Entries - A
a lot |
Two words. Note: See this enlightening cartoon on the subject. |
grammar, spelling |
a or an before H? |
Use an before a silent H: an heir, an hour, an honest politician, an honorary consul; use a before an aspirated H: a hero, a hotel, a historian (but don't change a direct quote if the speaker says, for example, "an historic"). With abbreviations, be guided by pronunciation: an LSE student, a CERN student |
grammar |
abbreviations and acronyms |
Do not use full points in abbreviations, or spaces between initials, including those in proper names: US, eg, 4am, M&S, WE Weber, WH Smith, etc. |
style |
absolute zero |
Not "the absolute zero". -273.15°C or 0 K. The apparatus was cooled to near absolute zero to ensure the electronics were in a superconducting state |
grammar |
accelerators |
Spell out the name at first mention, then abbreviate in brackets. Only use capital letters if it is the only machine with that name in the world. This synchrocyclotron (SC) was built in 1957, whereas the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was completed in 2009. The SC accelerates ions… |
style |
accents |
Include all accents in French, German, Portuguese, Spanish and Irish Gaelic words. But for words that have been assimilated into English (café, résumé) follow OED. Note that capital letters in French also take an accent so état membre becomes État membre. |
style |
actor |
For both sexes, never actress. |
style |
Administrative Circular |
Follow the style dictated by the HR website, as this is where people will find the documents. Capital letters, No. then a space followed by a digit, open bracket, "Rev", stop, space, digit, close brackets. See below: Administrative Circular No. 25 (Rev. 3) |
style |
adverbs |
No hyphen is normally needed between an adverb and the adjective it modifies: a hotly contested result a constantly evolving theory To avoid ambiguity, a hyphen is needed after adverbs such as “ill” and “well” that have the same spelling as the corresponding adjective, as in a well-dressed man an ill-considered reply No hyphen is needed if the adverbial phrase comes after the noun, as in the man was well dressed |
grammar |
Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer |
Not Alphamagnetic Spectrometer. |
physics, spelling, style |
am and pm |
See time |
style |
ampersand (&) |
Don't use them, even in headlines. Exceptions:
|
punctuation, style |
analyse |
An important exception to the ize rule |
spelling, style |
antiatom |
Not anti-atom. Likewise antiparticle, antihydrogen, antineutrino, etc. See antimatter |
spelling, style |
antimatter |
Not anti-matter. Likewise antiparticle, antihydrogen, antineutrino, etc. See particles |
spelling, style |
approximately |
Use the full word. Preferable to "about". Don't abbreviate to "approx.", or worse, the symbol "~". The luminosity of the LHC has increased by approximately 16% over the last two months. |
style |