FAO Editorial Guidelines

Following is a concise list of editorial points to note when preparing an FAO document. Since it is assumed that standard Word text-processing software will be used in the majority of cases, Word shortcut keys have been given where necessary.

Spelling and terminology

  • Follow the first spelling listed in the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Another useful tool is The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors. Compile a custom dictionary on your computer for commonly used words. Ensure that the default language for your document is set to English (UK), by selecting Language from the Tools menu, but note that some FAO terminology differs from this standard.

  • Use z and not s in such words as realize, organization, but beware of words such as advertise, merchandise, analyse, catalyse, paralyse, hydrolyse. Also note the two exceptions, International Labour Organisation and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

  • Use FAO terminology bulletins (also available on computer) for abbreviations, names of countries and specific technical terms.

  • Aim for consistency, particularly in the use of hyphenation.

  • Write: an FAO regulation (NOT a FAO ... ) and the Food and Agriculture (NOT Agricultural) Organization of the United Nations.

  • Avoid sexist language: replace he, mankind, manpower, spokesman, Chairman, etc., by they, human beings/humanity, human resources/labour force, spokesperson, Chairperson and so on.

Punctuation

1. Full stops/full points/periods

  • Leave only one letter space after a full stop at the end of a sentence. This rule applies to all punctuation.

  • Use full stops in contractions such as e.g. and i.e. and in abbreviations such as M.Sc. and Ph.D.

  • Do not use full stops:

    • after people's titles, e.g. Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr;

    • in acronyms, e.g. FAO, UK, USA;

    • after a heading, a photograph or figure caption or a running head;

    • when the last letter of an abbreviated word is the same as that of the original word, e.g. Ltd (limited), St (Saint).

2. Commas

  • Use commas to separate clauses within a compound sentence, especially to prevent possible misreading:

    • The Chairman selected the representative of the Netherlands to lead the subcommittee, and the committee agreed.

  • Avoid overuse of commas. For example, the following sentence has many unnecessary commas:

    • The soil, which, in places, overlies the hard rock of the plateau, is, for the most part, thin and poor.

The same sentence would be better written as such:

    • The soil, which in places overlies the hard rock of the plateau, is for the most part thin and poor.

  • Do not use a comma:

    • after i.e. and e.g.;

    • before "and" in a list, e.g. sheep, goats and oxen.

3. Colons

  • Colons are generally followed by a lowercase letter and are usually used to introduce a list or a definition, e.g. The programme materials will include: handbook, work sheets, etc. However, an initial capital letter is used when a colon is followed by a complete sentence, e.g. Land-use planning can be expressed in the following questions: What is the present situation? Is change desirable?

4. Semicolons

  • Semicolons are used to denote a break that is longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop. A semicolon is followed by an initial lowercase letter (unless the semicolon is followed by a proper noun).

  • See also point No. 9, Random lists/bullets.

5. Parentheses/brackets

  • (When a complete sentence is enclosed in parentheses, its punctuation is also enclosed.)

  • When only part of a sentence is enclosed in parentheses, punctuation is placed outside (as in this example).

  • (Use square brackets [ ìf needed] within parentheses.)

6. Dashes/hyphens

  • Paired "en" dashes – representing parentheses – have a space on either side, whereas hyphens do not (non-governmental). They should not be overused; no more than once per paragraph.

  • Do not use double hyphens to denote an en dash. Press CTRL+MINUS on the numeric keypad to obtain the correct en dash.

  • The tendency for English spelling is not to hyphenate compound nouns or prefixes where the sense is clear, e.g. subeditor, subregion, overuse, database, germplasm, proofreader, etc. Be consistent.

  • Do not hyphenate adverbial clauses such as centrally planned economies or environmentally sound development.

  • Compound adjectives are hyphenated, e.g. long-term planning. Note however planning in the long term, where "long term" is a compound noun.

  • In proper nouns, use uppercase for all principal hyphenated words, e.g. European Commission for the Control of Foot-and-Mouth Disease. Do not capitalize, however, where a hyphen is part of a prefixed word, e.g. Global Confederation of World Food Day Non-governmental Organizations.

  • Use hard (non-breaking) hyphens to avoid awkward word divisions at the end of lines (press CTRL+SHIFT+HYPHEN).

7. Apostrophes

  • Apostrophes signify the genitive or possessive case and appear after the noun in its usual form. Hence, the singular a reader's letter (the letter of one reader) and the plural several readers' letters (the letters of several readers).

  • Do not use an apostrophe when referring to decades, e.g. the 1960s (not the 1960’s) since the s denotes the plural, not the genitive; similarly, do not use an apostrophe to form the plural of acronyms (NGOs, not NGO’s)

  • Note the distinction between it’s (it is) and its (genitive), e.g. It’s something important, but its importance is relative.

8. Quotation marks/inverted commas

  • Reported speech is enclosed in double quotation marks.

  • Where one quotation appears within another, the inner quotation takes single quotes:

    • "When we say ‘urgent’, we mean the day before yesterday," said the originator.

  • Punctuation not referring to the quote itself falls outside the quotation marks

    • Mr Rossi was said to be "resigned to his fate".

  • However, where a complete sentence is quoted, it takes its own punctuation:

    • Mr Rossi was said to be "resigned to his fate in the restructuring. He did not expect miracles."

  • When a quotation is interrupted by words such as she said, a comma represents any punctuation in the original speech,

  • "We will do it by Friday," she said, "so the deadline will be respected."
    If, however, the words quoted are continuous, then the comma does not belong to the quotation and goes outside the quotation marks:

    • "We will do it", she said, "by Friday."

  • Where there are several consecutive paragraphs of speech, open quotation marks at the beginning of the first and every following paragraph; close the quotation marks only at the end of the final paragraph.

9. Random lists/bullets

  • Lists are punctuated in the same way as sentences, unless entries are very short, e.g.:

    • radios

    • televisions

    • cameras

  • When entries are more complex, use initial lowercase letters and end each with a semicolon, except for the final entry, which ends with a full stop. When entries consist of complete sentences, begin each with a capital letter and end each with a full stop.

10. Dots

  • When indicating an omission in text, use three dots with one letter space before and after ... as here, or four to include the full stop at the end of a sentence.

Use of uppercase/capital letters

  • Avoid excessive use of capital letters in text.

  • In headings, subheadings, captions and book titles, use capitals only for the initial letter.

  • When referring to a specific case, use a capital letter:

    • The French Government ruled that ....

  • When using generically, use a lowercase letter:

    • All participating governments were asked to comment on the ruling.

  • Words such as committee and commission take a capital letter only when used as part of a proper name, e.g. the Codex Alimentarius Commission discussed the issue BUT the commission was unable to reach a conclusion.

  • The words Organization and Secretariat only take a capital letter when referring to FAO. Similarly, the Conference of FAO, after it has been mentioned in full, may subsequently be referred to as the Conference (with a capital letter).

Abbreviations and acronyms

  • Abbreviations should always be defined in full the first time they are used in a publication, e.g. the World Health Organization (WHO). They may then be used alone, e.g. According to a WHO spokesperson ....

  • Use FAOTERM to check acronyms.

  • Note that most acronyms do not have full stops, e.g. FAO, not F.A.O.
    Do not abbreviate the names of countries in text, e.g. exports to the United Kingdom (not ... to the UK); and exports to the United States (not ... to the US).

Common errors

  • Avoid split infinitives, e.g. The countries agreed to implement the directives fully (not ... to fully implement ... ).

  • Use the word fewer when referring to quantifiable units, e.g. fewer people, fewer animals. Use less when referring to a singular mass, e.g. less space, less interest.

Numbers, units and dates

1. Numbers

  • Numbers from one to ten inclusive are always written in text as words, and numbers 11 upwards are written as numerals, with the following exceptions:

    • a number that begins a sentence is always written out as a word:

    • Fifteen NGOs were present;

    • where a number accompanies a unit, e.g. 5 cm, 7 percent, US$2;

    • when numbers from both groups are used consecutively, e.g. The number of replies varied, ranging between 2 and 12 per group.

  • Use spaces, not full stops or commas, to denote thousands, millions, etc. (e.g. 10 000, 150 000 000). Note: US$5 000. Use hard (non-breaking) spaces to avoid awkward number divisions at the end of lines (press CTRL+SHIFT+SPACEBAR).

  • Write fractions in words rather than numbers – one-third.

  • For telephone and fax numbers, be consistent in the use of hyphens, parentheses or spaces.

2. Units

  • Use the metric system (tonnes, hectares, etc.), with equivalents in parentheses if necessary.

  • Do not use punctuation or letter spacing in such measurements as 1 cm, 6 mm, 5 g, 10 ha, 30° C.

  • Avoid abbreviating the word litre (as "l" is confusing in text).

  • Use percent (not per cent) in text, e.g. Exports increased by 16 percent in the last quarter. The use of % is acceptable in tables and graphs, e.g. 16% (with no space between the number and the symbol).

3. Dates

  • Write dates in this order: Thursday, 16 October 1997 (with no comma between the month and the year).

  • Do not use apostrophes in decades: e.g. 1990s (see Apostrophes).

  • Do not abbreviate years, i.e. use 1990 and not '90.

  • A range of dates is normally indicated thus: 1995-1996 or from 1995 to 1996 (do not omit the word to, e.g. from 1995-1996). This implies the whole period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 1996 inclusive, whereas 1995/96 implies one crop or fiscal year of 12 months starting in 1995 and ending in 1996.

  • Centuries should be written out in full: the twenty-first century.

4. Time

  • The use of the 24-hour system is preferred (e.g. 0800 hours, 1330 hours). If it is necessary to use the 12-hour system, use full stops as follows: 8.00 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. Be consistent.

5. Currencies

  • Check currency abbreviations in Intranet (FAO Terminology/Names of countries).

  • Abbreviations such as US$ and UK£ may be further abbreviated to $ and £ if defined in an explanatory note. In these two cases, there is no space between the abbreviation and the amount, e.g. US$45 000.

Bibliographical style

  • All references must include: name of author(s), year of publication, title, place of publication and publisher (for books), journal title, volume and pages (for articles).

  • Give the names of all authors of a work in bibliographies.

  • Where there are more than three authors in the bibliography, abbreviate to et al. in the text (but not in the Bibliography).

  • When an author has written more than one work in the same year, use a, b, etc. to differentiate, e.g. 1996a, 1996b.

  • Use the ampersand (&) between the names of the last two authors in the bibliography but use and in the text.

  • Titles of books and journals are italicized (do not use inverted commas). Titles of articles and chapters are not italicized.

  • Following are some examples of bibliographic entries:

  • Haines, S. & Hunter, C. 1996. Exocortis virus of citrus. Citrus Ind., 49(1): 13-17.

    • The article title is in roman and lowercase except for the initial capital letter. The journal title is in italics, abbreviated (unless the title consists of one word only, e.g. Science) and with initial capital letters. Data are ordered as follows: volume number, (issue number in parentheses) followed by a colon and a space, page numbers.

  • McKenzie, J. & Gilbert, J.R. 1990. Editorial guidelines. In J. Wright & L. Cole, eds. Points of style, p. 123-146. Washington, DC, World Resources Institute. 200 pp.

    • The city (place of publication) comes before the publisher. As in this example, when the city is the capital, the country is normally omitted.

    • Note that 200 pp. = 200 pages, whereas p. = page (singular). The first word of the book title takes an initial capital letter followed by lowercase initial letters (like the article title in the first example).

  • FAO. 1999. Harvest operations, by I.M.A. Farmer. FAO Agricultural Services Bulletin No. 362. Rome.

    • Note that FAO should be the corporate author of all FAO copyrighted material.

    • In the case of a corporate author, it is not necessary to repeat the name of the organization publisher.