House Style for Institution of Royal Engineers
Publications
Introduction
A house style is the set of conventions adopted by a publisher covering such elements as spelling, punctuation, text formatting, abbreviations, acceptable language, numbers, dates and units of measure. The Institution of Royal Engineers house style will be applied to all journals, professional papers and books, such as the Corps History and Unit Histories published by the institution. In the case of the RE Journal (REJ) it will be applied to your manuscript during production. For other publications, the author must agree any variation in these rules, preferably early in the drafting process.
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This document is based on the long tradition of producing the journal. The overall practice for many decades has been to follow the guidance of the Oxford University Press (OUP) and the following valuable resources are consulted: The Oxford Style Manual, incorporating New Hart’s Rules and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writer and Editors, (Oxford University Press, 2014); and The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) (online). There are some exceptions to this general rule and these instructions take precedence. Since adopting an A4 format, the journal has been produced in a two-column layout. The layout of other publications will be agreed prior to typesetting the work.
When reproducing quoted material, you should copy it verbatim from your source. Do not alter the spelling, capitalization, punctuation, or any other aspect of the original style to match with of your manuscript. With regards to notes and references, follow the title page of the original source for wording, such as author’s name and the spelling of the title. However capitalization and punctuation should match these house style rules.
Spelling and hyphenation
Spelling and hyphenation must be consistent throughout your text and the editor will ensure that this is the case.
Use a good dictionary when writing – we recommend the Concise Oxford English Dictionary and follow the MoD practice of using the first or preferred spelling.
House Style Rules
Serial or Oxford comma
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Description |
Examples |
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The serial or Oxford comma, although a hallmark of the OUP house style, is not used in the REJ except to avoid ambiguity. |
red, white and blue the Bishops of Salisbury, Bath and Wells, and Oxford |
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In a list of three or more items, no comma is used before the ‘and’ or ‘or’. |
feminine, masculine or neuter |
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Note that no comma is ever used when there are only two items in a list. |
convex and concave |
Ellipsis
An ellipsis (three points ‘…’) is used to indicate content omitted from a quotation.
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Description |
Examples |
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You should use three full points, spaced equally from each other and from the words either side. The ellipsis glyph is used in typesetting. |
Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful. |
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Where the preceding sentence ends immediately before the ellipsis, retain the punctuation. |
A nightingale began to sing. … It was a strange sound to hear. Where was Godfrey? … They said he was murdered yesterday. |
–ize, –yse, and –yze endings
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Description |
Examples |
| OUP house style uses –ize, –ization, –izing endings; however, a ‘z’ may not be substituted for ‘s’ in words ending -yse. At the appendix to these rules is a fuller explanation of the use of -ize spellings and, importantly the exceptions. |
materialize analyse paralyse |
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The exception is when quoting verbatim or it forms part of an official title. |
Defence Infrastructure Organisation |
Hyphens
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Description |
Examples |
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Used to join words together to form compound terms and expressions. |
short-lived |
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While there are often no hard-and-fast rules, the editor uses the current guidance in the OED. |
airstream, air stream, or air-stream |
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There are particular rules governing placement of hyphens in compound terms and expressions depending on how the terms and expressions are made up. |
a well-known story (meaning the story is well known) |
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Words with prefixes are usually written without hyphens unless there is a collision of vowels or consonants. There are many exceptions to this rule and the Institution follows the guidance in the New Oxford Dictionary for Writer and Editors. |
predetermine multinational but anti-intellectual pre-eminent |
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Note that ‘collocate’, ‘cooperate’ and coordinate should be without a hyphen. |
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En dash –
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Description |
Examples |
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Longer than a hyphen.* |
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Used to close up elements that form a range with a thin space to avoid collision. Note the exceptional use of the full stop after the abbreviations ‘p.’ and ‘pp.’. |
pp. 23 – 36 1939 – 45 |
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Used to express a connection or relation between words; roughly meaning ‘to’ or ‘and’, use with no space or a thin space avoid collision. |
Monday–Saturday Dover–Calais |
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Preferred as a replacement for a solidus (/). |
editor–author relationship on–off relationship |
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The Oxford style uses an Em dash as a parenthetical dash. In the REJ, an En dash is used with spaces. |
There is nothing – absolutely nothing – half much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. |
Em dash —
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Description |
Examples |
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Twice the length of an en rule.* |
Not used in the REJ and not normally in other Institution publications. |
*Tip: To insert a rule or dash in MS Word, go to Insert > Symbol > More Symbols > Special Characters, then select and insert. The editor will, in any case, insert the correct dash during typesetting.
Quotations
Quotation marks are not used around displayed (or block) quotations (as opposed to those run on in the main text). Generally, quotations of less than fifty words are run on; those of more than fifty words are displayed, indented and italicized.
British style quotation marks
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Description |
Examples |
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Use single quotation marks first. Use double quotation marks for quoted matter within a quotation. |
Weber saw it as embodying ‘the typical power of the “non-economic” ’ ‘Have you any idea what “red mercury” is?’ |
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When quoting a complete sentence, place punctuation within the quotation marks. |
Rather than mince words she told them: ‘You have forced this move upon me. |
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When quoting a word or incomplete sentence, place punctuation outside the quotation. |
Why does he use the word ‘poison’? No one should ‘follow a multitude to do evil’, the Scripture says. |
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Used to highlight a usage that is non-standard or where the meaning is different from the ordinary accepted meaning of the words. When introducing such a term or phrase, the meaning must be clear from the context or explicitly provided by the author. This should be used sparingly and, as a general rule, the text should be clear and could be read aloud and understood. |
the birth or ‘calving’ of an iceberg |
Capitalization
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Description |
Examples |
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Keep the use of capitalized letters to a minimum. |
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Use capital letters only for proper nouns, and for the initial letters of the full formal names of institutions, organizations, buildings and the like. |
British Museum United Nations Bridge of Sighs |
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Do not use capital letters for common nouns. |
Oxford University but their university ‘21 Engineer Regiment’ as a unit title but ‘ |
Use of italics, Roman, and bold text
Non-italicized font is known as ‘Roman’. Consistent application of italics throughout the text crucial and the editor will apply the following rules:
Use of italics
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Description |
Examples |
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For foreign words, except as indicated in the New Oxford Dictionary for Writer and Editors as being fully incorporate into the English language |
the catenaccio defensive system employed by the Italians but de facto |
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For binomial nomenclature. |
Homo sapiens |
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For titles of books, journals, works of art, films, and other self-contained works. |
A Christmas Carol The Royal Engineers Journal Mona Lisa The Times West Side Story |
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For the names of military operations, exercises, names of ship, hurricanes and tropical storms. |
Operation Telic Exercise Long Look HMS Victory Hurricane Gloria Storm Cindy |
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The use of italics for emphasis is accepted but its use should be sparing. It is often better to achieve emphasis clear through the sentence structure. |
An article’s length is less important than its content ‘The actual purpose of the policy remained a mystery rather than ‘The purpose of the policy remained a mystery’. |
Use of Roman or normal text
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Description |
Examples |
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For the names of places and institutions, even when in a foreign language. |
Pont du Gard Osterreichische Nationalbibliothek |
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For commonly used Latin abbreviations (note that full stops are omitted). |
ie eg viz |
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For foreign or Latin words that have become naturalized into English; sometimes this will be obvious but not always and the New Oxford Dictionary for Writer and Editors is used as the |
It was a delicious croissant. |
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Military equipment names |
Bowman Chiefton Trojan |
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Roman |
Italic |
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a posteriori a priori ad hoc ad infinitum ad nauseam de facto en route et al fait accompli id inter alia laissez-faire par excellence per se prima facie vis-a-vis |
c. (circa) de novo ex parte ex post facto in situ joie de vivre passim raison d‘etre roulement stare decisis |
Use of bold text
The use of bold in copy text is not normally employed as it is not always clear what emphasis the author is implying by its use and, used too frequently, it can reduce the visual appeal of the printed page. The type face employed in the REJ has a semi-bold font and this is used if necessary. For other publications, the choice of type face may vary and the inclusion of items in bold will need careful consideration; it is very rarely used in published books.
Abbreviations – format
Abbreviations fall into three categories. British style uses fewer full stops than its American equivalent.
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Description |
Examples |
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Abbreviations omit the end of a word or words. In general, no full stop is used in the REJ but |
abbr |
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Contractions omit the middle of a word or words. There are no full stops in current British usage. |
Dr Jr Mrs St |
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Acronyms are formed from the initial letters of words and do not include any full stops. |
AWOL NATO MoD |
Abbreviations – usage
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Description |
Examples |
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At the start of each article, place abbreviation in parentheses after the first occurrence of the full term. Thereafter, within each article, an abbreviation may be used without explanation. The exception to this rule is for widely recognised abbreviations. |
The Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ). NATO, MoD etc |
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Do not use terms such as ‘op.cit.’ ‘id.’ and ‘c.f.’. As with ‘see above’ and ‘see opposite’, such terminology is irrelevant in digital form, where the page may be formatted differently and artwork, tables and references are linked rather than placed in the text. This is to ensure the manuscript is suitable for any future digital publication. |
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Unit titles are not abbreviated in the main text but may be in captions, tables and figures. The official MoD abbreviations are then used. |
21 Engineer Regiment 21 Engr Regt |
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Other military abbreviations should be used sparingly and authors should not assume that all potential readers are versed in current practice. |
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Acceptable language
While writing and before finally submitting your manuscript, ensure you have observed the following advice about language:
- Text is clear and concise.
- Unnecessary repetition has been avoided.
- Arguments unfold clearly and logically.
- Parochial references such as ‘this country’ or ‘our legal system’ have been avoided
Be specific in identifying people, places, institutions, and other entities in full so it is clear for international readers. - No form of language or expression has been used that could be interpreted by a reader as racist, sexist, derogatory of a particular religion or creed, or otherwise offensive.
- Gender Specific pronouns (‘he’, ‘his’, ‘him’, and so on) have been avoided in any ref relevant to males and females. To achieve this, pluralize the references, repeat the noun, use the passive voice, or use both pronoun forms (although this last solution should be used only occasionally). Try to avoid the grammatical problems of plural pronouns and singular verbs. Follow the MoD guidance on gender neutral language and, for example, opt for ‘workforce planning’ over ‘manning’.
Numbers, dates, and units of measure
The following table provides specific guidance on the house style for numbers, dates, and units of measure:
Numbers – Words or figures?
There is a threshold below which numbers are expressed in words and above which figures are used. The threshold varies depending on the context but in general:
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Description |
Examples |
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Spell out up to and including ten and use figures from 11. |
ten 87 |
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Exceptions are as follows: units of measurement (figures) dates (figures) people’s ages (figures) approximate numbers (words) at the beginning of a sentence (words) round numbers of a million or more (figures and words) Where consistency within a sentence and common sentence dictate |
30 kilometres 9 September 2001 She was 58 years old. At least a thousand people came. Two hundred and fifty gold bars were stolen. £8.5 million … two of the twelve soldiers … |
Note that a billion is now understood to mean a thousand million (1,000,000,000) and not (as formerly in British practice) a million million.
Formatting figures
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Description |
Examples |
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Separate thousands using commas, not spaces, in numbers of four digits or more. |
1,000 250,000 |
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For decimal quantities of less than one, insert a zero before the point. Use a full point on the line for the decimal point (not at midline). |
0.5 0.768 |
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Omit as many digits as possible in number ranges. |
25 – 6 100 – 2 1,001 – 22 |
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Do not omit digits between 10 and 19 in any hundred |
10 – 11, 118 – 19 |
Use an en dash (–) between the numbers in a range (pp. 23 – 36, 1939 – 45, or 9.30 – 5.30); a thin space will be added during typesetting.
Dates
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Description |
Examples |
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British date style formulates as: day, month, year These are normally given in full in body text and abbreviated in captions and tables |
11 November 1918 11 Nov 18 |
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Omit as many digits as possible in date ranges, except where dates cross centuries. |
1866 – 1901, not 1866 – 901 |
Units of measure
The REJ follows normal practice. Generally, abbreviations are less acceptable in the main text and more acceptable in tables and figures. If the article contains more than occasional measurements, the editor will use standard abbreviations in the main text.
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Description |
Examples |
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Use metric measures, except where the historical context makes this unsuitable. |
Louis Pasteur recommended heating milk to 140 degrees Fahrenheit. |
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Follow the relevant practices by the Royal Society and the Systeme International (SI), particularly for styling symbols and units. The common exception to this is to express distances in miles, in which case the unit is used in full. |
20 km five miles 25 miles |
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When an abbreviated unit is used with a number, the number should be followed by a space. |
10 g 1.423 km |
References and Footnotes
The REJ has a preference for footnotes rather than endnotes unless there is such a profusion of notes that it makes the typesetting unmanageable. Authors are requested to use the automatic note insertion method of the word processor used as this enables the editor to convert endnotes to footnotes and vice versa. Footnotes are the preferred location in the REJ for reference material. In other publications, endnotes and a bibliography may be more appropriate. References should be presented as follows:
Authored book
Required elements:
Firstname Lastname, Title of Work (Year of Publication).
With optional elements:
Firstname Lastname, Title of Work, 2nd ed. (City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number(s) [or alternative locator info].
Examples:
Michael Murray, Climate Change at the Poles (New York: Scribner, 2007), p. 9.
Darian Ibrahim and Carol Marche, Financing the Next Silicon Valley, 3rd ed. (San Francisco: Upbeat Press, 2010).
Edited book
Required elements:
Firstname Lastname, ed., Title of Work (Year of Publication).
With optional elements:
Firstname Lastname, eds., Title of Work, 2nd ed. (City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number(s) [or alternative locator info].
Example:
Anton Smirov, ed., Eastern Europe After the Iron Curtain (London: Chatto and Windus, 2012).
Chapter in an edited book
Required elements:
Firstname Lastname, ‘Title of Chapter in a Edited Volume’, in Title of Edited Volume, edited by Firstname Lastname (Year of Publication).
With optional elements:
Firstname Lastname, ‘Title of Chapter in a Edited Volume’, in Title of Edited Volume, edited by Firstname Lastname (City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number(s) [or alternative locator info].
Example:
Hanna Growiszc, ‘Far Right Ideologies in Czech Literature’, in Eastern Europe After the Iron Curtain, edited by
Anton Smirov (London: Chatto and Windus, 2012), ch. 7.
Authored book with an editor or translator
Required elements:
Firstname Lastname, Title of Work, ed./trans. Firstname Lastname, (Year of Publication).
With optional elements:
Firstname Lastname, Title of Work, ed./trans. Firstname Lastname, 2nd ed. (City of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication), page number(s) [or alternative locator info].
Examples
Gunter Grass, The Tin Drum, trans. Breon Mitchell (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2009).
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, ed. and trans. Terence Irwin (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1999).
Multi-volume work
References to multi-volume book citations can take a variety of forms, depending on whether an individual volume or the entire work is being cited, and the authorship of the work.
Citing one volume of a multi-volume work
Example:
Robert Caro, The Path to Power, vol. 1, The Years of Lyndon Johnson (New York: Knopf, 1982), p. 267.
Citing a multi-volume work as a whole
Examples:
Robert Caro, The Years of Lyndon Johnson, 4 vols (New York: Knopf, 1982 – 2012).
Allison Wyste, Indian and Tibetan Cooking, vol. 6, Cuisines of Asia, ed. Robert Trautmann (London: Brill Books, 2007).
Multi-volume work with series editor and individual author/editors
Journal article
Whenever possible, include a DOI (preferred) or a stable URL for citations to journal articles. However, a URL or DOI is not sufficient to stand alone as a reference.
Required elements:
Firstname Lastname, ‘Title of Article’, Name of Journal vol. number, (Year): start page.
With optional elements:
Firstname Lastname, ‘Title of Article’, Name of Journal vol. number, issue number (Month or Season Year): start page–end page, doi: DOI [or stable URL].
Examples:
Barbara Eckstein, ‘The Body, the Word, and the State: J. M Coetzee’s “Waiting for the Barbarians”’, Novel: A Forum on Fiction 2, no. 2 (Winter 1989): pp. 175 – 198, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1345802.
David Hyun-Su Kim, ‘The Brahmsian Hairpin’, 19t Century Music 36, no. 1 (Summer 2012): pp. 46 – 47 doi:10.1525/ncm.2012.36.1.046.
Magazine article
A DOI or URL can be included for articles that you consulted online. The citations for online-only magazines follow the same pattern as print-based magazines, with the addition of URLs. If an online journal or magazine has a stable home page that allows a user to search for articles by title or author, it is acceptable to include the URL for that page (rather than the longer, more specific URL).
Required elements:
‘Title of Article’, Name of Magazine, Month of Pub, Year.
With optional elements: Firstname Lastname, ‘Title of Article’, Name of Magazine, Month and Day of Pub, Year, doi: DOI [or stable URL].
Examples:
Mary Rose Himler, ‘Religious Books as Best Sellers’, Publishers Weekly, 19 February 1927.
‘Amazon Best Books 2012 Revealed’, Publishers Weekly, November 2012, http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/54738-amazon-best-books-2012-revealed.html.
Fritz Allhoff, ‘The Paradox of Non lethal Weapons’, Slate, 13 November 2012, http://www.slate.com.
Unpublished or informally published content
The titles of unpublished works are set in quotation marks rather than italics. In place of a publisher, location or institutional information can be given.
Examples:
Troy Thibodeaux, ‘Modernism in Greenwich Village, 1908 – 192 (PhD dissertation, New York University, 1999), p. 59.
Mary Koo, ‘Prakriti and Purusha: Dualism in the Yoga of Patanjali (lecture, Theosophical Society, Chennai, India, 17 May 2008).
Website or other source
To cite a website or other source that does not fall within those covered here, include as much of the following as possible (in this order) in your citation: author; title or description of the content; owner/publisher; date of publication or most recent revision (or, failing that, date accessed); and URL. Some flexibility is acceptable to accommodate the wide variety of content available, especially online.
The names of websites are usually set in roman type but the names of online magazines and books are italicized (like their print counterparts).
Examples:
‘The Board of Directors of the Coca-Cola Company Authorizes New Share Repurchase Program’, Coca-Cola Company, 18 October 2012
http://www.coca-colacompany.com/media-center/press-releases/the-board-of-directors-of-the-coca-cola-company-authorizes-new-share-repurchase-program.
John Rambow, ‘Will This Demon Fit in My Carry-On?’, Bangalore Monkey blog, 21 December 2007, http://www.bangaloremonkey.com/2007/12/will-this-demon-fit-in-my-carry-on.html.
Wikimedia privacy policy, Wikimedia Foundation, accessed 26 November 2010, http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/ Privacy policy.
Appendix to the RE Journal Style Guide
RE Journal Policy for –ise and –ize Spelling
The Institution follows the Oxford University Press policy of favouring the –ize spelling of verbs, which have such spelling listed as the first option in the Oxford English Dictionary. This corresponds more closely to the Greek root of most of these verbs and to the phonetic pronunciation.
The exceptions are: when the word forms part of a larger word element such as:
–cise = cutting
-mise = sending
-prise = taking
–vise = seeing
when the word corresponds to nouns with -s- in the stem:
advertise (from advertisement)
televise (from television)
The following common words that must take the –ise from in English:
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advertise advise apprise arise chastise circumcise comprise compromise demise despise devise disenfranchise disguise enfranchise |
enterprise excise exercise improvise incise merchandise premise prise [as in– open] revise supervise surmise surprise televise |
Words such as materialize, analyse and paralyse never take a –yze spelling, although the norm in US English.
