Hong Kong Baptist University
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HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY STYLE GUIDE This style guide lists recommended written English usage to ensure clarity and consistency across University publications. It has been prepared with reference to the style guides of a number of leading publications and organisations, and the advice of faculty members. You are advised to follow this style guide for consistency in usage and styling. Communication and Public Relations Office Updated on 5 August 2014 1 Contents Section 1 Hong Kong Baptist University Section 2 People, titles and designations Section 3 Organisations Section 4 Places Section 5 Language, words of foreign origin, new words, traditions Section 6 Numbers Section 7 Punctuation Section 8 Headlines and captions Section 9 General rules REFERENCES 2 Section 1 Hong Kong Baptist University A. Name 1. “Hong Kong Baptist University” is the official name of this institution. 2. Hong Kong Baptist University does not take “The” before its name. 3. After the first mention, i. Hong Kong Baptist University can be shortened to “HKBU”. ii. Put HKBU in brackets after the full name only if the abbreviation will be used subsequently. iii. Hong Kong Baptist University can also be referred to as “the University”. 4. Avoid using “BU” as an abbreviation. B. Faculties and Departments 1. Use initial capitals for Faculties, Schools, Departments, Academy, Centres, etc. 2. Use their full name first and “the Faculty”, “the School”, “the Academy”, “the Department”, “the Centre”, etc on subsequent mentions. The School of Communication hosted a workshop for journalists. The School was praised for its efforts. 3. Use the capital letter “I” when referring to the institute “Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology” but lower case “i” when the name of Professor Jao Tsung-i is mentioned. C. Academic subjects and degrees 1. Use initial capitals for the name of the subject and degree, but the word “degree” should be lower case. John is studying for a Physics degree. OR: John is studying for a degree in Physics. 2. Use Bachelor’s degree NOT Bachelor degree BUT Bachelor of Arts. 3. Do not leave spaces or use full stops in the short forms of degrees. Hence: BA, MA, MPhil, MSc, PhD 3 D. University terms 1. Always italicise Vision 2020. If the words “statement”, “development plan”, or “blueprint” are used to describe Vision 2020, these words should not take upper case or italics. Vision 2020 is the University’s strategic blueprint. HKBU’s Vision 2020 statement is an important document. 2. Use “Whole Person Education” when the phrase is being used as a slogan. Use “whole person education” in regular copy. Excellence, Innovation, Whole Person Education The University is committed to whole person education. 3. Use upper case initial letters for the term “Graduate Attributes”. 4 Section 2 People, titles and designations A. Western names 1. The first name is followed by the surname. Mr John Smith Ms Jane Smith B. Chinese names of people from Hong Kong 1. The surname comes first, followed by given names hyphenated. Mr Chan Tai-man Ms Wong Siu-ling 2. Hong Kong Chinese people may use both an English and a Chinese name. For less formal English writing, use only the English first name, if available, followed by the surname. Mr John Chan Ms Jane Wong C. Chinese names of people from other parts of Asia 1. Follow the convention in those places. Ms Wang Anyi Mr Lee Kuan Yew D. Chinese people with a Western first name 1. On formal occasions, use the Western first name before the surname and the Chinese name after the surname. Mr John Chan Tai-man Ms Jane Wong Siu-ling 2. Alternatively, on formal occasions, initials can be used to represent the Chinese given name, if the person concerned has expressed a preference for this format. Do not use full stops or spaces between the initials. Mr John TM Chan Ms Jane SL Wong 5 E. Married couples / Married women 1. On formal occasions, state the full names of the husband and wife separately using the appropriate honorific. Mr John Chan and Mrs Jane Chan OR: Mr John Chan and Mrs Chan NOT: Mr and Mrs John Chan 2. Some married women in Hong Kong use their husband’s last name only when escorting their husband on formal occasions. On such occasions, for the woman’s name, her husband’s last name is stated first, followed by her own last and first names. Mr Chan Tai-man and Mrs Jane Chan Wong Siu-ling 3. Some married women have chosen not to change their last names. Respect their choice. F. Informal occasions and publications 1. Use the appropriate title/honorific and the full name of the person on first mention. Subsequently, at the discretion of the writer, the person may be referred to by the honorific attached to their last name or by only their first name. Mr John Chan organised the event. Mr Chan has been promoting the event since 1930. Ms Jane Wong enjoys working at the lab. Jane plays basketball in her free time. G. Miss/Mrs/Ms 1. Use Miss or Mrs only if the woman concerned expresses a preference for those salutations. 2. If in doubt, stick with Ms, which is neutral regarding marital status. H. Designations 1. Use “Professor” NOT “Prof” as the honorific for staff of that grade. Professor John Chan delivered the keynote address. 2. For those who have been knighted, use their full name preceded by Sir/Dame, and use Sir/Dame plus their first name on subsequent mentions. Sir John Smith was elected to the Council. Sir John was well respected in the community. 6 3. Mention designations after the name enclosed in commas. Mr John Chan, Chairman of the Council and the Court, attended the event. Professor Jane Wong, President and Vice-Chancellor, attended the event. Mr John Smith, Consul-General of XYZ, ... Ms Jane Smith, Chairperson of XYZ Foundation, … 4. On less formal occasions, people occupying senior designations at the University may be referred to by their designation followed by their last name. Chairman John Chan OR Chairman Chan President Jane Wong OR President Wong 5. Introduce academic staff as follows: Professor John Chan of the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, at HKBU OR Professor John Chan, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, HKBU 6. Introduce students as follows: i. Follow the first mention of their name with their programme of study and the year in which they are studying in brackets. ii. Students’ names need not be preceded by the honorific Mr or Ms. John Chan (Organisational Communication, Year 1) Jane Wong (International Journalism, Year 3) 7 Section 3 Organisations A. Government 1. When referring to the government of a specific place, use initial capitals. The Chinese Government The US Government The British Government 2. The government of Hong Kong can be referred to as i. On formal occasions: “The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)” OR “The Hong Kong Government”. ii. On less formal occasions and thereafter: “The HKSAR Government” OR “the Government”. B. Companies 1. Call them by the name they call themselves. When in doubt, use their full name. 2. Abbreviate the designations at the end: Co, Corp, Ltd and Inc. Do not abbreviate “and” if it occurs, unless “&” is part of the official name. CMP Ltd HSBC Li & Fung Hong Kong and China Gas Company Ltd 3. Do not use symbols such as exclamation points, plus signs or asterisks that might distract the reader. Thus: Yahoo NOT Yahoo! Toys R Us NOT Toys “R” Us 4. Follow the spelling and capitalisation preferred by the company. However, capitalise the first letter if it begins a sentence. The items were auctioned on eBay. EBay made a donation to the University. 8 C. Non-profit organisations, associations, foundations, etc 1. If the name ends with Ltd, Co, etc, follow the rule related to companies and do not precede the name with “the”. 2. If the name does not end with a designation, use “the” in front of it. A delegation from Association of Industries of Hong Kong Ltd A delegation from the HKBU Student Union D. Universities 1. Use “The” only if it is part of the official name of the institution. 2. When in doubt, check the website of the university concerned. The full names of the eight UGC-funded institutions in Hong Kong are: City University of Hong Kong Hong Kong Baptist University Lingnan University The Chinese University of Hong Kong The Hong Kong Institute of Education The Hong Kong Polytechnic University The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology The University of Hong Kong 9 Section 4 Places A. General 1. For geographical places, regions, areas and countries, use initial capitals. China, India, The Hague, East Asia, the West 2. Use updated names of places. Thus, “Beijing” NOT “Peking”, “Guangdong” NOT “Canton”, etc. 3. For the word “state” or “province”, use lower case when it follows the proper name of that place. Guangdong province, New York state B. Hong Kong 1. Hong Kong is spelled as two words, except in certain proper names (eg, Hongkong Bank Foundation). 2. For the English spelling of places in Hong Kong, check Hong Kong Guide: Gazetteer of Street and Place Names published by the Survey and Mapping Office, Lands Department. 3. Use “East Asia” to refer to where Hong Kong is located rather than “the Far East”. C. China 1. Use “China” instead of “People’s Republic of China”. 2. Use “on the Mainland” OR “in Mainland China” NOT “in the Mainland”. D. Macau 1. Use “Macau” NOT “Macao”. 10 Section 5 Language, words of foreign origin, new words, traditions A.