College View

The College View’s style guide

They expect consistency, this style guide ensures we - in the College View at least - give it to them. Photo: To Be Entered

Key elements are highlighted.

0

1 - 10
from one to ten is spelled out – does not apply to ages when in brackets

A

abbreviations
abbreviations should be used after the term has first been explained in full, however common abbreviations (Dart, Fifa, DCU) do not first need to be written in full – remember you might know what the abbreviation means, but will most readers? The general rule for capitalisation of abbreviations is if you say it as word (Dart, Fifa) only the first letter is capped, but if you say as letters (DCU, VEC) all letters are capped

ages
use brackets, eg, John Doe (5), but the eleven-year-old

B

Bebo

billions, millions, trillions
€4m and €4bn, but four million people, four billion years ago, or 12 million bicycles (a million is 1,000,000; a billion is thousand million, so €4,000,000,000 is €4bn, a trillion is 1,000,000,000,000)

Blue Monday
is a song by New Order among other things - no reference should, however, be made to “the most depressing day of the year” or other such nonsense, although stories about such have appeared in the media even after the apparent equation was debunked in 2006 and the Cardiff University distanced them selves from it in the same year

British Isles
out-of-date and outdated, avoid use

but
is ok to use

byline
is the writer’s name placed on an article - if you’re a writer and you want your name included, please include it at the top of any article you submit

C

cafe
never café

Calcutta
if the former name of the city of Kolkata, it should not be used outside brackets, for example: Kolkata (formally Calcutta)

Cannes Film Festival
Cannes alone is fine on second mention or with some context, for example, when the film industry has been mentioned first or in a headline in the arts section

Citywest
an area of south-west Dublin - Citywest Business Campus, Citywest Hotel, etc, not ‘CityWest’, or ‘City West’

Commission for Communications Regulation
simply ComReg, the communications regulator, is fine as it is widely used by the regulator and among the mainstream media

<copy formatting for reporters and writers
writers should submit articles to their editor only in the Notepad or Word formats (.txt or .doc). Your document should start with the following…

Story name / description (not a headline)
2,000 words (word count)
By Eric Blair (byline)

currencies
use lc - euro, sterling, dollars, use symbols on front of numerical amounts which are not spelt out; for example, € for euro, £ for sterling, $ for US dollars, C$ for Canadian dollars, AU$ Australian; only use euros - with an ’s’ - when speaking in an informal tone. The old Irish currency was punts, not Irish pounds. It is €4m, €4, €4.50, but 50c. On most computers, press the three keys Ctrl, Alt and 4/$/€ to get the euro symbol

D

dates
include the day (ie Monday, Tuesday etc) if suited, then month, then date, then year if needed, for example, Monday October 22, 2007 – never use 22^nd or 22nd

DCU
see Dublin City University

DCU Sports Grounds
is not on campus, it’s on the other side of the Ballymun Road. On campus, there are the University Sports Complex, and the Soccer Centre. DCU Academy is not any one building or grounds, but a programme for “elite” athletes

DCUSU
one word, or DCU Students’ Union

Dart
not DART

decades
50s for ages (never 50’s etc), 1950s for time period (eg she was in her 50s in the 1950s)

Department of Education and Science
Department of Education is ok for general education articles. It’s the Department of Health and Children, but the Minister for Health and Children

Department of Health and Children
Department of Health for health articles, but in full for first reference in stories relating to children

Dublin 9
or D9, the Dublin postal districts which DCU is in (to be pedantic: Ireland, including Dublin, does not currently have postal codes)

Dublin City Council

Dublin City University
DCU is fine, although you may want to use the longer version in some articles, in most news and features do not refer to DCU as a ‘college’, in can be confusing when it comes to articles which also refer to DCU’s or other colleges

Dublin Heuston
is the official name of the Irish Rail station, use Heuston station for heavy rail, but Heuston Luas stop or the Luas stop at Heustion station

Dublin International Film Festival
the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival (while Jameson are still a title sponsor) at first mention and ‘the film festival’ there after, avoid the ugly abbreviation of JDIFE

Dublin VECs
there is a City of Dublin Vocational Education Committee (City of Dublin VEC), and a County Dublin Vocational Education Committee (County Dublin VEC); however for grants etc students may come under any VEC or county/city council

E

EC (European Community)
Do not confuse European Community (EC) with European Union (EU), the EC is part of the EU

email
not e-mail

F

Facebook

fees
student fees were never abolished, tuition fees were

Fianna Fail

Fifa
not FIFA

Fine Gael

first person shooter (FPS)
a genre of computer games; use shooter – not FPS – on second mention

full points (full stops)
should be used a lot to make short sentences, but almost never in abbreviations

G

Garda
one police officer is a garda, plural is gardai, never use fadas or any kind of accents

Game
first letter higher case for UK computer games retailer with Irish outlets, on first reference say “computer games retailer Game” or “Game, the computer games retailer, …”

game
lower case for any other use then retailer

GameStop
GameStop is a US retailer; they purchased the Irish retailer Gamesworld, re-branded, and expanded

gamer
used to describe any person who plays computer games

gaming
(or computer gaming) do not use when writing about gambling

government
lower case by order of the editor

Google

Google Mail
the name for used in Gmail in the UK and Germany (for trademark reasons), generally use Gmail

Greenwich Mean Time
or GMT thereafter - used to refer to what is now the atomic time standard Coordinated Universal Time; Irish Standard Time is the official name in Irish law

H

high speed rail
is above 200 km/h (125 mph); there is no high speed rail services in Ireland, while Irish Rail have carriages which could achieve such a speed, there is currently no locomotives in Ireland which can reach such a speed – high speed rail came to Great Britain in 1976 (although they were not first), and, in France, the TGV set a passenger train record of 574.8 km/h in early 2007 (not used in normal service)

I

.ie
the domain name suffix for Ireland

I
‘I’ is not allowed in news stories, reviews, or most features unless it is within quote marks and quoting a third party, not the writer – light columns are the main exception

IE
short for Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s internet browser; use full name and not the abbreviation

Independent News & Media
and IN&M there after, not Independent Newspaper

internet
lower case, avoid the outdate phrase ‘world wide web’

Irish Rail
The company’s registered name is ‘Iarnrod Eireann - Irish Rail’, they use both, sometimes haphazardly - use Irish Rail, never Iarnród Éireann

IT
information technology - avoid both short and long versions

ITC
information and communication technology - avoid both short and long versions

italics
names of newspapers, magazines, online publications, songs, albums, films, TV programmes, radio programmes, computer games, books, plays, and poems should be italicised – however foreign words should not, and italics should never be used just for emphasis

J

job titles, etc
job titles should normally be in lower case; managing director, chief executive, chairman, manager, founder, barrister, presenter, co-presenter, reporter, business journalist, president (bar a president of a country which should be upper case) etc

K

km, km/h
first is distance, latter is speed

L

left-wing
and right-wing – if possibly, avoid use as the words overly simplify complex matters

London Calling
not London’s Calling

Los Angeles

LA is ok after first mention or in headlines - LA is a city, however the city commonly confused with LA County, if unsure, do not use ‘city’ or ‘county’

Luas

M

mature student
generally over 23 years-of-age on January 1 of the year entering a course. At some colleges or on some courses this can differ

Metro North
is a planned light railway, all stations are called stops. The RPA calls the trains ‘Light Rail Vehicles’, but unless in quotes use train or tram

Microsoft

Microsoft Games Studio
the brand name for Microsoft’s computer games division; use Microsoft

movie
use film rather than movie

N

names
full name and then second name in most cases, for example, John Doe is Doe on second reference; in lighter pieces the first name can be used after first reference – no Mr, Mrs, Ms, Miss, but use Dr

Netherlands, the
Holland is only a region of the Netherlands

newspapers
all newspaper titles are italicised, any which start with ‘the’ should generally be written in lower case – for example, the Irish Times, the Guardian But note, ‘the’ is not part of some publication’s names, so it’s the Irish Independent

NICB
always first say ‘National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology’

O

O2
should always be simply O2, do not use extra formatting on the ‘2’

ok
never OK or okay

P

paparazzi
or a paparazzo

percent
always use the symbol ‘%’, not pc, percent, or per cent

per capita
use per year

PSP
always PlayStation Portable

PlayStation or PSOne

PlayStation 2
use PS2 on second mention

PlayStation 3
never ‘PLAYSTATION 3’ - use PS3 on second mention

press release
a document which normally contains information about a product or service that is given to the press freely

program, programme
computer program, TV programme, an event’s programme

Q

quoting
direct quotation uses double quotation marks, for example; “Direct quotation uses double quotation marks,” said the style guide. For quoting within quoting, use: “John did not say ‘hello’ when I meet him,” said Tim.

R

RTE

S

Sex and the City
a US television show and film, not ‘Sex in the City’

Sinn Fein

smartcard
as well as been used for building access, Dublin Bus and Luas now use them, explain what one is at first use

Smyths Toy Superstores
Irish toy retailer and games stockiest; use Smyths – never Smyth’s

Students’ Union
upper case when talking about a single union, lower case when referring to a number of them. Never the Student’s Union or the Students Union

student tuition fees
see: ‘fees’

subeditor
one word, say no to hyphen Hitlers

T

Taoiseach
the Taoiseach, not ‘An Taoiseach’ (besides some media reports, how often do you hear people say An Taoiseach?)

the
unless at the start of a sentence ‘the’ is almost always lower case – the College View, the Irish Times, the Star, the Hub, the Venue, the Helix, the Mahony Hall

TM
trademark - always remove the symbol from article copy etc, in other uses always use long version in lower case (ie trademark)

trains and trams
Intercity, Commuter (no longer Arrow), Dart, Metro, Luas

U

Ulster
cannot be used to accurately describe Northern Ireland

Union of Students in Ireland
thereafter USI, the DCU Students’ Union and a number of others are not members

United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
use UK, or United Kingdom; Northern Ireland is part of the UK, but is not part of Great Britain which is England, Scotland and Wales. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are also not in the UK

urban legends
if the reporter or writer followed proper journalist practice you shouldn’t have to worry, but reading up on some of the strange and unreal urban legends at snopes.com is one of the more worthwhile ways to spend time surfing the net

V

vox pop

W

Wii

Wikipedia
is not for fact checking

world wide web
outdated - use internet or even ‘the net’

WWF
World Wide Fund; never World Wrestling Federation, the former name for the World Wrestling Entertainment

X

Xbox 360
‘the 360′ will do after first reference; never X360 or Xb360

Xbox
never “Xbox” or “X-Box” etc

Xtra-vision
best known as a video rental retailer, its shops sell and rent games, and sells music and entertainment electronics; the company is owned by Blockbuster - but there is no current plan to use the parent brand