Section I: INTRODUCTION

Section II: BLOGGER PROFILE

Section III: GRAMMAR

Section IV: COMMON WORDS AND ERRORS

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Foreign Policy Association’s Foreign Policy Blogs network!  We have provided you with this short style guide to help you acquaint yourself with the network and FPB’s rules and regulations.

We ask that blogger’s posts adhere to the editorial values of the Foreign Policy Association (nonpartisan, informative and thought-provoking), follow our adapted AP Style in accordance with the newest version of the AP Style Guide, and should not be used as a vehicle to promote personal political views. Bloggers who violate these guidelines are subject to removal from the network without notice.

Bloggers are requested to use American English spellings regardless of location with the exception of proper nouns and quotations.  Non-American English spellings will be changed during the editing process.

For any questions or concerns, contact your section’s senior blogger, Hannah Gais.

BLOGGER PROFILE AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

Blogger Bio:

All bloggers are required to have a bio and picture.  Bloggers without a bio and picture will not show up on our “Our Bloggers” page.  You should also include:

• Your website (if you have one);
• Your Twitter handle (if you have one) – for instance “Follow me on Twitter @username”;
• A bit about your education, work history and area(s) of expertise.

All blogger bios should be in the third person.

Images for your profile can be any size, but we request that they be headshots.  Images that are not properly rotated prior to uploading will not show up properly.  Most free image manipulation software in OS X, Linux and Windows allows you to do this with ease.

Social Networks:

The Foreign Policy Association posts features to its Twitter page on a daily basis. We request that bloggers use the handle #FPABlogs whenever posting blogs to their personal Twitter feed. The Blogs and Communications Assistant will review the FPA Bloggers List on a regular basis and retweet posts sometimes as well.

Blogs are also posted to the Foreign Policy Association’s Facebook Timeline on a daily basis as well.

GRAMMAR

Punctuation

Colon (:) – the first word after a colon should only be capitalized if and only if it is either a proper noun or the start of a complete sentence.

• We saw five kinds of animals at the zoo: lions, zebras and penguins.

Comma (,) – Unless it’s a simple series, a comma should always be used prior to the conjunction.

• Simple Series: “I went to the store to buy milk, cheese and bread.”
• Concluding conjunction: “For breakfast, I had coffee, toast, and eggs and ham.”
• Complex Series: “We cannot yet be certain that the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan will be success.  It is a question of if there will be another civil war, if outside forces will destabilize the region, and if the current administration works towards growth and reform.”

dash (–) — Make a dash by striking the hyphen key twice. Put a space on either side of the dash:

• Smith offered a plan — it was unprecedented — to raise revenues.

Hyphen (-):

• Do not use a hyphen to denote abrupt change – always use a dash.
• Use a hyphen when the compound adjective occurs before the noun (e.g., a 20-year-old man). Do not use a hyphen when the compound adjective occurs after the verb (e.g., the artists at the show were well known).

italics (italics):

• Use for book names (War and Peace), additional emphasis and transliterated foreign words ONLY. Do not use for movies, plays or musical album titles, which should be in quotation marks (e.g., “Downfall”).
• Journal and magazine names should not be italics.

Parentheses ( ):

• You shouldn’t need to use these often. If you find yourself doing so, rewrite the sentence. Try to use commas, dashes or separate sentences.

Quotation Marks (“ ”)

• Periods and commas should always go inside quotation marks.
  • She once said, “I’ll go to the store and be back home at 5:00 PM.
• Dashes, semicolons, question marks and exclamation points go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted material. They go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.
  • And then she told me I’m like a character in “Bleak House”!
  • My mother asked, “Where did you go yesterday?”
• Use single quotes for dialogue within a quotation.
  • “Fathers and teachers, I ponder, ‘What is hell?’ I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.” The Brothers Karamazov, p. 312

Abbreviations

• Two letter abbreviations – always use a period between each letter.
  • For example: U.K., U.S., U.N., etc.
  • n.b., EU does not have any period between the letters.
  • In the case of the U.S.: See manual for list of abbreviations for individual states.
• Longer abbreviations – do not uses periods but always capitalize.
  • CIA, NSA, FBI, AFL-CIO, etc.
• In all cases, avoid awkward constructions. If an abbreviation is not clear on second reference, do not use the abbreviation first and then put the full title in commas or parentheses.
  • The Federal Bureau of Investigation is conducting a search, not The FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, is conducting a search.
• Abbreviations cannot always be used on second reference.  Please refer to this year’s edition of the “AP Stylebook” or “Common Words and Errors” for more information.

Dates

• Always use Arabic figures.  No st, nd, rd or th.
• When referring to a specific date, abbreviate only Jan., Feb., Mar., Apr., Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov. and Dec.
• If listing only a month and a year, do not use a comma to separate the month and year (e.g., February 2012 not February, 2012).

COMMON WORDS AND ERRORS

academic degrees — use an apostrophe in bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, etc.
administration – always lowercase.  For example, “the president’s administration.”
Related: administrator – always lowercase as well unless used as a formal title before a name.
ages — always use figures.  Use hyphens for ages expressed as adjectives before a noun or as substitutes for a noun (e.g., a 10-year-old girl or the girl is 10 years old).
aka — no spaces required.
a.m., p.m. – Always lowercase.
ampersand (&) – only use as part of a company’s formal name.  Do not use as a replacement for “and” in blog posts.
Arabic names — use an English spelling approximating what that name sounds like in Arabic.  While individuals may be commonly known by two names, use their preferred name.  Similarly, the al- or el- may be used/dropped depending on the individual’s preference.  (e.g., Ayman al-Zawahri, Moammar Gadhafi). Other noteworthy points include:

• ibn or bin — may be used but dropped on second reference.
• abu or abou — “father of” can be sometimes used as a last name.  Repeat on second reference.
• Abdul — “servant of God.” Does not stand alone; is hyphenated when placed alongside the other part of the name (e.g., Abdul-Mahdi).
• emir, sheik, king, etc. — Some may be known by the title and a given name while others by a complete name.  Follow common usage on second reference.  Similarly, drop the title and use only the first name on second reference.  If the full name of a Gulf royal uses “al” (family of), capitalize it.
• al — Should be capitalized in front of names of institutions.

army, air force, navy, coast guard, marines, etc. – capitalize when referring to U.S. forces and regulations.  For instance, “U.S. Navy,” “U.S. Air Force,” “Air Force regulations,” etc., should be capitalized.  “Navy” should be lowercase when referring to another country’s navy.  For instance, the French navy.
because, since — “because” denotes a cause-effect relationship; “since” may be acceptable in a casual sense if an event led logically to another event so long as the first event was not the direct cause.
Bureau –capitalize when part of a formal name of an organization.  Leave lowercase when using it to denote corporate subdivisions.
Cabinet – Capitalize to refer to a specific body of advisers – “Barack Obama’s Cabinet.”
cease-fire, cease-fires (n. and adj.) — verb is “cease fire.”
Chinese names — Use official Chinese spelling system, Pinyin.  For personal names, place surnames first and then given names.  Second reference is the family name.  Follow local spellings in stories dealing with Hong Kong and Taiwan.
composition titles — Apply for books, computer games, movies, operas, plays, poems, albums/songs, radio/TV and program titles.  Capitalize principle words, an article if it is the first or last word in a title, and put quotation marks around the names of books — with the exception of reference books, the Bible, catalogs, directories, dictionaries, encyclopedias, gazetteers, handbooks, and other publications. Always translate a foreign title into English unless it is commonly known by its foreign name.
Congo, the Congo – acceptable in second reference.
Congress – capitalize to refer to both the U.S. Congress and foreign entities (e.g., the Argentine Congress).  Do not capitalize when being used as a synonym for convention.
Coup d’etat – coup is typically sufficient.
Cyber-, cyberspace – Do not use a hyphen before a word starting with a consonant.
decades – Use Arabic numerals.  For example: 1980s, ‘50s.  Do not use an apostrophe between numerals and the “s.”
Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, Department of Commerce, Department of the Treasury, Department of State, etc. – Avoid acronyms whenever possible.  As is common practice, retain the capitalization if the name is flipped (e.g., State Department).  When plural, “departments” should be lowercase, but the element that is a proper name must be capitalized (e.g., the departments of State and Defense).
directions – When referring to compass directions, north, south, east and west should typically be lowercase.  When referring to regions, however, capitalize these.  For instance, “the Midwest” should be capitalized.
Unless a country is politically divided and compass directions designate different countries, do not capitalize these words.  For instance, say “Northern Ireland” but not “northern France.”
Doctors Without Borders – group prefers French name, Medicins Sans Frontieres.
e.g. – lowercase, with periods, and with a comma after the final period — e.g., it ought to be written like this.  The same rules apply for i.e. and n.b.
essential clauses, nonessential clauses

• Essential clause — cannot be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence.  Not set off by commas.  “That” is the preferred pronoun to introduce essential clauses; however, “which” may be used only if “that” has already been used in the same sentence.
• Nonessential clause — can be eliminated without changing the meaning of the sentence.  Always set off by commas, and the preferred pronoun is “which” when referring to a inanimate object or animal without a name.

essential phrases, nonessential phrases

• Essential phrase — critical to the reader’s understanding of the author’s point.  Should not be set off by commas.
• Nonessential phrase — provides more information about a subject, but is not necessary to the reader’s ability to understand the author’s point.  Should be set off by commas.

European Union – Do not use periods.  Common practice is EU.
first lady – Do not capitalize.  Not a formal title.
Foreign legislative bodies – Capitalize the proper name of a particular branch abroad (e.g., the Knesset); however, if using an English equivalent (e.g., Russia’s parliament), keep the English term lowercase.
Foreign money – Foreign currencies should be converted to current U.S. dollars. Contact the editor regarding exceptions.
G-8 – Use a hyphen.  The same rules apply for the G-7, G-20, etc.
Geneva Conventions
Government bodies – Capitalize the government body if the full name is given, if it is without jurisdiction but location is clear, if the names are flip-flopped, and if a generic term has become equivalent to a proper noun in popular use (e.g., Walpole State Prison).  The lowercase should be used for plurals (e.g., the New York and Massachusetts legislatures).
hopefully — Means “in a hopeful manner.”  Do not use to mean “it is hoped,” “let us hope” or “we hope.”
International Criminal Court — On second reference, use “international court” or “world court.”  Do not abbreviate.
International Monetary Fund — IMF is acceptable on second reference.
left wing (n.), left-winger (n.), left-wing (adj.); right wing (n.), right-wing (adj.), right-winger (n.)
military titles – See AP Stylebook for a full listing of these titles.
mujahedeen — lowercase when using the term to refer to “holy warriors;” capitalize it when used to refer to the name of a group.  Singular is “mujahed.”
party affiliation — not always necessary to include, and may be pointless at some times.  Short forms (such as D-Minn) should get set off from the name by commas.  Use three letter combinations for anything other than Democrat or Republican, e.g., Independent should be Ind. and not I.
president — Capitalize only as a formal title before one or more names.  Lowercase in all other uses.
quotations in the news — Do not routinely use abnormal spellings like “gonna” to convey dialects or mispronunciations.
Republican, Republican Party — GOP may be used on second reference.
second reference — with the exception of a few prominent organizations (e.g., EU), all abbreviations must be defined in full on first reference, including several government agencies.
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) — START may be used on first reference as long as there is no confusion as to what it’s referring to.