Journalism style guide

Style tips

The Bristol Cable is a magazine produced by and for people in the city. If you’re contributing an article to the Cable, either for print or online, your priority should be writing in an engaging way that everyone who picks up a copy or goes on the website can understand.

Writing for a magazine or for the web requires a different style to essays or report writing. This list of tips should help you write with a punchy, clear and concise style.

General dos and don’ts

• Avoid complex vocabulary. Don’t use a long word when a short one would do, and wherever possible avoid jargon that an average member of the public might not understand. This will help you get your points across in a clearer and more elegant way. If you do have to use jargon, please explain what it means.

• Also avoid complex sentence structures. It’s worth sticking to no more than two commas / three clauses per sentence where possible.

• Keep quotes brief and to the point. Try to weave juicy quotes into your text, and intersperse these with ‘reported speech’, in other words describing and summarising briefly what someone had said. So: The planning officer told the residents’ group that, in future, zero affordable homes would be built in their neighbourhood. “If your kids can’t meet the rent, they can sling their hook,” he said.

• But try to avoid overly short ‘snippet’ quotes. A sentence like: The mayor said that parking zones were a “superb” idea because residents would be “falling over” themselves to “empty their wallets” is bad practice, and makes it easy to twist someone’s words… and the quotes don’t really add anything to it.

• Write in the active voice rather than the passive, so: Residents presented the petition to the mayor not The petition was presented to the mayor by residents.

• Ask yourself if every sentence adds unique information to your story, or is otherwise crucial – if not, cut it.

• Add subheadings to break up articles over 500 words. These can just be a few words to indicate the main subject of next chunk of the article eg. ‘Council shame’, ‘Take to the streets’ or ‘New evidence’.

• Documents ‘state’, people ‘say’.

• The Cable’s credibility and reputation depends on accuracy. Source and display your quotes, facts and figures (if you’re writing for online, a hyperlink in the text may be enough for the latter).

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Structuring stories

News reports

• News reports are there to report facts. They should never be written from a first-person perspective – in other words sentences should not be structured ‘I saw this…’ etc etc.

• When writing news, think of the so-called ‘Ws’ of your story: who, what, where, when, why and how. Try to address all of them in the first two sentences:

• Keep paragraphs short. Two sentences is plenty; one is often enough.

• The more important the information, the nearer the beginning of the article it should appear. It can be useful to think of a news report as a V-shape – the big stuff in the top, tapering down into quotes about the finer detail of what is being reported on.

• By and large, news reports should deal strictly with facts, interspersed with quotes commenting on them. Qualify things if need be, e.g:

Features

• Whereas news reports by and large set out to make people aware of something happening, feature articles provide context and analysis to news.

• In the Cable, feature articles include in-depth narrative pieces examining an issue, investigations uncovering new information, and interviews. Features should include visual content such as infographics or even small graphics, and be structured in various ways, such as ‘listicles’ (eg ‘8 reasons why Bristol needs a new independent media).

• A ‘traditional’ feature article for the Cable might be 800 words of continuous text. You want a really punchy opening section, tapering into discussion of the issues, and ending on a striking conclusion or quote, which often mirrors the opening.

• The intro section can take many different forms, but its key purpose should be to grab people’s attention and lead them in. If your feature has involved you visiting somewhere and interviewing people, it’s often good to set the scene with two or more colourful, descriptive paragraphs (including quotes, if appropriate) like this 2015 example from BuzzFeed:

• After you’ve written your intro, it’s good practice to include a paragraph (or two) summarising what the article is about before diving into the main body (this is the same article continued):

• Try to write with a clear structure in mind, and use sub-headings to break the article up into sections.

• Make sure that all statements of fact are backed up, by numbers if necessary, and explained.

Comment pieces and blogs

• By definition these are less tied to objective reporting of facts than news and features. You’re making a point, or commenting on someone else’s point. However, your argument still needs to be grounded on fact – otherwise it won’t stand up – so proper sourcing is just as important, if not more so, as it is for other articles.

• Openings should start with the hook – the thing that has recently happened. Don't start with context / history of the situation as it may turn the reader off.

• By end of the second sentence, the reader should know what the main point of the article is: 'who' did 'what' 'when' – then you can develop 'how' this happened and 'why'.

• Unlike news and features, opinion pieces can draw more on your own experience, for instance by using things you’ve seen at work or in your personal life to back up your points. You can use sentences like: In six years as a youth worker, I’ve not once seen the kind of behaviour the council’s report claims is damaging people’s enjoyment of the festival. To my eyes, this knee-jerk attitude is typical of people who never bother to get out of their cosy offices and into the community.

• Use 'argument' terms (however, yet, although, despite) to structure your article sparingly. They are useful to guide the reader through a complicated argument. But make sure they are necessary and logical. Does A apply 'because of' or 'despite' or simply 'as well as' B?

• Build your argument – but don't take too long about it. Where is the knockout punch of your article? Build to it with some jabs – but no more than about three. It should read something like this: this was great, and this, there was even this, but to cap it all they even did THIS – boom!

• Ensure that you are building to a strong ending, which could be a call to action, a question, a prediction for the future, etc. and conclude your argument by relating back to your opening and pointing in the broadest sense to the evidence you've laid out.

• Show, don't tell. Readers are likely to feel manipulated if you tell them how to think about something – let them draw their own conclusions from the evidence you present.

• Given that comment pieces are about getting a viewpoint over, it’s worth being chatty and conversational in your tone.

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Formatting pointers for online writing and editing

• Try to keep headlines under 10 words to avoid Facebook chopping them off. Headlines should not have each word capitalised.

• Using subheadings to structure and break up your article is particularly important when writing for online, especially in longer pieces.

• Hyper link to sources from: ‘said’, ‘claimed’, a statistic e.g. ‘10,000’, or the most relevant couple of words if necessary when sourcing a claim e.g. ‘… clean-up workers are dying before … ‘. Don’t link the whole sentence. Also don’t use a hyperlink as a way to avoid explaining something within the article. The article should stand on its own without people having to follow links to make sense of it.

• When linking a source, hyperlink the statement not the name of the person making the statement. For example: Joe Blogs MP raised the issue. Don’t link from his name.

• Sources should be reliable news outlets. If in doubt about source ask a co-ordinator. You can link to primary sources but if this is a PDF or ebook remember to reference pages/sections. This speeds up the verification process for the reader, and broadens their access to primary sources. It also gives an additional third benefit of adding legitimacy to our journalism. For one quick stat – secondary is fine. A more involved bit of number crunching and nuance – use primary. You can switch between the two.

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Specific style points

Acronyms and abbreviations

Do not use full stops in acronyms (so NHS not N.H.S). For organisations with long names, spell out full name on first mention, with the acronym in brackets after it.

Capitalisation

Avoid wherever possible; it looks nicer that way. Job titles should be lower case: Will Franklin is a developer at the Cable. (An exception is where using as a title, so Mayor Ferguson, President Obama.) Similarly, it’s Bristol council, not Bristol Council or Bristol City Council.

Collective nouns

Organisations are singular. For example: the board is considering, the council is taking action. They are also inanimate, so use that or which, not who.

Common errors

• Comparisons: If you want to contrast two things, compare them with each other; if you want to say they’re similar, compare them to

• Context: Check for correct usage of maybe rather than may be, into and onto rather than in to and on to etc.

• Less or fewer: Less with singular, fewer with plural, e.g. less money, fewer coins.

• Over or more than: Use more than if you mean exceeding, e.g. more than £2bn; more than 12 MPs. Use over if you expressing movement or height, e.g. the building is over six storeys high

• Inquiry or enquiry: Use enquiry when referring to the act of seeking information. For instance; “The police are making enquiries into the death”, but, “There is an inquiry into the death”.

• Existing, currently, recently, etc: Don’t use unless absolutely essential for clarity.

• With: Never use ‘with’ in conjunction with meet or consult, e.g. The councillor wants to meet [NOT meet with] tenants.

Italics

Reports, surveys, The Bristol Cable, newspapers, magazines, books, TV/radio shows, music albums, music singles, DVDs, films and song lyrics all in italics.

Numbers

• Zero to nine spelled out, figures for 10 or more – except with percentages and measurements (see below)

• Use commas, i.e. 4,000 not 4000

• Never start a sentence with a numeric – write it out, so Thirty-three people…

• First, ninth, fifteenth etc

• Use only one decimal point, unless more are absolutely needed for clarity.

• Write percentages as 3% etc. Only use ‘Three per cent’ at start of sentence.

• £3million, but three million new homes

• Use words, not numbers in fractions, e.g. three- quarters not 3/4

• Dates should be written as 18 January 2016 or 18 January, not January 18

• 21st century (unless at start of a sentence)

• For decades use figures: the swinging 60s or 1960s (not 1960’s).

• Times are as in 12-hour clock with am and pm closed up. Use full stops in times: 7.30pm, not 7:30pm.

• For measurements, use numerals, e.g. 50 square metres/feet. Also tens of thousands, not 10s of thousands

• Financial years or similar are always 2006/07 (not 2006/7 or 2006–07).

Punctuation

Apostrophes

• Children’s, men’s, women’s

• 12 years’ imprisonment

• Mr Richards’ dog, not Mr Richards’s dog

• Use apostrophes in phrases such as in two days’ time, 12 years’ imprisonment and six weeks’ holiday, where the time period (two days) modifies a noun (time), but not in nine months pregnant or three weeks old, where the time period is adverbial (modifying an adjective such as pregnant or old) – if in doubt, test with a singular such as one day’s time, one month pregnant.

Colons and semicolons

• Colons are used when introducing a list.

• Lower case first letter should always follow colons and semicolons.

Dashes

• Use sparingly – like this – to break up sentences, but don’t overdo it. Commas, or occasionally brackets, are often as good (or better).

• Use en-dashes (Alt+dash).

Hyphens

In general, use a hyphen when a compound adjective comes before a noun, but not when a phrase comes after a noun. e.g. long-term funding, funding in the long term; the 15-year-old boy, the boy was 15 years old. However, do not put a hyphen between an adverb ending in -ly and a linked adjective, even when they come before a noun: highly competitive market.

Square brackets

Use for interpolated words in quotations, eg Marvin Rees said: “George [Ferguson] is wrong”, but use your initiative here – mild tidying up of speech is OK for brevity and clarity. Check with writer if you are in doubt.

Quotes

• Avoid starting paragraphs with ‘he said’ followed by the quote, put ‘he said’ at the end, so “Tony Dyer is very outspoken,” he said.

• Don’t let quotes go on too long. Avoid one- word quotes such as “significant”, “excellent” or “difficulties”. Paraphrase if necessary.

• Reported speech is in the past tense for news, present tense for features, analysis and opinion pieces. Current reports/studies should also be in the past tense in news, eg the report, which was published on Wednesday, said…

• Use double quotes for speech. If quoting direct, position outside punctuation (“It was a great shock,” he said.). If indirect, position inside punctuation (He said it was “the most shocking thing ever”.)

• Use single quotes for quote within a quote.

• When quoting over more than one paragraph, don’t end the quote at the end of the first paragraph, but do start the next paragraph with an opening double quote mark.

• When introducing a concept, use single quotes on the first mention.

‘St’ endings

Avoid these: it’s while not whilst, among not amongst etc.

That/which

It’s ‘that’ if information is essential but ‘which’ if it’s extra; ‘which’ should always come after a comma.
 ‘This is the house that Jack built.’
 Or, ‘This house, which Jack built, is now falling down’.

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