P - Editorial Style Guide

Feb 17 2010

P

Palate: Is the roof of the mouth, overused in food reviews. Palette is a piece of wood.

Parliament: Cap as in Houses of Parliament but lower case for parliamentary

Parkinson’s disease: Cap name only

Parsons Green: No apostrophe

Part-time: Hyphenate but pastime one word

Passer-by: Hyphen. Plural ‘passers-by’

Past history: Is just history

Pastime: Note one t, as in hobby

Patient’s Charter: Cap up both words, as Citizen’s Charter

Pavilion: One l

Payout: One word as payoff

Pedal, pedallers: As on a bicycle, peddle, peddlers as in drug dealers

Per annum: Say a year, annually

Percentages: Write ‘per cent’ as two words in full in copy. Headlines and straplines use %. Never use pc.

Peerage: A peer or peeress has a seat in the House of Lords.

Duke, duchess: First reference Duke of Dorking then the duke.

Viscount, viscountess, earl, countess, marquess, marchioness: First reference Earl of Denham, Countess of Denham etc, then Lord/Lady Denham.

Baron: Is always Lord. Baroness is Baroness  for first mention then Lady

Baronet, knight: Sir Cliff Richard then Sir Cliff

Dame: Dame Judi Dench then Dame Judi.

Personal details: Always try to get full names and addresses, age, job, marital status including children. Particularly important in human interest stories and court stories. We are building a picture of people’s lives for readers

Phone no apostrophe before the ‘p’.

Phone numbers style • 020 8710 6427 • 01279 722 222 • 0800 555 111 • 07900 564 668  

Pictures: Bylines as follows:

Photo by Toby Vandevelde HOU183678

Contributed

Photos by Toby Vandevelde HOU18378/5/3

Picture by Google

Planners are the council officers in the planning department. They are not councillors

Playgroup: One word

PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3

Plummet: One t as plummeted

Police: Hillingdon Police refers to the police body. Hillingdon police are officers in Hillingdon. Hillingdon police station is lower case. Use force names only where necessary and avoid regurgitating police jargon from press releases.

Inspector and higher ranks: Write title in full first time then refer to Mr or Mrs

Detective Sergeant: In full then DS

Sergeant: In full then Sgt

Detective Constable: Always DC

Constable: Always PC

Police Community Support Officer: In full first time, then PCSO

Plainclothes police: Not plain clothes or plain-clothes

Portakabin: Is a trade name. Use portable office cabin or portable classroom. See trade names

Post mortem: Lower case post mortem, never use autopsy

Post Office: Caps for the organisation and Harefield Post Office but lower case for corner post office

Postwar: One word as prewar, no hyphens

Practice: Practice is the noun, practise is the verb, e.g. doctors practise medicine at their practice.

Best practice.

Pre-school: Hyphenate

Press: Lower case when referring to the press as a body

Preventive medicine: Note spelling

Principal: Is the person, principle is the fact

Prior to, Previous to: Use Before

Prizegiving: One word as prizewinner, prizewinning

Procter and Gamble note spelling

Prophecy: Is the noun, Prophesy the verb

Prosecutor

Protester: Not protestor

Pyjamas: Not pajamas

Pubs: It’s The Royal Sun pub. Note lower case in pub. Do not use boozer

Punters: Use in connection with betting only