Category: Assignments

Capitalise an official’s title, or a former official’s title e.g. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former U.S. President George Bush, deposed King Constantine, Attorney General-designate Griffin B. Bell, Acting Mayor Peter Barry.

Honourific or courtesy titles such as Professor, Dean, Mayor, Ambassador and the like are capped when used before a name (e.g., Professor Harold Bloom). In the US, the wife of the president is known as the first lady (no caps). Abbreviate Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr, and only use Mr, Mrs, Ms in quoted material. When necessary to distinguish between two people who use the same last name, as in married couples or brothers or sisters, use the first and last name.

Avoid putting long titles, such as “Professor of Art History” or “Ambassador to the Bahamas” in front of a name, instead writing, “Leo Steinberg, professor of art history,” with the title lowercased. Reserve “Dr” for medical doctors only.

Junior, Senior – If the source insists on the preference, then abbreviate as Jr. and Sr. only with full names of persons. Do not precede by a comma: Martin Luther King Jr.

Use titles of nobility and military, medical and religious titles on first reference only: Lord Ferrars, the Rev Jesse Jackson. Except for obvious cases, e.g., a king or queen, avoid foreign honourifics as it is difficult to be consistent through various cultures. In general it is better to describe people by their job title or position. See military titles.

In most cases it is not necessary to distinguish between assistant, associate or full professors in Reuters stories. Adjunct professors or adjunct instructors are freelancers hired by a college or university, though they may have permanent or semi-permanent status. Depending on the context, it may be germane to note a professor or instructor’s adjunct status.

Hyphenate titles when the first word is a preposition, e.g., under-secretary, vice-admiral, or when a noun is followed by an adjective, e.g., attorney-general. (However, official U.S. titles are not hyphenated, e.g., the U.S. Attorney General.) Do not hyphenate when the noun follows the adjective, e.g., second lieutenant.

Use quote marks for the titles of films, plays and books, but not newspapers or magazines. On their capitalisation, see publications.

Government programmes, campaigns, etc., do not take quotes (Operation Iraqi Freedom). Not every name bears citing: An ad campaign called Latinos for Healthcare to drum up Latino enrollment in Obamacare may not be worth it; Swiftboat Veterans for Truth Against John Kerry may be.

WORD USAGE 

transgender

An umbrella adjective to describe people whose gender identity or expression differs from the sex assigned at birth. A transgender man is somebody who was assigned female at birth and lives as a male. A transgender woman was assigned male at birth and lives as a female. Do not use transgender as a noun; no one should be referred to as “a transgender.”

Always use a transgender person’s chosen name. Do not use the word “chosen” to describe a person’s gender identity; do not write “a person’s chosen gender identity.”

We typically only mention that a person is transgender if it is relevant to the story. For example, no need to describe one of three victims of a random car crash as a transgender person.

If you are not sure which gender pronoun to use, ask. If you can’t ask, then use the one that is consistent with the way a person presents himself or herself. In some situations confusion may be avoided by not using pronouns. Do not use transgendered.transpired

transsexual

The terms transsexual man or transsexual woman should be avoided as they are considered outdated. Unless a person specifically requests to be identified that way, use transgender instead. See transgender.

transvestite

This term is widely regarded as pejorative and should be avoided. Use a simple description or explanation of how the person prefers to be described, e.g., “Award-winning potter Grayson Perry, who frequently dresses as a woman and calls himself Claire…” See transgender.

Twitter, tweet

The microblogging platform and website is Twitter with initial capital letter. The verb is to tweet, tweeted etc, no capital letter. The noun is a tweet meaning a message on Twitter. Use @handle or #hashtag to cite Twitter as a source. But see the Sourcing section of the Handbook for sourcing from Twitter. [[2]]