
are only acceptable in a table or graph where space is limited.

5
Units of Units of measurement should conform to British Standard. Metric
measurement measurements are the norm and none of the abbreviations are followed by
a full stop. In general, these abbreviations are lower case, with notable
exceptions like watts or chemicals in the periodic table. Acceptable
abbreviations for a number of weights and measures are as follows:

mm millimetres
cm centimetres
m metres
sqm square metres
ha hectares
km kilometres
g grammes
kg kilogrammes
kph kilometres per hour
mph miles per hour
kWh kilowatt hours
MW megawatts
s seconds
kNm kilonewton metres
A ampere
K kelvin

Millions Always write out million in full. Never use 5mn or 5m (which can be
confused with five metres).

Numbers Note there is no space between a number and an abbreviation, as in 6km

or 30m. This is so the number and the abbreviation don’t get separated.
Also, you would never write six km or six kilometres. For units of
measurement, numbers are always written as figures, as shown here,
(unlike other numbers, which are written as words up to and including
ten).

Where you need to show squared or cubed numbers, insert the symbol
characters ² or ³, instead of using superscript characters, to avoid
formatting difficulties in Word or Excel.

(See also Numbers and measurements.)

Where you need to express something in metres per second in prose, for
example, you should write out in full, unless you are using it more than
once. In that case write out metres per second in full, followed by (m/s),
and which you can simply use m/s. Do not assume your reader will
understand all the abbreviations you are using.

6
Tables and You can use abbreviations in tables and graphs where there is not room to
graphs write things in full. You should, however, always provide a key to the
abbreviations you use.

If you need to abbreviate dates in tables or graphs, don’t use the 19/11/03
format as this can be confusing. Use the 19 Nov 03 format instead.

(See also Numbers and measurements and Strokes and slashes.)

Percentages In text, you should write out per cent in full, rather than using the % sign.
The % sign is appropriate for tables, graphs and places where space is
limited.

Spell out any industry-specific abbreviations the first time you use them,
to aid understanding and avoid confusion – unless you are absolutely sure
that every reader will understand them.

(See also Acronyms.)

4 Acronyms

Where possible, avoid using too many acronyms, especially where they are
not familiar to the reader – stopping to remember what an acronym
means will make the writing harder to understand for readers.

First use The first time you use an acronym, write the name in full with the
acronym in brackets immediately afterwards. Thereafter you can use the
acronym alone, as in this example:

You should establish a quality control unit (QCU). The role of the QCU will
be…

There is no need to state the acronym at all if you’re not going to use it
later in the piece, however.

Capital letters The acronym itself should be in capital letters, although the name might
well be in lower case, as above. Where referring to the acronym in a
sentence, for those that can be pronounced as a word, such as NATO,
you do not need to use the beforehand. Where an organisation’s acronym
is not pronounceable, the should be used, for example, the BBC. In
contrast, acronyms of companies do not need the in front of them, for
example, ICI and BAA. Refer to these in the singular form, as in ICI is
looking to build profits.

7
Qualifications Qualifications, like BSc, BA and PhD are written with a mixture of
capitals and lower case – check you’ve got it right before you proceed.

5 Addresses

Layout Where space allows, addresses should be laid out in the following way,
with no punctuation:

C D Smith
Richmond House
1 Rumford Lane
Liverpool
L3 9QY
UK

Where addresses are on a single line, they should be shown as follows:

C D Smith, Richmond House, 1 Rumford Lane, Liverpool L3 9QY, UK

When you are sending something to a UK address from within the UK,
there is no need to include UK when you address the envelope. The last
thing on the address should be the postcode, as the machines that sort UK
mail are designed to read postcodes. Ending the address with UK will
slow down the sorting of your item.

Commas Note the use of commas to separate the different elements, but no comma
before the postcode.

If you wish to give the addressee a title, avoid the old-fashioned Esq.

Email addresses When writing email addresses, use the email halcrow@[Link],
format, with email and the address itself all in lower case, even at the start
of a new line.

(See also Letters and memos and Halcrow.)

6 American English

Location The company is headquartered in the UK so the general rule is to use UK

spellings and grammar. The only exceptions to this are documents
generated in north America, where American English may be used.

8
 If English-language documents are produced and circulated in other
countries which tend to use American English, it is also acceptable to use
American English, if required. You may have to adapt your approach to
meet the needs of the project team you are working with, depending on its
location.

ise and ize A common area for inconsistency is ise and ize endings of words. We
endings favour words ending in ise, where there is an option. Your dictionary may
tell you that both are correct for some words, but use the ise spelling for
consistency. Examples include organise (not organize) and criticise (not
criticize).

7 Ampersands (&)

Do not use ampersands in a sentence, use and instead; it’s a lot easier on
the eye.

Ampersands are only acceptable where a title or proper noun uses one,
such as Legal & General.

8 Bullet points

Bullets are a useful way of distilling down a message or group of messages

and communicating them quickly.

Where to use The corporate style is to use a single dot for bullet points. Avoid instances
bullets of bullets within bullets – consider instead numbered sections, with bullets
within each section, to make it easier for the reader. Likewise, if your
bullets are any longer than a sentence or two, switch to a numbering
system or use subheadings.

Bullet style Where a bulleted list is part of a sentence, or the bullets themselves are not
complete sentences, the punctuation is as follows: a colon to introduce the
list, but then no capital letters, semi-colons or full stops, even on the last
bullet. Watch out for Microsoft Word adding extraneous capital letters.

The participants include the following:

• Halcrow
• its competitors
• other companies

9
 The exception to this is where the bulleted list contains complete
sentences. In this instance, each bullet should start with a capital letter and
end with a full stop. The list is introduced with a colon, as shown above.

9 Capital letters

Overuse In general, people use far too many capital letters, the majority of which
are unnecessary and therefore inaccurate. Capital letters have the effect of
drawing the reader’s attention to certain words, giving them extra,
unwarranted emphasis and detracting from the flow of the sentence.
Excessive use of capital letters can also affect the meaning of the writing –
capital letters can tell the reader that the proper name of a company or
organisation is being used, for example, but a piece that uses too many
capitals can obscure this kind of detail and reduce the effectiveness of the
capitals used. If in doubt, therefore, use lower case.

Names Capital letters are used for proper nouns, such as the names of companies
and institutions, like The Institution of Civil Engineers, The
European Commission or Cardiff University. But when you are
referring to them subsequently without using the full name, you would use
the institution, the commission or the university, all lower case. The
same applies to the government, the cabinet and the opposition and
any impermanent, local or relatively insignificant organisations or groups,
such as the Halcrow football team or the subcommittee on
environmental impact.

Other proper nouns are people’s names and unique places, people and
events. For example, Peter Gammie or Professor Roger Flanagan,
London Bridge, the Queen (when referring to the current ruling
monarch, otherwise use lower case), and the Olympic Games.

Titles Headings and subheadings should have an initial capital on the first word
and lower-case letters for the rest of the heading, except where proper
nouns are being used. You should never use all upper case in headings.
Use different sizes, bold and underlining to denote the differing
importance of headings.

Halcrow Halcrow’s internal departments/bodies are lower case, such as the

corporate communications team, staff council or group board. Thus,
things like group board meeting are also lower case.

Halcrow is never shown all upper case. Refer to the visual standards
manual for more information on Halcrow branding.

10
Company names With the names of outside companies, check how a company spells and
punctuates its name in its letterhead and stick to that, such as PLC instead
of plc, Ltd instead of ltd.

(See also Abbreviations.)

Heads of state In the USA it is acceptable to use President Bush when referring to his
title, but you would write George Bush is the president of the United
States. It is not acceptable to use Prime Minister Blair. Instead, use Mr
Blair, the prime minister. Likewise, Mr Brown, chancellor of the
exchequer. Capitals are not used because these are not the only people to
have held this office, so they are not unique. In other countries, follow the
accepted local norms for titles of heads of state.

Job titles Job titles at Halcrow are all lower case, including chairman, chief
executive, director and manager. The only time these would have a
capital letter is where they start a sentence or they appear on a business
card – and even then only the first word of the title has an initial capital.
Market sector director is one example.

Acronyms Acronyms must be expanded the first time they are used, with the
acronym in brackets afterwards. While they are shown in upper case – for
example, VAT and CAD – when expanded, they should generally be
written in lower case, as in value-added tax, computer-aided design.

(See also Acronyms.)

Places Place names are generally upper case. Where a point of the compass is
part of the name, such as Northern Ireland or North Korea, it is upper
case; where it simply describes an area, such as south-east England or
the north-east, it is lower case.

Watch words Other words and phrases you might think are upper case but should be
lower case include email, the internet, new year’s day, the press, the
left (or right), the euro, the pope (but God’s representative on earth), the
queen (unless you use one of her official titles in full), the seasons
(winter, spring, summer, autumn), website and white paper (as in
government white paper).

10 Captions

A caption starts with a capital letter but, unless it runs into more than one
sentence, does not have a full stop at the end.

11
 11 Countries

Use UK or United Kingdom rather than Britain, which includes Wales,

Scotland and Northern Ireland (not Ulster). Use Ireland when you mean
southern Ireland or Eire.

Use United States of America or USA (not US), rather than America.

You don’t need to put the before the names of countries like Oman and
United Arab Emirates. Where some countries sound better with the, use
lower case, as in the Maldives or the Philippines.

North, south, east With areas of countries, don’t use capitals, as in south-east of England
and west and in the south-east. However, avoid phrases like in the north, unless
you have already mentioned the country, so there is no confusion with
another country.

12 Currencies

Style A currency symbol should come before the amount, with no spaces, for
example, US$40,000. Commas should be used for numbers above 999, as
in US$2,500 and US$64,000. Do not use written numbers with currency
signs, for example, £ten or ten pounds.

Dollars Unless the document is solely for distribution in north America and refers
to US dollars only, dollar currencies should always be denoted by their
country, as follows:
A$ (Australia), C$ (Canada), HK$ (Hong Kong), NT$ (New Taiwanese),
NZ$ (New Zealand), S$ (Singapore) and US$ (USA).

For specific currencies, follow the local rules for expressing amounts of
currency. If you are unable to find out, write them out in full, for example,
100 rupees and 100 yuan. Always remain consistent within a single
document.

Euro The plural of euro is euro. For euro, use the euro sign if your computer
offers it or write 100 euro, but not EUR100. The euro replaced the
currencies in the following countries at the beginning of 2002: Austria,
Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Portugal and Spain.

You will note that all currencies are lower case.

12
 Do not write £10 sterling, for example. This is repetition. Use the
currency symbol only, except where you are saying something like
thousands of pounds, but not `000s of pounds.

Where you think the reader may be confused by a number of currencies or

similar currencies in the same piece, set them out clearly the first time you
mention each one and or put them in an accompanying glossary.

(See also Numbers and measurements.)

13 Dates

Style The format for writing dates in prose is 12 November 2002 (number,
month, year), with no punctuation. Never use formats like 12/11/02 or 12
Nov 02.

Do not use th or st after the number. Do not write 12 of November 2002

or the 12 of November.

Punctuation Only use punctuation if you’re including the day, as in Tuesday, 12

November 2002.

Always refer to years and periods of years in full. For example, use 1980 or
the 1980s, but never ’80 or the 80s. Note that no apostrophes are needed.
More specific periods of years should be presented as follows: 1981 to
1983. Avoid 1981-1983 or 1981-83.

(See also Time.)

14 Double spaces

Double spaces after full stops were introduced in the days of mechanical
typewriters, where the standard space used between words was not
sufficient to easily denote where one sentence ended and another began.
As a result, two spaces were used between a full stop and the capital letter
of the next sentence.

Today we use word processors and desktop publishing packages which

automatically make the space after a full stop a little larger than the space
between words. Double spaces after full stops are, therefore, not necessary
and shouldn’t be used. Removing double spaces is easily achieved using
the search and replace tool.

13
 15 Emails

The sheer volume of emails we send and receive, and the speed and
frequency at which they travel, gives many people the impression they are
an informal, almost colloquial, form of communication. This perception is
misleading. We should take as much care with emails as we do with any
other written communication, as they too are a reflection of who and what
we are.

Read through and Making ourselves understood in an unambiguous way in written

check communications between individuals is not always simple. Readers
frequently misunderstand the subject matter and any underlying messages.
With no body language, stress or intonation to help, as you have in
speech, readers can easily misread or misinterpret emails. Always read
through your emails before sending them and consider how the recipient
might interpret your words.

Apply the same standards to emails as to other written communications,

as set out in this guide. The rules on capitalisation, phone numbers and
addresses, for example, extend to your email sign-off as well.

16 Emphasis

Bold, italics, As a general rule, avoid using emboldening, italics or underlining to give
underlining extra emphasis to certain words in a sentence, as this can disrupt the flow
of the piece for the reader. If, however, you feel it is necessary to
emphasise a word or a phrase to help make a point, choose a single style
and stick to it. Don’t use a combination of bold and italics, for example, or
(even worse) bold italics. Use the device sparingly for best effect.

Capital letters and Never use capital letters to emphasise a word and avoid using exclamation
exclamation marks.
marks
(See also Capital letters for notes on use of emboldening, italics
and underlining in headings and subheadings.)

14
 17 Halcrow

Halcrow is Halcrow is a company, a single entity, so it is always referred to in the

singular singular. Never refer to it as they; always use it or the company.

The company Never use the terms firm and organisation. In prose, you should also
avoid using the word group wherever possible. These three terms each say
something about the company we are trying to move away from. Use
company instead.

Generally, when we refer to the company in prose, we write Halcrow,

rather than Halcrow Group Limited (not Ltd), although on letterheads
and in formal or legal documents, such as brochures and bids, it is referred
to in full.

Departments Teams, units and departments within the company are also singular and
should be used in conjunction with verbs in the singular. For example,
never refer to a team using the words are or they; always use is or it:

The corporate communications team is based in Vineyard House.

Company There should be no reference to previous incarnations of Halcrow, such

acquisitions as Halcrow Fox or Halcrow Transmark. The Halcrow brand is no longer
expressed in this way. To use such terms is misleading to clients and
militates against the single company we are portraying.

Business groups The Halcrow business groups should not be actively promoted in external
and teams documents, as they are not fully representative of our capabilities to
clients. Refer to either Halcrow or to teams within the company, such as
the bridges team or the low-carbon solutions team, all in lower case.
Never say Halcrow property, for example. Clients approach Halcrow for a
solution to their project, which may involve any number of our skill
groups or business groups. These do not need to be identified to the
client. To do so narrows the horizon and reduces opportunities.

Capital letters None of Halcrow’s internal departments or groupings should have capital
letters. The only exception is where we refer to the names of four business
groups directly, such as Water (in Water there is a broad range of
skills). Remember, however, that with anything other than an internal
audience we should avoid referring to the internal structure of the
company. To avoid the capital letter, which is preferable, a better
alternative is the water team has a broad range of skills.

(See also Capital letters.)

15
Head office The registered office for Halcrow Group Limited is Vineyard House. For
the sake of simplicity and consistency, refer to this as the company’s
headquarters. To refer to both Vineyard House and Burderop Park as
headquarters creates confusion.

One final, but equally important, point – never refer to Halcrow as

Halcrows.

18 Industry words

It’s important that when we use words common to specific industries or

sectors, we remain consistent – from document to document and within
each document. As well as spelling, the rules on capital letters and
punctuation need to be applied.

Common words Some regularly used words are shown here:

• master plan or master planning (not masterplan or masterplanning)

• wastewater (not waste water)
• detailed design (not detail design)
• new-town planning (when referring to planning a new town; without
the hyphen it means town planning that is new)

19 Non-English words and phrases

Unless it is in very common usage, do not use a non-English phrase where

you can use an English one. There’s always the danger that not every
reader will know what you mean and it may look like you’re trying to be
clever or get one over on the reader.

Only moderate this approach where your audience would appreciate or

benefit from your use of local spellings for things like the names of
countries and towns.

Greek and Latin Avoid Greek and Latin terms where possible, as well as words taken
straight from other languages that are not commonly understood. For
example, the French word café is clearly acceptable, but par excellence is
not.

16
Spelling If you have to use a foreign word or place name, consider your audience.
You would usually use the English spelling where available, for example,
Normandy rather than the French spelling Normandie. Where there is
no English equivalent, spell the word as it is spelt in its country of origin,
with the requisite accents and other punctuation, as far as your PC
package allows.

If you think your audience might be offended by your use of words from
their language or an anglicised spelling, think again or find a different
phrase entirely.

20 Numbers and measurements

Numbers Numbers up to and including ten should be written as words. Anything

up to ten above ten should be written as a number, as in 11 or 28.

Millions Numbers in the millions or billions should be written as 6 million or 3

billion – they are, after all, over ten. For anything else between ten and 1
million use the numerical figures, as in 6,000 or 750,000.

Thousands Never write ’000s or 000s when you mean thousands. For any number
from 1,000 upwards, a comma should denote every thousand, as in
100,000 or 1,645,200. Money follows the same logic, as in £35,000.

Numbers as Never start a sentence with a numeric – always write out the word, even
words those over ten, or find another way to write the sentence.

Thousands of people went on the march.

Twenty-five per cent of the group were unhappy might become Of the group,
25 per cent were unhappy.

Percentages, The exceptions to writing the words out in full are percentages, like 4 per
measurements cent, abbreviated measurements, such as 7km, and time, as in 3am and
and time 5pm. Note there is no space between the number and the abbreviation.

Hyphens and Don’t use hyphens or dashes with abbreviations. Instead, write from 4m
dashes to 6m or between 1960 and 1973, rather than 4-6m, 1960-73 or 1960-
1973.

If there is a possibility your reader may not understand the abbreviations

you are using, write each one out in full the first time you use it, with the
abbreviation in brackets afterwards, as in square metres (sqm). If it only
appears once, use the non-abbreviated version.

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 Never use a number in full with an abbreviation, such as seven km - use
7km.

(See also Abbreviations.)

Decades and Always write years as a whole figure. Do not use abbreviations such as 60s
centuries or (even worse) 60’s. When referring to a decade, use 1960s. When
referring to a century, talk about the 21st century, but for adjectival
phrases use a hyphen, as in 21st-century phenomenon.

Age Someone aged between 50 and 60 years is in their fifties, not their 50s.
When referring to a range of ages, write 51 to 59 years old, not 51-59 or
51-9 years. For anything that is 1,000 years old or more, follow the
convention with commas, as explained above.

Fractions Fractions in prose should be written in full with hyphens, as in three-and-

a-half.

Page numbers Page numbers start on the first right-hand page of a document and ideally
should be in the bottom right hand corner of the page. For a reader this is
the most convenient place when trying to locate a specific page.

(See also Dates, Telephone numbers and Time.)

21 Political correctness

An organisation’s culture will suggest the extent of political correctness.

Codes of The approach at Halcrow is largely set out in the codes of behaviour.
behaviour These can be found on Halnet (under Our Organisation/Vision and
Strategy/Purpose, Values and Codes of Behaviour), but the following two
are of particular relevance:

• be professional and ethical at all times

• treat everyone with respect, trust and dignity

He or she From a practical point of view, when referring to an unknown individual,

writers should use he or she but never he/she or s/he. Increasingly, the
word their is being used to replace he or she, as in:

The person who presented this paper should collect their prize as soon as
possible.

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Causing offence Otherwise, it’s down to the writer to assess whether any of the content of
the piece might offend its audience. Get a second opinion if you’re in
doubt.

22 Publications

Names in italics The name of any publication – paper, book, magazine or newspaper –
should always appear in italics, for example The Times newspaper or the
Sunday Telegraph. Make sure that only the name appears in italics - with the
Sunday Telegraph example shown here, many people would (wrongly) put
the in italics also.

Where you are writing publication titles by hand – and therefore cannot
use italics – use single inverted commas.

23 Punctuation

23.1 Apostrophes
There are two instances where you use an apostrophe: possessives –
Mary’s shoe – and contracted words – Mary’s got a shoe (meaning
Mary has got a shoe, where Mary and has have been contracted).

Its and it’s Many people are confused by its and it’s. The only time an apostrophe
appears in the word its when the meaning is it is or it has. Do not ever
use it for a possessive – it’s wrong. The possessive its is used like this:

The team submitted its report.

Contracted words It is fine to use the less formal don’t, won’t, we’re, I’ll and so on, where
you feel it’s appropriate. You may wish to avoid this in more formal
documents.

Numbers When writing numbers, never put ‘000s when you mean thousands.
Using apostrophes in things like 1960’s and ‘60s is also wrong.

(See also Possessives and Numbers and measurements.)

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 23.2 Brackets
Extra information Only use brackets where the piece of information held within them is so
lengthy that it will distract the reader from the subject of the sentence. As
a general rule, if it’s important enough to go into the piece, it doesn’t need
brackets. If that makes the sentence too long, break it down and find
another way of expressing it. Too-liberal use of brackets makes the
sentence harder to read, so avoid them where possible. Job titles, for
example, need not go inside brackets.

Make sense of the Whatever you put in brackets should make sense in the context of the
sentence sentence. If you were to put commas round it instead, for example, the
sentence should still make sense.

The joint venture (which was set up specifically to meet the needs of the project)
played an important role.

Punctuation Where bracketed information appears next to a comma in the sentence,

the comma should always follow the closing bracket. Where the bracketed
information is a whole sentence, the punctuation connected to it,
including the full stop, all falls within the brackets.

RLE (Rail Link Engineering, a consortium of Arup, Bechtel, Halcrow and

Systra), which was set up to manage the construction of the Channel Tunnel Rail
Link, has had some notable successes.

Not as many teenagers are choosing to go into engineering these days. (See the
graph below for more detailed information.) As a result, engineering firms are
working harder to attract new talent.

23.3 Commas
Aiding meaning Use commas to help your reader understand the meaning of sentences,
but bear in mind that overuse of commas can make a sentence more
difficult to read. By changing the position of commas, or removing them,
you can change the meaning of a sentence, for example:

The presenter, who appears on television twice a night, puts everything into the
job.

This suggests one presenter putting everything into the job, whereas the
sentence below, with the commas removed, suggests a general piece of
advice to all presenters.

The presenter who appears on television twice a night puts everything into the
job.

20
‘And’ with Generally, you should not put a comma before and, except in the
commas following examples.

At the end of a list which includes supplementary information:

The team comprised Joe Bloggs, project director, John Smith, regional manager,
and Jane Jones, specialist adviser.

Where leaving out a comma would make the sentence harder to

understand:
The order included three teas, a lemonade and ice, and three iced cakes.

Speech When writing out speech, use a comma before you open, as follows:

The chairman says, “We need to work more closely on this project.”

Description When defining someone or something, you use commas around the
descriptive phrase:

Peter Gammie, the chief executive, addressed the meeting.

Joe Bloggs, the person responsible for designing the bridge, received an award as
well.

Joining words Use commas around sentence connectors, such as however, for example
and therefore, when they appear mid sentence. Use commas after them
when they appear at the beginning of a sentence and before them when
they appear at the end of a sentence:

In cases where, for example, a red light appears, you should stop.
However, it was agreed that we could proceed.
It’s important to stop at red lights, for example.

(See also Speech marks and quotation marks and Colons and
semicolons.)

23.4 Hyphens and dashes

Hyphens A hyphen joins two or more words together, generally to make an
adjectival phrase. There are no spaces between the words and the hyphen
or (hyphens). Using a hyphen in this instance avoids confusion about the
meaning, which may be obvious to the writer but not to the reader. There
is a big difference between third world war (the third of three world
wars) and third-world war (war in the third world), for example. Also, a
high performing individual could be an opera singer up a ladder, but a
high-performing individual is someone who has a high level of
performance.

21
Adjectival phrases More general examples include cable-stayed bridge, high-value
contract, up-to-date information (but the information was up to date,
where the description comes after the noun), on an ad-hoc basis, an in-
house publication (compared to the alternative, the publication was
produced in house).

Likewise, you have a 30m-high construction or a 20km-long crossing

(but the crossing was 20 kilometres long).

Avoiding hyphens So, if you want to avoid using hyphens, you need to move the descriptive
words (the adjectives) to later in the sentence, after the noun they are
describing.

‘ly’ words However, don’t ever use a hyphen with ly words, as the ly signifies it is
describing the following noun, for example, highly developed strategy
(not highly-developed strategy).

Hyphens in Occasionally, hyphens occur within words, particularly those where a letter
words is repeated, such as re-examine and co-ordinate.

Dashes A dash sits between two words, with a space either side, and is longer than
a hyphen. It is generally used when adding something to a sentence that
isn’t directly related to the subject of the sentence.

You can also use a pair of dashes instead of brackets.

RLE – Rail Link Engineering, a consortium of Arup, Bechtel, Halcrow and

Systra – is one of the organisations working on the project.

23.5 Possessives
The phrase the report’s conclusions refers to the conclusions of a single
report. The phrase the reports’ conclusions refers to the collective
conclusions of a number of reports.

With singular names or words ending in s, add apostrophe s, for

example, St James’s recreation ground, the boss’s last day. Do the
same for collective nouns that don’t end in s, for example, children’s
games, media’s best efforts.

With plural names or words ending in s, add just an apostrophe, as in

bosses’ buyout strategy; the Joneses’ many relatives. Do the same for
singular names written as plurals, as in Barclays’ charges; Reuters’ new
product.

22
 Never use an apostrophe in plural acronyms such as MPs or NVQs –
unless you’re talking about something like MPs’ interests (the interests of
a number of MPs).

23.6 Colons and semi-colons

If you don’t know how to use these effectively, they are easily avoided.

Semi-colons A semi-colon balances the first and second part of a sentence – it gives a
more significant break than a comma, but acts in a similar way. For
example, Halcrow is an international company; it has offices all over
the world. This could be expressed in two whole sentences, but because
they are strongly linked, a semi-colon can be used. If you do choose to use
a semi-colon, remember that the two groups of words either side of it
must each work as sentences in their own right.

Colons A colon introduces further information that is directly related to the first
part of the sentence, for example, Halcrow has divided its UK business
into two regions: UK south and UK north. What comes after the colon
is not usually a sentence. If you were unsure about the placing of the
colon, again this could be expressed as two sentences, as in:

Halcrow has divided its UK business into two regions. These are UK south
and UK north.

A colon can also be used to introduce a list, for example:

The bowl held many types of fruit: apples, oranges, pears, grapes and bananas.

Bullet points You also use a colon just before a bullet point list.

(See also Bullet points.)

23.7 Speech marks and quotation marks

When to use them When reporting direct speech, use speech marks “ ”. When quoting from
a publication, use quotation marks ‘ ’.

23
Speech Always use punctuation before opening and closing speech, regardless of
where it is in the sentence. Both commas and colons are acceptable,
although in some instances a full stop may work better. Some examples
include:

“I like working at Halcrow,” said the engineer.

Commenting on the scheme, the engineer said, “I think it’s really good news.”
The team had plenty to say: “We’ve been working on this project for years.
We’ve covered so many elements, it’s difficult to know where to start.”
The chairman’s comments were well received. “Everything he had to say was
positive,” said one audience member.

Quotes within Speech or quotes within speech are in single quotes, as follows:
speech
“In my opinion, the director’s comment, ‘No man is an island,’ perfectly
summed up the situation.”

“When I arrived, he said, ‘I’ve only got until 3.30pm,’ so I decided to

postpone the meeting.”

Use the past and present tense as appropriate. If you’re referring to an

event that has already happened, use the past tense.

“I’d like to welcome you all to this prestigious event,” said the mayor at last
week’s awards ceremony.

If you’re referring to a general statement or standpoint, for example, use

the present tense.

“I like to listen to the views of all my colleagues before I make a decision,” says
John, when asked about his management style.

Continued speech If speech starts a sentence or the speech itself is the start of a sentence,
use a capital letter at the opening of the speech, as above. Where the
speech starts again partway through a sentence, it should start with a
lower-case letter, as follows:

“It was a difficult day,” explained John, “but we made the best of it.”

Where the person’s speech falls in the middle of a sentence, the

punctuation is different to the above, as follows:

Although the day was described as “difficult”, the consensus was that the
outcome was favourable.

24
 If you need to create a new paragraph within speech, do not close the
speech marks at the end of the preceding paragraph. Instead, reopen the
next paragraph with new opening speech marks. Close the speech marks
as normal at the end of the speech.

Use the right Speech and quote marks should always be curly quotes. Watch out for
punctuation straight marks like this " ', which denote minutes and inches, and hours
and feet, respectively. It is inaccurate to use these marks for speech and
quote marks. Watch out for text that comes from the web or an email, as
these often convert curly quotes into straight ones.

23.8 Quotation marks

(See Speech marks and quotation marks.)

23.9 Strokes and slashes

In prose, avoid the use of / where you mean or or and – use the words
instead.

You can use strokes or slashes for internet or intranet address strings, but
there should be no spaces either side of the marks.

24 Spelling

Use your spell A spell check will pick up most wrongly spelt words or typos, but it won’t
check pick up every mistake. Beware also of the auto-correct feature, which may
change an apparent mistake to something even worse. Make sure you or
someone else reads through the text to ensure the spelling is accurate.
Watch out for words that are spelt correctly but are the wrong word for
the context. Affect (the verb) and effect (the noun)are often confused, for
example.

The effects of water damage from the floods will affect profits.

Use the right Know the difference between there, their and they’re, between to, two
word and too, and between were, where and we’re. Don’t confuse.

‘ise’ and ‘ize’ Where there is the option to spell a word with ise or ize, (authorize or
endings authorise, civilize or civilise, for example), we use ise.

25
Contracted words It is acceptable to contract words where appropriate – marketing
literature, for example, can be more effective when the text appeals
directly to the reader as if he or she is being spoken to, in which case the
less formal don’t, isn’t, we’ll, and so on, are fine to use. Judge the
reaction of your audience to this kind of style before employing it.

Problem words The following words commonly cause problems with spelling or have
more than one option. Where there is more than one spelling, we have
chosen one for consistency’s sake:

accessible
accommodation
adviser (not advisor)
among (not amongst)
bypass (not by-pass)
committed
co-ordinate (not coordinate)
enquiry for an enquiry from a member of the public; inquiry for a public
inquiry
focused (not focussed)
an in-house service, but a service provided in house
internet, email and online (all lower case, no hyphens)
millennium
Muslim (not Moslem)
providing that or provided (don’t mix up the two)
worldwide (not world wide or world-wide)

25 Telephone numbers

UK numbers Always use the telephone number format that addresses your audience.
For example, if the document will only be read within the UK, you need
to give the area code and the local number – (01793) 812479. Use brackets
around the area code to indicate that the code is optional if you’re dialling
locally.

International If the document is relevant to an audience outside the UK, you need to
numbers give the entire number, including the international exchange and country
code, for example, +44 (0)20 7602 7282. The convention is to put the
first zero of a UK area code in brackets because non-UK callers do not
need to dial that number to get through. The + is used to indicate there is
an international directory code to be dialled before the main number
starts. This will change from country to country.

26
Style When quoting a telephone number as contact details in a document, put
tel before the number to distinguish it from a fax number. Likewise, a fax
number should appear with fax in front of it, with the number following
the same conventions as telephone numbers. These qualifiers should be all
in lower case, as should email. No colon or other punctuation is needed.
For example:

tel +44 (0)20 7602 7282

fax +44 (0)20 7603 0095
email halcrow@[Link]

26 Time

am and pm, and In prose, use am and pm times, except where the 24-hour clock improves
24-hour clock understanding. Remember who your audience is and whether they will
need to be told whether it is Greenwich mean time, Eastern standard time,
British summer time, or whatever. Whichever you choose, stick with it
throughout the piece, as relevant. Don’t use o’clock.

Style am and pm Am and pm times should be written 12.30am or 4pm, with no space
before am or pm and a full stop between the hours and the minutes. If a
sentence includes more than one time, don’t mix formats. For example:

Use The working day lasts from 9.00am to 5.30pm

rather than The working day lasts from 9am to 5.30pm.

Style 24-hour All 24-hour clock times should be written 13.00hrs, with a full stop
clock between the hours and the minutes.

(See also Dates.)

27
 27 Letters and memos

Addressing letters When addressing a letter to an unknown person or to an organisation, the

address should be as follows:

An Organisation
Richmond House
1 Rumford Lane
Liverpool
L3 9QY
UK

Dear sirs

If you know the name of the person you’re writing to, the letter should be
addressed as follows:

Mr Fred Smith
An Organisation
Richmond House
1 Rumford Lane
Liverpool
L3 9QY
UK

Dear Fred

There is no need to include For the attention of on either of these examples.

Memos Once you have put the names concerned in the to and from fields
provided, there is no need to repeat yourself by writing Dear Fred or
putting your name at the bottom. You should, however, title the memo so
the reader can easily see what it’s about.

Use the Halcrow templates in Word for your letters and memos.

28