Buckinghamshire New University style guide

A
A words
accommodation
advice (noun), to advise (verb)
adviser (not advisor)
affect (make a difference to)
ageing (not aging)
A-level
all right (your answers are all right)
alright (are you alright?)
alumni (plural)
alumnus/alumna (singular)
alumnae (plural female)
amend, amendment
among, not amongst
analyse
AS-level
audio-visual
autumn, spring, summer, winter
A–Z guide
Accents
Only use accents on foreign words, and don’t do so if the word has been
anglicised, eg cafe, fiance.
Exceptions:
Précis
Exposé (to distinguish from expose)
To insert accents in Word documents go to the Insert menu and choose Symbol.
Acronyms and abbreviations
Peppering your documents with capitals and abbreviations can be confusing to
your readers. Don’t assume everyone knows what the initials stand for – unless
the organisation concerned is commonly referred to in its abbreviated form, for
example BBC, RAC.
Write out the full name the first time you use it, followed by the shortened version
in brackets. After that, just use the abbreviation. (If you only use the term once,
then you don’t need to add the abbreviation in brackets unless it is a useful piece
of information.)
Example:
The School of Design, Craft & Visual Arts (DCVA) offers a wide range of
courses in the creative industries. DCVA offers an exciting range of vocational
programmes.
Note: When using initials, plurals do not take an apostrophe and the ‘s’ is lower
case, eg LAs.
6 Buckinghamshire New University Style Guide