Economist Style Guide - Redress Information & Analysis

Preface
Every newspaper has its own style book, a set of rules telling
journalists whether to write e-mail or email, Gadaffi or Qaddafi ,
judgement or judgment. The Economist’s style book does this and a bit
more. It also warns writers of some common mistakes and encourages
them to write with clarity and simplicity.
All the prescriptive judgments in the style guide are directly
derived from those used each week in writing and editing The
Economist.
This ninth edition of the “The Economist Style Guide” is in three
parts. The first is based on the style book used by those who edit
The Economist; it is largely the work of John Grimond, who has over
the years been Britain, American and foreign editor. The second, on
American and British English, describes some of the main differences
between the two great English-speaking areas, in spelling, grammar and
usage.
To make the style guide of greater general interest, Part 3 consists
of information drawing on the reference books published under
The Economist Books imprint and expanded to include handy
reference material that might appeal to readers of The Economist.
Such information is checked and new matter included for every new
edition. For this edition the text in Part 3 has been extensively reviewed
and reorganised to make the book more modern and up to date.
Throughout the text, italic type is used for examples except where
they are presented in lists, when the type is Roman, as this text is.
Words in bold indicate a separate but relevant entry, that is, a crossreference.
Small capitals are used only in the way The Economist uses
them, for which see the entries abbreviations and capitals.
vi