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Contents 1 IAEA 2 IATA 3 ibn 4 ICAO 5 ice age 6 ICBM 7 ICO 8 icon 9 ICRC 10 ld al-Adha, ld al-Fitr 11 idiosyncrasy, idiosyncrasies 12 IFC 13 ill 14 illegal immigrant 15 IISS 16 illicit 17 illiquid 18 illusion 19 ILO 20 imam 21 IMCO 22 IMF 23 immigrate 24 IMO 25 impacted by 26 impassable 27 impassible/impassive 28 impeachment 29 imply, infer 30 important 31 imports from abroad 32 impostor 33 impresario 34 impress 35 in addition to 36 in, into 37 inadmissible 38 inasmuch as 39 in connection with 40 insofar as 41 in the past 42 inch 43 include, comprise 44 incredible, incredulous 45 incur, incurring, incurred 46 Index, indexes 47 Indians (U.S.) 48 indicated 49 indict 50 indirect speech 51 indiscriminate, indiscriminately 52 indispensable 53 Indochina 54 Indonesian names 55 indoor, indoors 56 industrial action 57 in fact 58 infant 59 infer 60 inflation 61 inimitable 62 injuries, wounds 63 innocent 64 innocuous 65 inoculate 66 in order to 67 inquire, inquiry 68 inpatient 69 insignia 70 insolvency 71 install 72 instil, instilled 73 instinctive, instinctual 74 in spite of 75 insure 76 international community 77 International Court of Justice 78 International Criminal Court 79 international date line 80 internecine 81 Internet 82 Interpol 83 interpretative 84 interval 85 Intifada 86 into 87 intranet 88 Inuit 89 invariably 90 inveigh, inveigle 91 invoke, evoke 92 IOC 93 IOM 94 IRA 95 irascible 96 Ireland 97 Irian Jaya 98 ironically 99 irregardless 100 irreparable 101 -isation, -zation 102 **-ization, -isation 103 -ise, -ize 104 Islam 105 Islamic 106 Islamist 107 Islamisation 108 Israeli names 109 it 110 its, it’s

IAEA

International Atomic Energy Agency (Vienna). The U.N. nuclear watchdog. See www.iaea.org

IATA

International Air Transport Association (Geneva). See www.iata.org

ibn

Use bin in Arab names to mean son of.

ICAO

International Civil Aviation Organisation (Montreal). See www.icao.int

ice age

Lower case.

ICBM

Intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of about 3,500 miles.

ICO

Organisation of the Islamic Conference. Use OIC. See www.oic-cio.org

icon

Best used only to describe a religious image.

ICRC

International Committee of the Red Cross (Geneva). See Red Cross and www.icrc.org

ld al-Adha, ld al-Fitr

See Eid al-Adha, Eid al-Fitr

idiosyncrasy, idiosyncrasies

IFC

International Finance Corporation, private sector financing arm of the World Bank, based in Washington. See www.ifc.org

ill

Hyphenate in compounds e.g. ill-mannered, ill-tempered.

illegal immigrant

Not illegal alien.

IISS

International Institute for Strategic Studies (London).

illicit

Elicit is to draw forth or to evoke. Illicit is not permitted or illegal. A dalliance may elicit an illicit relationship.

illiquid

Markets or instruments are described as being illiquid, or lacking depth, if there is a shortage of buyers or sellers. This shortage makes is difficult to find a true price for an illiquid security. The opposite of liquid.

illusion

Allusion is a reference in passing. Illusion is a false impression or a delusion.

ILO

International Labour Organization (Geneva). See www.ilo.org

imam

Lower case when describing the official who leads devotions in a mosque. Upper case when part of an official title.

IMCO

Inter-Governmental Maritime Consultative Organisation (London), succeeded by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). See below.

IMF

International Monetary Fund (Washington). A specialised agency of the U.N. which has a brief to oversee the international monetary system. The IMF provides funds to member countries with balance of payments problems, to support policies of adjustment and reform. Its main units are the policy-making International Monetary and Financial Committee and the jopint IMF-World Bank Development Committee that usually meet twice a year. Its funds come from subscriptions from member states. See www.imf.org

immigrate

IMO

The International Maritime Organization, the U.N. specialised agency responsible for improving maritime safety, preventing pollution from ships and promoting technical co-operation. See www.imo.org

impacted by

Ugly and imprecise. Use affected by, or better helped by or hurt by. Similarly, avoid impacted on and replace with affected, helped, hurt etc.

impassable

Meaning passage is impossible. Not impassible.

impassible/impassive

Both mean insensitive to pain or suffering. Do not confuse with "impassable" (see above).

impeachment

In the United States, the process of bringing an official before a court or tribunal on charges of wrongdoing, in an attempt to remove him or her from office. Not the same as being convicted or removed from office.

imply, infer

A speaker or writer implies by insinuating or suggesting indirectly. A listener or reader infers by drawing a conclusion from what is said.

important

Specify to whom.

imports from abroad

A tautology. Just imports will do.

impostor

impresario

impress

A transitive verb that requires an object. Jim Smith impressed selectors, not Smith impressed during his two-hour innings. The passive, was impressive /unimpressive, is permissible but weaker and less informative.

in addition to

Just 'and' will often suffice, or as well as or besides. Similarly, in order to can become 'to'.

in, into

In shows place, into shows movement. He was in the square when the soldiers marched into the town. Into is one word, on to is two.

inadmissible

inasmuch as

in connection with

Clumsy and inexact. Did something happen because of something else?

insofar as

in the past

Often redundant when used with the past tense. An exception might be a reference to the very distant past.

inch

To convert to centimetres roughly multiply by 5 and divide by 2, precisely multiply by 2.54.

include, comprise

Use include only when listing some component parts of a whole: The European Union includes Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. If listing all the components use comprise: Benelux comprises Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

incredible, incredulous

Incredible is unbelievable, incredulous is sceptical.

incur, incurring, incurred

Index, indexes

Use indexes as the plural.

Indians (U.S.)

Native American (capitalised) is preferred, bearing in mind that this includes e.g. Inuit who are not Indians. American Indian is acceptable. Where possible, be more specific and give the name of the tribe (eg. Navajo, Cherokee). See race

indicated

Best avoided because it implies subjective interpretation by the correspondent.

indict

Avoid the suggestion that somebody is being judged without trial. Indicted on a charge of robbing, not indicted for robbing.

indirect speech

Do not retain the present indicative in indirect or reported speech. Change is to was; are to were; will and shall to would; has and have to had. Thus it is: He said it was ... not he said it is ... There is an exception in the case of lead paragraphs with the source at the end instead of the beginning of the sentence, where to avoid the present indicative would lead to lack of clarity or smack of pedantry. For example, it is acceptable to write in a lead paragraph: Giant Oil Corp will order three supertankers from the Pusan shipyard in Korea next month, the company said. If the source were at the beginning, we would write: Giant Oil Corp said it would order three supertankers from the Pusan shipyard ... It is usually unnecessary to follow said with that.

indiscriminate, indiscriminately

indispensable

Indochina

No longer used. Now Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Indonesian names

Often Indonesians only have one name e.g. Suharto.

indoor, indoors

Indoor is the adjective, indoors is the adverb. He stayed indoors to let off the indoor firework.

industrial action

Avoid this euphemism. If you mean a strike, say so. If you do not mean a strike, then be specific.

in fact

Can almost always be excised.

infant

Child up to 12 months old.

infer

A speaker or writer implies by insinuating or suggesting indirectly. A listener or reader infers by drawing a conclusion from what is said.

inflation

A persistent rise in the prices of goods and services, caused by too much money chasing too few goods. Inflation can be caused by an increase in money supply or demand as a result of government spending or the printing of money, or by a contraction in the supply of goods. Demand-pull inflation is caused by excess demand in the economy, while cost-push inflation is caused by increased costs of production. The rate of inflation is often a primary policy target of governments, and of central banks given policy independence to achieve a target rate.

inimitable

injuries, wounds

Wounds are suffered in combat or are inflicted by weapons or war, injuries by accident or criminal attack. Be as specific as possible, e.g. His right leg was broken not His leg was broken. Write His left arm was broken not He suffered an arm fracture. Use suffered rather than sustained or received. Avoid hospitalise as a verb.

innocent

Report a plea or a verdict as it was made in court. If it was not guilty, do not report it as innocent.

innocuous

inoculate

in order to

As a prepositional phrase, just 'to' will do.

inquire, inquiry

inpatient

One word.

Not enquire, enquiry.

insignia

Strictly a plural noun but can be treated as singular as well. Each of the guilds had an insignia.

insolvency

See bankruptcy.

install

Not instal. Installation but instalment.

instil, instilled

Instillation but instilment.

instinctive, instinctual

Instinctive is prompted by instinct, instinctual is belonging to or related to instincts.

in spite of

Use despite.

insure

Insure means to guarantee against loss, ensure to make sure.

international community

Avoid unless it clearly refers to the body of global diplomatic opinion. Be specific, as in the United States and its allies, or Muslim countries

International Court of Justice

This is the proper title of the World Court in The Hague, which is the main U. N. judicial body. Use the term World Court at second reference. The Court has a dual role: to settle international legal disputes submitted to it by states, and to give advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it by international agencies.

International Criminal Court

The court set up in The Hague under the auspices of the United Nations to try crimes such as genocide.

international date line

Lower case.

internecine

Internecine means deadly or murderous as well as conflict within a group. Internecine warfare is tautologous.

Internet

A global data communications system comprising hardware and software that connects computers. The World Wide Web consists of content accessed using the Internet and is not synonymous with it. It is a collection of documents and other resources linked by hyperlinks, or URLs. The Internet also carries, for example, email and downloadable software.

Capitalise as a noun, lower case as an adjective e.g. internet banking, internet cafe.

Interpol

The International Criminal Police Organisation (Lyon. France). Interpol can be used at all references.

interpretative

interval

An interval is the time between two events. Do not use it to mean simply elapsed time. He studied for an interval of three years is wrong. 'An interval of' can be excised. There was an interval of a year between his two degrees is right.

Intifada

Arabic for “uprising”. It is used to describe two Palestinian uprisings against Israeli occupation. The first began in December 1987 and ran roughly until September 1993 when leaders signed an interim accord under which Israel handed over parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip to Palestinian self-rule. A second Intifada began in September 2000. Capitalise.

into

one word. On to, two words.

intranet

Lower case.

Inuit

The name used by the people of northern Canada to describe themselves. There are about 56,000 Inuit who live in an area from Labrador to Alaska. The singular is Inuk, the language is Inuktitut.

invariably

Means fixed and without exception, not usual or frequent or commonly. Invariably the children catch colds is wrong. Invariably spring follows winter.

inveigh, inveigle

Inveigh is to revile or to attack with words. Inveigle is to entice, cajole or wheedle.

invoke, evoke

Invoke means to call upon solemnly, evoke to bring to mind, e.g. In a speech evoking memories of the civil war he invoked God’s help in preventing fresh bloodshed.

IOC

International Olympic Committee (Lausanne). See www.ioc.org

IOM

International Organization for Migration (Geneva). This is a non-U.N. intergovernmental agency whose main task is to move refugees and migrants to new homes. See www.iom.int

IRA

Irish Republican Army. May be used alone at first reference from a dateline in the British Isles. If the full name is used at first reference, the initials need not be bracketed in.

irascible

Not irrascible.

Ireland

Do not use Eire for the Republic of Ireland. See also Northern Ireland.

Irian Jaya

Indonesian province now known as West Papua. It borders Papua New Guinea

ironically

Use only rarely and with the greatest care. The word has several meanings and most are misunderstood and misapplied.

irregardless

This is a double negative. Use regardless.

irreparable

-isation, -zation

For stories outside the Americas when there is a choice between -isation and –ization for a noun ending use -isation.

**-ization, -isation

For stories in the Americas when there is a choice between -ization and –isation for a noun ending use –ization. (American style)

-ise, -ize

For stories outside the Americas when there is a choice between -ise and -ize for a verb ending use -ise. Bust stories in the Americas when there is a choice between-ize and –ise for a verb ending use –ize. (American style)

Islam

Religion practised by Muslims.

Islamic

Similar to Muslim as an adjective; often used more widely to describe architecture, art, banking, culture, law etc. An Islamic state is a country ruled by Islamic law (sharia). A Muslim country is one whose population is predominantly Muslim.

Islamist

A person or organisation advocating a political ideology based on Islam. Islamist is not a pejorative term. Only some Islamists advocate violence to achieve their goals. Describe these as militant Islamists.

Islamisation

Not Islamicisation. The word should be explained with a phrase, depending on context, such as the imposition of Islamic law (sharia).

Israeli names

Use ch rather than h in transliterating Israeli names into English, e.g. Chaim not Haim. Use the h form only if we know it is the individual’s personal preference.

it

Use the pronoun it rather than she when referring to ships.

its, it’s

The possessive pronoun has no apostrophe, unlike the contraction it’s meaning it is. Avoid the contraction unless quoting someone. Its as a possessive pronoun is often superfluous, e.g. The company is trying to reduce its debt and plans to sell its less-profitable assets.

Category: The Reuters General Style Guide