BA (Hons)
- ‘Hons’ in brackets
bachelor’s degree
- Lower case ‘b’ With apostrophe ‘s’
BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic)
- Upper case, no full stops between letters
Black
- Upper case ‘B’
- When referring to race, use only as an adjective, eg Students from Black or minority ethnic backgrounds
brackets
- Use brackets ( ) sparingly – if you are thinking of putting information in brackets it may not be important enough to include and may distract the reader.
- (If a whole sentence is in brackets, start with a capital letter and keep the punctuation/full stops inside the brackets.)
- Otherwise, keep the punctuation (such as a full stop) outside the brackets.
- Square brackets [ ] are used in direct quotes, when a note from the writer is added to provide essential information eg “I’m not at ease with it [press intrusion] but it’s something I have to accept.”
Britain, Great Britain, England
- England denotes only one of the four principal territories making up the United Kingdom (though American writers often use England for Britain). So look out for this when editing copy and replace with one of the below where the writer actually means the countries that make up the UK or Great Britain.
- Avoid use of Britain on its own. The name Britain is ambiguous as it may be short for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, or only for Great Britain (England, Scotland, and Wales), though the first is more usual.
- Instead use either Great Britain (when referring to England, Scotland, and Wales) or use United Kingdom (when referring to England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland).
- Use British when referring to people belonging to or relating to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, eg She holds the British record for rowing...
BROOKESbus, BROOKESkey
- Each is one word with ‘Brookes’ in caps and bus/key lower case
Brookes Union
- Upper case, no apostrophe
BSc (Hons)
- Lower case ‘c’, ‘Hons’ in brackets
bullet points
- Long bullets should be treated as full sentences and should start with a capital letter and be punctuated as appropriate.
- If your bullet points follow as part of a sentence, start each point with lower case letters and put a full stop at the end of the last point, eg:
The advantages of living in halls include:
- it’s easy to budget - no utility bills
- most rooms are en suite
- support is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
- basic contents insurance is included.