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STYLE GUIDE

Miscellany

This section gives general guidance on all kinds of bits and pieces related to written style in HYMS. Some are strictly correct. Others are just downright arbitrary, and so their inclusion here is for the sake of consistency.

  • acute (short-term); chronic (long-term or recurring)
  • Act (capital A) for a specific act of Parliament (the Mental Health Act, the Act); act (small a) for acts in general (73 acts entered into law in 2006)
  • AD: the year is 58 AD (not 58 A.D. or AD 58); you can use CE and BCE if you prefer, but only if you think your audience will easily understand it
  • addendum and addendums (not addenda, unless you're in a Latin mood)
  • adrenaline (not adrenalin – though Adrenalin is a brand of adrenaline); but anyway, the correct global term these days is epinephrine
  • advisor or adviser (but be consistent)
  • agenda (singular); agendas (plural). Anyone who tells you that agenda is already plural is technically correct but excessively pedantic – did you ever hear anyone talk about a single agendum?
  • A-level, O-level (hyphen, lower-case L)
  • all right (alright is not all right)
  • alumnus (male); alumna (female); alumni (plural); if you need to be non-gender-specific and you can't rephrase, use alumnus
  • anorexia (lack of interest in food); anorexia nervosa (psychological condition involving refusal to eat)
  • appendices (not appendixes)
  • arm: in medical terms, your arm is the bit between your shoulder and your elbow; the rest is your forearm
  • Bachelor’s, Master’s (capital letters and apostrophes)
  • bacterium (singular) and bacteria (plural). These are not the same as viruses, so check which you mean (for instance, MRSA is a bacterium, not a virus)
  • bank holiday (lower case)
  • bar chart, pie chart (no hyphen)
  • biannual (twice a year); biennial (every two years)
  • biased (one S)
  • biceps singular and plural (there’s no such thing as a bicep)
  • Blackboard (the software); note capital B, and don't call it the VLE except in internal technical contexts
  • Britain can mean 'the whole UK', but it can also mean 'Great Britain', which is England, Wales and Scotland but not Northern Ireland. Better to use the UK to be on the safe side
  • CDs, CVs, GPs (not CD's, CV's, GP's unless that’s what you mean)
  • chemotherapy
  • church (a building); Church (an institution). By the way, don’t use Church for non-Christian institutions; phrases like the Jewish Church have an embarrassingly colonial ring to them
  • coordinate (not co-ordinate), cooperate, and so on
  • criterion (singular); criteria (plural)
  • curriculums in English (it would be curricula if we spoke Latin, but we don't; and never curriculi, which is just plain wrong)
  • data (singular and plural -- see agenda)
  • dates: use 9 March 2006 (not March 9 or 9th March 06 or 9/3/06)
  • diabetes: type 1 and type 2 are very different conditions, so check which you mean
  • diarrhoea (you are right and your spell-checker is wrong!)
  • dietician (not diatician -- think of ‘diet’)
  • disabled people or people with disabilities (not the disabled); blind people, visually impaired people, deaf people, people with learning difficulties
  • Dr Smith (not Dr. Smith or Doctor Smith); the doctor (not the Doctor, unless you’re talking about Doctor Who). Consultant surgeons are Mr, but consultant physicians are still Dr
  • e.g. (with full stops); but for instance or for example are usually better
  • East Yorkshire is preferable to East Riding of Yorkshire in many contexts, but follow the usage of whatever you’re referring to
  • eLearning (not e-learning; no matter how much you hate this, it's HYMS house style)
  • email or e-mail (but be consistent, and don’t capitalise). E-mail addresses -- even NHS ones -- always take lower case (oliver.revilo, not Oliver.Revilo), but web addresses should be written exactly as they come, since case sometimes makes a difference
  • empathic (not empathetic)
  • enquire (not inquire)
  • etc. (not the old-fashioned &c. or et cetera); but and so on is usually better
  • exam or examination (depending on formality, but be consistent)
  • fibula and tibia (there’s no such thing as a 'fibia', and Tibula is a town in ancient Sardinia)
  • fieldwork (no hyphen)
  • fill in (not fill out, which is American)
  • fine-tooth comb (note the hyphen: it’s a comb with fine teeth, not a fine implement for combing your teeth)
  • first aid (no hyphen)
  • focused (one S)
  • gastrointestinal (no hyphen)
  • GCSEs (no apostrophe, of course)
  • healthcare (not health care)
  • Holland is one region of the Netherlands (small t, capital N), strictly speaking not a name for the whole country. You learn something every day
  • HYMS sheet (two words, lower-case s)
  • hyper- (too much); hypo- (too little)
  • i.e. ('in other words' -- emphatically not the same as e.g.)
  • indexes (not indices, except in economic or technical contexts)
  • inpatient (see outpatient)
  • installment (two Ls)
  • interdisciplinary (no hyphen), multidisciplinary
  • internet (lower-case I)
  • judgement (with e)
  • the King's Manor (always with a lower-case the)
  • learned (not learnt, except optionally where it’s used as an adjective)
  • leg: in medical terms, your leg is the bit between your knee and your ankle; the rest is your thigh
  • lifelong (no hyphen)
  • mentally ill is a frowned-upon term; use something less judgemental, like person with a mental disability (or better still, use a more precise term)
  • monocytogenes has six syllables (MOH-no-sy-TOH-jeh-neez). Hear this word and many more spoken at http://www.hyms.ac.uk/learning_resources/bacteria/
  • morbidity (illness); mortality (death)
  • Mr, Mrs, Ms (no full stops)
  • mW = milliwatt (a thousandth of a watt); MW = megawatt (a million watts). Don’t confuse things by adding another m for 'million'
  • Nobel prize (capital N, small p)
  • OK is OK (in a suitably informal context), but okay is not OK
  • online (no hyphen)
  • ophthalmic
  • outpatient (not out-patient, Out-Patient, out patient or anything else you can dream up). There’s no reason for preferring one over the others, but we may as well be consistent
  • penicillin V is 'penicillin vee', not 'penicillin five'
  • % (or, if you use words, percent not per cent; but most of the time the symbol is fine)
  • peroneal (of the fibia); perineal (of the perineum)
  • PhD (capitalisation just like that, and no full stops)
  • practice (a noun, hence General Practice); practise (a verb, hence to practise medicine)
  • preventive (not preventative)
  • problem-based learning (lower case and with the hyphen); PBL (if your audience is familiar with it)
  • prostate (the uncomfortable gland); prostrate (the uncomfortable position)
  • radiographer (takes x-rays); radiologist (reads x-rays) -- actually it’s a bit more complicated than that, so check which you mean
  • ratios: in prose, express non-numerical ratios with a slash rather than a colon. For instance, staff/student ratios is better than staff:student ratios. The colon is mathematically more accurate, but in non-mathematical contexts it can be a bit baffling to the reader
  • the Reverend Green or the Rev Green (always use the, unless you’re writing about Cluedo)
  • ringfence (no hyphen)
  • septicaemia (teach your spell-checker)
  • Siamese twins are technically conjoined twins
  • side-effects (hyphen)
  • signs (external, what the doctor can see); symptoms (internal, what the patient is aware of)
  • spelling: use British spellings and terms in general contexts, except those that seem archaic; but in medical or scientific contexts, use whatever is the international standard (usually American)
  • street: Hartoft St or (better) Hartoft Street (but not Hartoft St.)
  • St for 'saint' (no full stop). But the mistake is common and forgiveable. St. James’s Hospital, Dublin, gets the apostrophe right but the full stop wrong, while St Thomas’ Hospital, London, gets the full stop right but the apostrophe wrong. I know, I want the moon on a stick
  • St John Ambulance (not St John's; look it up if you don’t believe me)
  • Student-Selected Component (hyphen, caps); SSC
  • Students' Union (not Student, Students, Student's or anything else, unless a particular organisation styles itself that way)
  • taxonomy: genus is capitalised, species is not (Heliobacter pylori). If you abbreviate the genus, use a full stop and space (H. pylori). Don't use italics
  • tendinitis (not tendonitis). Good luck in memorising that one
  • Terrence Higgins Trust (double r in Terrence)
  • textbook (not text-book)
  • 3D (not 3d)
  • tibia (see fibula)
  • tonne is a metric quantity equal to 1000kg (2204.6 lb). Don’t use old UK ton (2240 lb) or US ton (2000lb); it will only cause problems
  • Universities: the University of Hull, the University of York (not Hull University, York University, except in the names of the Students' Unions). Capital U when referring to a specific university (the University of Cambridge, the University); lower-case u when referring to universities in general (most young people go to university)
  • veterinary
  • vocal cords (not chords)
  • website (one word please!)
  • x-ray (not X-ray)
  • years and months: five years' study (with apostrophe); three months pregnant (without apostrophe)