BF STYLE GUIDE

Last updated: 01/10/2024

In common with most publishers, British Fencing maintains a style guide covering both written and audiovisual content.
The purpose of this style guide is to lend clarity and consistency to any piece of content communicated by fencing. It is driven by a set of three key principles.

Content should be clear, to the point and written in context. It shouldn’t assume knowledge on the part of the reader and should always add value to the subject on which it is written.

Communicating the message clearly is more important than perfect English. Reading out loud whatever is written is the easiest way to check that it makes sense.

The audience is more important than the author – and it is the author’s job to make sure that writing is comprehensible, interesting and valuable.

This style guide does not teach grammar, writing techniques or proper spelling apart from specialist terms of art – there are other online resources for that.

 

Accordions

Accordions are a WordPress feature that groups information on a page or post which have to be opened, like the bellows of an accordion, by the user. An example of such a page can be found here: 2024 British Open

They are used to add clarity when there is a large amount of information on a page or topic, not all of which will be relevant to all users. They enable users to find the information they are looking for rapidly without having to scroll through a great deal of text.

Accordions are added by changing the default template in Page Attributes (on the right in the page editor) to ‘Scroll content’, and then using the formulation:

in the body text of the post. This will add an accordion editor below the main editor. You can add as many as you need to.

If you are not sure whether your page needs accordions, please ask the comms team.

(Please also note spelling: accordion, not accordian)

Accuracy

Producing accurate content builds a trusting audience. Facts, figures and spelling of names should be double checked.

Spelling and grammatical mistakes should be minimised but will still occur, especially in an age where speed is critical. Feedback from colleagues and external sources is always welcome and improvements to content should be implemented as quickly as possible.

Acronyms

Acronyms, initialisms and abbreviations always assume knowledge on behalf of the reader, and should be avoided wherever possible (even if other organisations use them).

Some acronyms, initialisms or abbreviations are equally or more recognisable than the name of that organisation spelled out in full; if you are certain this is a case, the acronym should be used. Examples include BBC, IOC, UNESCO and NBC.

BF is our well-established short form of British Fencing, however, in any public facing document, British Fencing should be used at first instance. BF may be used on second and subsequent mentions, and in headlines.

Buttons

Buttons on webpages are what is known in the world of web design as ‘calls to action’ – something that indicates to the user that they are taking a specific action to do something – often enter information into a form. They are not links, which usually provide further information. Links are covered in the model post: How to use links

At BF we only use buttons on webpages to link externally to either a Smartsheet document or to Sport:80, in both cases when we are directing users to a form. Don’t use them for any other reason without contacting the comms team first.

To get the code for a button, go to this page in edit mode and copy the below from the visual editor, then paste into your page or post and change the URL link and text as necessary.

Capital letters

Capitalisation is a curse of the sports movement, making prose difficult to read, and adding emphasis to words that do not need or deserve it. In general, capital letters should be avoided wherever possible.

Capital letters should only be used on the first letter of each sentence, on the first letter of each word of a proper noun, official nouns where specified and acronyms where their use is necessary.

BF makes an exception to capitalisation for events, genders and weapons only in the context of specific named events at a competition.

Sandie took a bronze medal in Senior Women’s Foil at the competition. 
Sandie, at her first senior competition, took a medal in the Women’s Foil.

Note: do not capitalise weapon-specific nouns (foillist, epeeist, sabreur)

The following table is a guide.

Capitals

Mixed case

Lower case

British Fencing

Olympic record

fencing

Olympic Games

European champions (unspecific)

gold, silver, bronze medals

European Games

Olympic champions (unspecific)

men’s competition

BBC

European record

world championships

 

Categories

Competition categories follow the naming convention:

AGEGROUP / GENDER / WEAPON / EVENT

AGEGROUP is ignored for senior competition and all parts are optional depending on context.

Cadet Women’s Sabre team
Men’s Foil individual (competition)
Junior Women’s Epee
Women’s Sabre mixed team
etc.

 

Competition (naming)

Use this format:  YEAR / COMPETITION / LOCATION (for international comps)

2024 Senior European Championships Basel
2024 British Senior Championships

Epee

Traditionally written as épée in the original French, at BF it is written out in the English rendering with no acute accent on the first or second ‘E’. As fencing is an Olympic sport, this is harmonious with IOC practice which removes diacritical marks wherever possible.

The exception is when referring to the Epée Club, which uses the second accent only.

Exclamation marks

These are not usually used in most journalism contexts and are not usually part of formal informative writing either. Avoid them on the BF website unless strictly necessary.

Exclamation marks work better in other contexts – e.g. social media posts celebrating achievement.

Dates

Dates are written in the following format: (D)D Month YYYY. All of the below are acceptable, depending on context.

Friday 12th January 2018
Friday 12th January
12th January 2018
12th January
5th January

Use dates or days of the week rather than ’today’, ‘tomorrow’ or ’yesterday’ for clarity.

Numbers

In prose, spell out numbers from one to nine. Use figures from 10 upwards.

In prose, spell out placings from first to ninth. Use figures from 10th upwards.

The exceptions to this rule are when describing multiple placings.

 “The GBR athletes placed 8th, 9th and 13th.”

A sentence should never start with a digit. If necessary, the sentence should be rearranged or the number written out.

Twenty-two-year-old fencer Sandie Sword….

Quotations

Quotations should be written out in full where possible, with highlights taken only in context to improve flow of text or taken out of quotation to be explained in prose.
Quotations are written in double quotation marks with all punctuation inside, except when a partial quotation, and the word ‘said’ should be used in all news cases. Descriptive synonyms of ‘said’ should only be used when writing a feature piece or to give context to a quotation.

Scores

Final scores are written in number format for clarity. The winning score always comes first, even if the text refers to the loser.

Social media

Social media posts should be informative, engaging or emotional. If a planned social media post does not fulfil one of these purposes then it should not be used. Posting content for the sake of posting is heavily discouraged as it will lead to low engagement and therefore low-value returns.

Branding, tone and attitude across social media platforms should be consistent, although actual content should be tailored to the specific audiences of each platform.

Spacing

Do not use double spacing in body copy. Space bars should only be clicked once, not twice.

 

Speech marks

Double speech marks (“”) should be used for all specific quotations, whether separated or embedded in text. If a quotation spans multiple paragraphs, speech marks should close and open each paragraph.

 

Spellings

Sport:80

not Sport 80 or Sport80

Updating Posts

If you make any material* update to a post, you should add the date it was updated, in this format, underneath the headline or subheadline in italics if one exists, like this:

Last updated: 08/08/2023

Please note all elements of the above:

Italics and a colon
Last updated (not Last Updated or Updated)
Date in number format with slashes and year written out in full.

*Material update means anything that changes the meaning in any way, which includes everything that is not fixing minor typos or formatting issues. If in doubt, add a Last updated

 

YouTube naming conventions

to follow

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