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Cabinet

Capitalise when referring to a grouping of senior government ministers, heads of department or presidential advisers.

cactus, cactuses

caddy

Not caddie

Caesarean section

cafe

No accent.

caffeine

calibre, but American style is caliber

Calcutta

Use Kolkata

call up, call-up

Two words for the verb, one for the noun and adjective.

camaraderie

Cambodia

Use this official name rather than the Khmer-Rouge-era Kampuchea unless directly quoting. Full names should be used at all references except in the case of royalty.

Cameroon

Not Cameroun or the Cameroons, West Africa.

Camilla Parker Bowles

No hyphen.

can

May is about asking permission and can is about the ability to act. If we may borrow your car we can drive to the beach. May can also be about uncertainty. War may start tomorrow, or may not. War can start tomorrow because all the weapons are in place.

Canada goose

Not Canadian.

cancer

See medical stories on the need for caution in handling stories about reputed cures for cancer.

cancel, cancelled, cancellation

Events that are called off but will be held later are postponed. Report the new date if possible. Only those events scrapped completely are cancelled. American style uses cancel,canceled, canceling but cancellation.

cannon, canon

A cannon is a weapon (same singular and plural), a canon is a law or church dignitary.

canvas, canvass

Paint on canvas but canvass for votes.

capable, capability

Use with restraint. Write that an aircraft can carry 300 passengers not The aircraft is capable of carrying 300 passengers. The United States can launch... not The United States has the capability to launch.

capital, capitol

Capital for all uses, apart from capitol for the building where Congress or state legislatures meet, usually capitalised. Capitalisation

capital account

An account in the balance of payments that records movements of capital between domestic and foreign residents. The capital account records changes in the asset and liability position of domestic residents. It covers flows such as loans and investments. See also current account, balance of payments.

capital-raising

Hyphenated.

Capitalisation. American style is capitalization

Putting the first letter of a word in capitals makes it limited and specific, e.g. He was a Communist with conservative instincts.

Abbreviations normally follow the capitalisation of the unabbreviated form. e.g. North American Treaty Organisation, NATO, miles per hour, mph, Western European Union, WEU. See also abbreviations.

Academic, aristocratic, corporate, official, military and religious titles: Capitalise when they immediately precede a personal name, otherwise use lower case, e.g. Professor John Smith, Admiral Horatio Nelson but the history professor, the admiral. Capitalise titles such as Ruritanian President Tamsin Noble or Global Corp. Chief Executive Jane Dimitriou. See also aristocratic titles and nobility.

Acronyms are words formed from the initial letters or syllables of other words, e.g. radar – radio detection and ranging. When an acronym is made up of initial letters that are themselves capitalised, then capitalise each letter, e.g. NATO for the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. But if the acronym is formed from initial syllables rather than letters, then capitalise only the first letter. In general avoid acronyms as much as possible.

Armed forces: capitalise such specific names as U.S. Marine Corps, Royal Air Force, the Canadian Forces and the (German) Bundeswehr and Luftwaffe. Use lower case when referring generically to the various armed services in cases where nations do not use the word as a proper noun e.g. the French army, the Indonesian navy, the Brazilian air force.

Astronomical: Capitalise the names of heavenly bodies such as Betelgeuse, the Great Bear and Jupiter, but not the sun, moon, and earth (except in a phrase such as Mother Earth or Planet Earth or when listing Earth among the planets).

Drugs: Capitalise Ecstasy and the names of other synthetic drugs.

Geographical and geological names: Capitalise these, apart from particles, articles, and compass references not forming part of the proper name, e.g. the River Plate but the river; North Korea but north London; the Nile Delta but the delta of the Nile, the Upper Pleistocene, the Lower East Side of New York but the lower east bank of the river. However, the Bermuda Triangle, the Triangle.

Geopolitical: capitalise nouns and adjectives with a geographic origin but used politically, such as Western influence, the North-South divide, the West, Eastern Europe, Southeast Asia.

Government ministers: Capitalise the title when it immediately precedes the person’s name. When the title follows the name or is used alone, use lower case, e.g.: French Foreign Minister Jean Blanc; Jean Blanc, the French foreign minister, the foreign minister, President George Bush but The president said: “I would like to welcome the Manchukistan prime minister, Stefan Hartzjand.”

Government bodies: treat government bodies as proper names and capitalise them when they are an integral part of a specific name but not when unspecific as in plurals or standing alone, e.g. the Israeli Foreign Ministry or the Foreign Ministry said Israel would... But The ministry added; the Australian Parliament but the Australian and New Zealand parliaments.

Hyphenated titles: When a hyphenated title is capitalised, capitalise both parts, e.g. Lieutenant-General John Smith, Vice-Admiral Tom Brown, Secretary-General Juan Blanco.

Legislative bodies: Capitalise the official names of legislatives bodies such as Parliament, Senate, the Diet at all references. The one exception is when they are used in the plural: The Norwegian and Danish parliaments.

Nationality and race: Capitalise words denominating nationality race or language -- Arab, African, Argentine, Caucasian, Chinese, Finnish.

Nicknames: Treat them as proper names when they refer to a specific person or thing, e.g. the Iron Lady; Silvio Berlusconi, nicknamed “Cavaliere “ (Knight); the Australian rugby team, the Wallabies.

Occupations: Do not capitalise words that informally describe a person’s occupation e.g. farmer Jack Thomas, accountant William Smith.

Politics: Capitalise the names of political parties and of movements with a specific doctrine, e.g. a Communist official, a Democratic senator. Use lower case for non-specific references, e.g. The communist part of the former Soviet Bloc, but the Communist Party of what was then East Germany; the settlement was run on communist principles; he proposed a democratic vote.

Proper names: Common nouns that normally have no initial capital are capitalised when they are an integral part of the full name of a person, organisation or thing, e.g. Queen Elizabeth, the Sultan of Brunei, President Hosni Mubarak, General John Smith, Senator Jack Brown, the River Thames, Christian Democratic Party, the Church Assembly. These nouns are normally lower case if they stand alone or in the plural e.g. the queen, the Malaysian sultan, down the river, Christian Democratic parties. But former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, former Managing Director John Brown. Do not risk ambiguity, e.g. The Speaker told the House of Commons. Retain the capital also when the person remains specific because there is only one or because he or she is preeminent, e.g. the Dalai Lama, the Pontiff, the Pope, the Virgin Mary.

Proper nouns: Capitalise words that uniquely identify a particular person or thing, e.g. John Smith, General Motors, Mount Everest, the Sixteenth Century as a noun but 16th-century art, the 1st Infantry Division, the 7th Fleet. Exceptions here are for articles and particles used as auxiliaries in names like Robert the Bruce, Charles de Gaulle. Keep the capital on words that still derive their meaning from a proper noun, e.g. Americanise, Christian, Marxist, Shakespearian, Stalinist. Do not keep it when the connection with the proper noun is remote, e.g. arabic numerals, boycott, chauvinistic, french polish, herculean, pasteurise.

Publications: No quotation marks around the title. Whatever the masthead says, do not capitalise articles and particles in the names of English-language newspapers and magazines, e.g. the New York Times, the News of the World. The names of some non-English language newspapers begin with a word meaning the. In such cases write the newspaper O Globo/Le Monde/Die Welt not the O Globo/Le Monde/Die Welt newspaper

Books, films, plays, poems, operas, songs and works of art: capitalise every word in the title apart from conjunctions, articles, particles and short prepositions, e.g. “The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich”, “The Merchant of Venice”, “Gone with the Wind”. The same is true of radio and television programmes other than news and current affairs, e.g. “American Idol” but Meet the Press.

Quotes: A statement that follows a colon quote begins with a capital, e.g. Guzhenko said: “The conference has ignored the principle of equality.”

Religion: Names of divinities are capitalised but unspecific plurals are lower case, e.g. Allah, the Almighty, Christ, God, Jehovah, the Deity, the Holy Trinity, but the gods, the lords of the universe. Capitalise religious titles when they immediately precede a personal name, otherwise use lower case, e.g. Bishop Thaddeus Smith, Dean Robert Jones, but the bishop, the dean. Use only the simplest and best-known titles at first reference, e.g. the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Dr John Smith rather than the Right Rev. John Smith. Capitalise names of denominations and religious movements, e.g. Baptist, Buddhist, Christian, Church of England, Islamic, Jew, Jewish, Muslim, Orthodox. But non-denominational references are lower case, e.g. adult baptism, orthodox beliefs, built a temple. The pope is head of the Roman Catholic Church or of the Church (that is, the whole body of Roman Catholics) but he would celebrate mass in a Roman Catholic church (that is, a building). A baptist is someone who baptises. A Baptist is a member of the Protestant denomination. With more than 20 separate Baptist church groups in the United States, it is incorrect to refer to the Baptist Church as a singular entity. The correct reference would be to Baptist Churches or to the specific Baptist group involved, e.g. the Southern Baptist Convention. See religious terms

Sentences: The first word of a sentence is always capitalised, unless it is contained within brackets as part of another sentence (this is an example). Sports: Treat specific events as proper names, general references as common nouns, e.g. the Olympic Games, the Belgian Grand Prix, but an athletics meeting, a motor racing championship.

Software: Capitalise, without quotation marks, e.g. Windows, Internet Explorer. Use quotation marks for computer games, e.g. “Bust a Move: Dance Summit”.

Sports events: Use lower case for sport names, junior, men’s, women’s, championship, tournament, meeting, match, test, race, game etc. Use upper case for title of the event e.g. French Open tennis championships, Dutch Open golf tournament.

Transport: Names of aircraft, cars, railway trains and ships, are capitalised, e.g. the Cutty Sark, USS Forrestal, a Nimrod, a Ford Mondea, the Orient Express.

capsize

carat, caret

Carat is a measurement of weight in precious stones and of purity in gold. Caret is a proofreader’s mark to show an insertion of something missing. In American style, karat is the measurement of gold purity.

carcass

careen, career

You careen a ship by turning it on its side to clean the hull. It can be used to mean keeling over. To career is to move rapidly.

cargo and cargoes

carrier

Use only in reference to aircraft carriers, i.e. ships from which fixed-wing aircraft can take off. Helicopter carriers should be referred to by the full name.

carry out

A weak synonym for do. Use a stronger verb to describe the action.

casino

casinos.

castor

For all uses – the wheel on a furniture leg, a beaver, bean or oil. in American style, caster is a wheel on a furniture leg but castor is a beaver or a bean or oil.

catalogue, catalogued, catalogue, cataloguing, but in American style catalog, cataloged, cataloger, cataloging

Catch-22

Capitalised and hyphenated. An absurd no-win situation. From the title of the Joseph Heller novel. Now a cliche; use with restraint.

cave in, cave-in

Two words for verb. One word for noun.

caution

As a verb prefer warn. Do not write, for instance, He cautioned that war was imminent.

Cawnpore

Use Kanpur, India.

CD-ROM

ceasefire, ceasefires

One word as a noun. The verb is to cease fire.

celebrant, celebrator

A celebrant takes part in a religious ceremony and a celebrator takes part in a revel.

celibacy, chastity

Celibacy is unmarried, particularly under the force of a vow. Chastity is sexual purity or virginity. You can be chaste but not celibate, and celibate but not chaste.

cellphone

One word.

cement, concrete

Cement is just one constituent of concrete. Use concrete block, not cement block.

cemetery

cello, cellos

censer, censor, censure

A censer is used to burn incense. A censor removes offensive content . Censure is disapproval.

centre, but center in American style

Watch for use in proper names.

Centigrade

Use Celsius.

cents

Spell out U.S. cents in text.

centimetre

Abbreviation cm (no full stop, same singular and plural), acceptable at all references. To convert to inches roughly multiply by two and divide by five, precisely multiply by 0.394.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

U.S. Public Health Service national agencies based in Atlanta. Note the plural. Not Centres.

centre on

You centre on something, not around it. You circle around something.

centuries

Spell out numbers one to nine, write 10 and above in figures -- ninth century, 20th century (no capital letter)

CEO

Use chief executive officer on first reference.

Ceylon

Use Sri Lanka.

chairman, chairwoman

not chair or chairperson.

Champions League

Capitalised and no apostrophe.

changeable

channel and channelled

charisma

A tired and worn out word. Avoid. Very few people have a divinely conferred gift or influence over large numbers of people.

chat room

Two words.

chat show

Two words, no hyphen.

cheap, low

Prices are low not cheap.

check, cheque, chequebook

A restaurant bill is a check, a money order a cheque. In American style, check is used for both.

Chennai

Not Madras.

chequered flag, but American style is checkered flag

cherry pick

To select carefully. A cliché.

child criminals

In many countries it is illegal to identify a defendant under the age of 18. Use sensitivity and be guided by local legal rules.

children’s

The possessive is children’s, similar to men’s and women’s.

Chinese names

Use the Pinyin transliteration of Chinese names from China. Thus Guangdong (not Canton), Beijing (not Peking), Mao Zedong (not Mao Tsetung), Zhou Enlai (not Chou Enlai) However, where there are traditional alternatives that are not Chinese e.g., Kashgar, Khotan, Tibet (and its cities of Lhasa and Shigatse), Urumqi, use these. Mainland Chinese do not hyphenate the given name, e.g. Deng Xiaoping. Taiwan Chinese do, with the second part in lower case, e.g. Chiang Kai-shek. In both cases use only the surname at second reference, e.g. Deng, Chiang.

chips

Use french fries – unambiguous and universally understood (except for fish and chips).

Christ

Write Jesus Christ or Jesus on first reference and usually Jesus thereafter. Use Christ on second reference only in the context of Christian theology, i.e. in phrases such as "body and blood of Christ" that are clearly taken from Christian beliefs. See Jesus Christ

Christie’s

With an apostrophe.

chronic

Acute is coming to a crisis, chronic is lasting a long time or deep-seated. Be specific when writing about disease or problems.

Church of Christ, Scientist

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Use Mormon Church unless the story is specifically about the Church’s affairs.

CIA

The United States Central Intelligence Agency. The initials may be used alone as an adjective in a lead paragraph if it is clear from the context what is meant.

circle, centre

You circle around something but centre on something.

city-state

hyphenated

civil society

A vague term, not interchangeable with non-governmental organisations (NGOs ) The OECD defines it thus: “The multitude of associations around which society voluntarily organizes itself and which represent a wide range of interests and ties. These can include community-based organisations, indigenous peoples’ organisations and non-government organisations.”

claimed

Use of this word suggests the writer does not believe the statement in question. Prefer plain said. It is acceptable to say that a guerrilla organisation claimed responsibility for carrying out an attack. Do not say that it claimed credit.

clamour, clamouring, clamorous, but American style is clamor, clamoring, clamorous

claycourt

one word as an adjective, e.g. claycourt tournament, but two words as an adjective and noun, e.g. clay courts at the stadium.

clean up

The verb is clean up, the noun and adjective cleanup.

clear-cut

Adjective.

cliches

Avoid metaphors, similes, or other figures of speech that appear frequently in print. If it sounds too familiar then discard it.

In diplomacy and politics: face-to-face talks, on key issues, top-level meeting, headed into talks on, spearheaded a major initiative, rubber-stamp parliament, lashed out, landmark agreement.

In disasters: mercy mission, airlifted/rushed to hospital, giant C-130 transports, massive aid, an air and sea search was under way, disaster probe, sifted through the wreckage.

Of violence: lone gunman, strife-torn province, embattled city, baton-wielding police, stone-throwing demonstrators, steel-helmeted troops braced themselves for, police swoop, pre-dawn raid, staged an attack on, (tautologically) anti-government rebels, (tautologically) armed soldiers. Avoid armed police unless writing about a country where the police are normally unarmed. Then explain.

Of industrial trouble: top union leaders, bosses, in a bid to settle, hammer out an agreement.

click here

Do not use on websites. Tell readers where they are going.

climb up

In almost all cases just climb will do.

close proximity

Replace with close to or near.

coastguard

One word except when referring to the U.S. Coast Guard.

coastline

One word.

confectionery

Collective noun meaning sweetmeats, candy. Confectionary is one sweetmeat.

cognoscente

singular. Plural is cognoscenti. Prefer connoisseur and connoisseurs. They possess not just knowledge, but critical knowledge of a subject.

Cold War

Capitalise.

collapsible

collectibles

collective nouns

Most collective nouns and names of countries, governments, organisations and companies are followed by singular verbs and singular neuter pronouns, e.g. The government, which is studying the problem said it... not The government, who are studying the problem, said they.. Exceptions are the police (police are), the couple (the couple are) and Reuters sports stories, where teams take plural verbs and pronouns.

collision

Beware of the legal danger of imputing blame in a collision but avoid clumsy phraseology such as The Danish freighter was in collision with the German tanker. Better to write The Danish freighter and the German tanker collided. Only two moving objects can collide. It is wrong therefore to write The ferry collided with the jetty. Plain hit is enough.

colloquial contractions

Use contractions such as isn’t, aren’t, can’t only in quotes or an informal context. Do not write President Brown can’t make up his mind whether to raise taxes or cut government spending. But you could write For Georgia peanut farmer Fred Jenkins it isn’t a question of whether, but when, he will go bankrupt. Use ain’t only when quoting someone.

collusion, collaboration

Collusion is to act together to deceive. Do not use it when you mean collaboration or cooperation.

Colombia, Columbia

Colombia is the country, but Columbia Records.

colour, but American style color

There is no conflict between the need for impartiality and concise writing and the need in many stories for colour, description and atmosphere. Correspondents filing witness reports should think visual and write copy that reflects that they have been on the scene of an event rather than picked up the information at second hand. If writing a story from the office they should not hesitate to take descriptive from television ensuring that they distinguish clearly between what television shows (which need not be sourced if the facts are indisputable) and what a television commentator says.

The first person should not normally intrude into Reuters copy. If you have to source a contentious statement based on direct observation write … This correspondent saw… Vivid quotes and lively background details breathe life into a dry story and should be woven in, not inserted in slabs. Colourful stories do not need gaudy adjectives or overdramatic verbs. They require a fresh vision, selection of the right noun to convey a shade of meaning, and vigorous, active verbs.

coloured

Use for people only in the context of South Africa for a person of mixed race. The story should make this clear. Lower case. See section on race

combat, but combated is the American usage as a verb.

comedian

Use for a man or a woman. Not comedienne.

commander-in-chief, but in American style commander in chief

There are no hyphens in U.S. titles.

commando, commandos

commas

Any sentence studded with commas could probably benefit from a rewrite. Use commas as a guide to sense, to break a sentence into logically discrete parts, but do not use them to the extent that they break the flow of a sentence.

Use commas to mark off words and phrases that are in apposition to, or define other words or phrases in the sentence e.g. Herve de Charette, French foreign minister, said ... Rudolf Nureyev, most prominent of the defectors from the Bolshoi, has danced …

Use commas to mark off a clause that is not essential to the meaning of a sentence, e.g. The airliner, which was seven years old, crashed ... But a clause that cannot be removed from the sentence without affecting its meaning is not marked off by commas, e.g. The airliner that crashed on Thursday was seven years old but the plane lost the previous day was brand new.

Use commas to separate items in a list, e.g. cheese, fruit, wine and coffee or Smith despised ballet, hated the theatre and was bored by opera. Note that there is normally no comma before the final and. However, a comma should be used in this position if to leave it out would risk ambiguity, e.g. He admired Irving Berlin, Rodgers and Hart, and Leonard Bernstein.

As in the sentence above, a comma follows an initial however. But as long as there is no risk of ambiguity there is no need for the comma after opening phrases like On Wednesday the committee decided ... In the first four months of 2002 Britain exported ...

commence

Use begin or start.

comment

Journalists should not comment but interpret events by reporting the action of others.

commercial paper

A short-term debt issued by companies for working capital, typically with 90 days duration

commit

Past tense committed, noun commitment.

committee

communique

A communique is an official announcement. It is tautological to write an official communique. Plain statement is usually better.

communist

Lower case except when referring to a specific party e.g. Communist Party of Great Britain.

Comoro Islands

Or simply the Comoros for the Indian Ocean group.

company names

When writing about a company, provide the full legal company name (including Inc, Ltd, Plc etc) at first reference. Where this would be clumsy, e.g. if several companies are named together in a lead paragraph, the full legal name can be given at second reference. Give the name in its original language if that language uses Latin characters unless the company has a preference for its English name.

Many companies in the same group have similar names. It is only by giving the full names that a specialist can distinguish between them. When giving the company’s full name observe the spelling, capitalisation and punctuation used by the company, apostrophes, hyphens and slashes (e.g. A/S), but use standard abbreviations to indicate what type of company. Don't use a point (full stop) after the abbreviation eg. Inc not Inc. and Ltd not Ltd. Use the name that the company itself uses. The exception is companies that render their names all in capitals, in which case we make it upper/lower (CIGNA Corp becomes Cigna Corp).

Eliminate exclamation points from company names, such as Yahoo! and Yum!.

Keep lower case in company names except at the start of a sentence, where eBay becomes Ebay.

Do not use the colloquial practice of pluralising company names. It is Ford not Fords; Rothschild not Rothschilds. Similarly do not pluralise the pronouns. Companies are singular, not plural. It is Siemens said its plant... not ...their plant...

The following abbreviations show the kind of registered company. When such abbreviations come at the end of a company name they are not preceded by a comma.

AB

Aktiebolaget

AG

Aktiengesellschaft

A/S

Aktieselskabet

Cie

Compagnie

Co

Company

Cos

Companies

Corp

Corporation

GmbH

Gesellschaft mit beschaenkter Haftung

Inc

Incorporated

KK

Kabushiki Kaisha (joint stock company)

Ltd

Limited

Plc

Public limited company

Pty

Proprietary

SpA

Societa per Azioni

YK

Yugen Kaisha (Ltd.)

company titles

Capitalise corporate titles, e.g. Company Chairman John Smith, not Company chairman John Smith.

compare

When in doubt use compare with, which is used for a comparison to highlight either differences or similarities. Compare to is used when simply stating that two things are similar, e.g. His playing compares to that of Mozart. See contrast.

comparisons

Compare like with like. It is wrong to write The food shortage was not as bad as near-famine years or the weapon’s range was twice as great as the Kalashnikov. You cannot compare a shortage with years or a distance with a weapon. Write The food shortage was not so bad as that in the near-famine years or The weapon’s range was twice as great as the Kalashnikov’s. Special care is needed with statistical comparisons. One month may not be comparable with another because of its length or the number of national holidays it contains. December figures for one country may not be comparable with another’s because the countries are in different hemispheres.

comparatively

Only use the word if you are actually comparing something with another thing. Even in those cases you can leave it out and directly say something is bigger than, or smaller than. Do not use comparatively small to

compass points

Capitalise compass points only when they form part of a proper name – North Korea, but north London; the Lower East Side of New York, but the lower east bank of the river. Omit hyphens in the four basic compounds northwest, northeast, southwest, southeast. Use a hyphen in the minor compounds such as north-northeast. You do not write northern Connecticut or southern Kent when you mean to say that Connecticut is a northern state or Kent a southern county. So do not say northern Chiang Mai or eastern Kivu province. It’s the northern town of Chiang Mai or the eastern province of Kivu.

compatible

compatriot

But expatriate, not expatriot.

complacent, complaisant

Complacent is smug and self-satisfied. Complaisant is willing and affable.

complement, compliment

To complement is to complete or to provide a matching component to something, e.g. The British submarines complemented the U.S. surface ships. To compliment is to praise.

comprise

Use only when listing all the component parts of a whole: Benelux comprises Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. Do not write comprised of. If listing only some components use include: The European Union includes Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

compound

If you mean to make worse, say so.

compound adjectives

Require hyphens, e.g. the first-leg score. If an adverb and an adjective are used together in an adjectival phrase then there is no hyphen e.g. a closely followed competition.

compunction

Use pity or remorse in preference. Do not confuse with compulsion.

concerning

Prefer about.

confectionery

confidant (male), confidante (female)

confrontation

Modish but vague word. Use more specific terms if possible, e.g. war, clash, dispute.

Congo

Distinguish between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and the neighbouring Congo Republic. In most stories, only one Congo is involved so subsequent references can be made simply to Congo or Congolese. In stories about the Democratic Republic of Congo, the acronym DRC may be used in brackets at first mention, and stand alone at later references.

Congress, congressional

Capitalise Congress when it is part of the name of an official body. Keep congressional lower case unless it is part of the formal title of an official body.

connote, denote

Connote is to imply attributes. Marriage connotes short-term bliss. Denote is to indicate or mark by a sign. A wedding ring denoted his married status. Both words are probably best avoided.

-conscious

Hyphenated as in self-conscious, but unconsciousness

consensus

General consensus is tautological, as is consensus of opinion because consensus means either unanimity or a general trend of opinion.

consequence

Use because rather than as a consequence of.

conservative

Lower case unless referring to a specific political organisation.

considerable

Avoid. Define by size; show the reader why something in considerable.

consortium, consortiums, not consortia.

consul-general

Note hyphen. Likewise consulate-general.

consult, not consult with.

consumer price index

The CPI is a measure of retail price inflation. Also known as a retail price index. Usually given as percentage rise or fall in the index.

contagious, not contageous.

contango

A state of affairs where futures prices are progressively higher the further the maturity date is from spot. Contango is the normal relationship between spot and futures prices and is the opposite of backwardation. See Also backwardation.

contemptible, contemptuous

Contemptible is despicable and contemptuous is haughty or scornful. The contemptuous scorn the contemptible.

continue

Avoid in lead paragraphs. There is always more lively phrasing available.

continual, continuous

Continual means frequent and repeated, continuous means uninterrupted.

contractions

Avoid contractions such as isn’t, won’t, wasn’t, can’t except in direct quotations. Spell out the phrase in full, is not, will not etc.

contrast

Use contrast to for comparisons of dissimilar things, or to underline the difference. His scowl contrasted to her smile. Use contrast with when you want to compare the differences of two similar things. He contrasted the performance of the England cricket team with that of Australia. See compare.

control, controlled, controlling

controversial

Avoid. Spell out what is controversial and let the reader decide.

conurbation

Not a synonym for an urban area. It means an aggregation of towns, like the New York-Boston or Tokyo-Osaka corridors.

convener

conversions

Convert currencies into U.S. dollars and turn imperial weights and measures into metric equivalents and vice versa. Give the local unit in the country of origin first and then the conversion in brackets. Never give the dollar equivalent without first giving the local currency figure. If a figure for speed, distance, weight, etc., is approximate, the conversion should also be approximate. Write a 2,000-lb (900-kg) bomb not a 2,000-lb (907-kg) bomb. Do not give a conversion to more decimal places than are given in the original figure. When abbreviating metric units use the singular form without a full stop, e.g. kg or km not kgs or kms. If no specific figure is being given, do not go through the motions of converting. Write, for instance, The bomb exploded only yards from the palace entrance not The bomb exploded only yards (metres) from the palace entrance. Conversions are a fertile source of error. Double-check them all. If you make a conversion precisely using a calculator, make a rough backward check to make sure that you have not added or lost a zero.

conversions in sports writing

Use only metric measurements, except for golf where yards and feet are used, and sailing where nautical miles are used. In sports writing there is no need to add conversions in brackets, apart from currencies.

conveyor

Use for conveyor belt and for a person who conveys.

convince, persuade

You convince people of something and persuade them to do something. You do not convince someone to do something.

cooperate, cooperation

An exception to the rule that prefixes are usually hyphenated when the same vowel ends the prefix and starts the main word. But co-op (stores) to distinguish from chicken coop.

coordinate, coordination

An exception to the prefix hyphenation rules.

copter

Use helicopter.

co-respondent, correspondent

A co-respondent appears in a divorce case. A correspondent writes letters.

corporate America

Not Corporate America.

council, councillor

Not councilor, councilman, councilwoman, but American style is counsel, counseling, counselor.

Court of St. James’s

The place to which ambassadors are posted in Great Britain. It is St. not St and James’s not James Palace.

court-martial

courts-martial, to court-martial

courtesy titles

Do not use courtesy titles such as Mr, Mrs, Ms or Miss or their foreign equivalents. An exception would be in a story about two people with the same family name when we might refer for instance to Mr Smith and Mrs Smith to avoid confusion. Use at first reference only titles of nobility and military, medical and religious titles, e.g. Lord Ferrars, Dr Christiaan Barnard, the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Except for obvious cases e.g. a king or queen, avoid foreign honorifics; it is difficult to be consistent through various cultures. In general it is better to describe people by their job title or position.

cover up, coverup

Two words for verb, one word for noun.

CPI

Consumer price index. The CPI is a measure of retail price inflation. Also known as a retail price index. Usually given as percentage rise or fall in the index. In the UK, the main domestic measure of inflation for macroeconomic purposes and equal to HICP.

Cracow

Use Krakow, Poland.

credible, credulous, creditworthy

If you are credible you can be believed. If you are credulous you will believe anything. If you are creditworthy you are likely to get a loan.

credit rating

Credit ratings measure a borrower's creditworthiness and provide an international framework for comparing the credit quality of issuers and rated debt securities. Rating provided by agencies including Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s and Fitch.

Use the exact combination of letters, upper and lower case and/or numbers that each of the rating agencies use and use the word "plus" or "minus" spelt out in full instead of the "+" or "-" signs to avoid typos and alpha-numeric problems with some keyboards.

For example, Standard & Poors uses AAA, AA+, and AA-. In Reuters style these would be written AAA, AA-plus or AA-minus. Moody's uses Aaa, Aa1, Aa3. In Reuters style these would be written Aaa, Aa1 or Aa3. Fitch uses 'AAA', 'AA+', 'AA-' . In Reuters style these would be written AAA, AA-plus or AA-minus.

See

www.moodys.com

www2.standardandpoors.com

www.fitchratings.com

crescendo

A gradual increase in loudness. It is wrong to write that something reached a crescendo, which is a probable confusion with reached a climax.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

Can be abbreviated to CJD, but needs explanation. There is also variant CJD. Abbreviate to vCJD.

cripple, crippled

Avoid using to describe the handicapped.

crisis, crises

Try to avoid. It means a turning point or the stage in events at which the trend of all future events is determined. Very overused. A crisis cannot grow or deepen. It just is.

crisscross

One word.

criterion, plural criteria.

crop year

Take care with crop-year dates because the old crop can be harvested and the new crop planted in the same year. To refer to the 2002 crop can be ambiguous. Commodity producers sometimes have marketing years for produce which differ from the crop year. In such cases spell out which year is referred to and when each starts and ends.

cross country

Two words, no hyphen, for the athletics event.

cross-examine, cross-examined

Hyphenated.

cross fire

Two words.

cross section

Two words.

crown currency

Use this for the Nordic currencies, not kroner, kronor or kronur.

crowd estimates

If the number of people involved in an event such as a demonstration or strike is at all controversial, give the source for the number quoted.

crucial

A cliché best avoided. Try instead to show the reader why something is crucial and to whom.

cruise missile

Lower case.

crunch

A tired cliché. Avoid.

cupful, cupfuls

current account

A country's current account balance is the sum of the visible trade balance (exports and imports that can be seen) and the invisible balance (credits and debits for services of one kind or another, such as tourism, banking and insurance). It excludes flows produced by long-term borrowings or investment, which are counted in the capital account. See also balance of payments.

currently

Unless comparing the present with the past, the word is usually redundant, as in The United States currently has 20,000 troops in Ruritania. Cut it out.

curriculum vitae

Singular. Plural is curricula vitae

cutback

Use cut for both verb and noun.

cut off, cutoff

The verb is cut off, the noun is cutoff.

czar

Use tsar.

Czech Republic

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Category: The Reuters General Style Guide

This page was last modified 10:10, 23 May 2011.

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