Don’t be fooled into thinking that style is any less important than substance

In most style guides there is a ‘banned list’: the ragtag collection of cliches, flaccid phrases or affectations that have angered enough chief subs over the years to have been culled from the pages altogether

(Chris Dlugosz/flickr/Creative Commons)

Every news organisation, from the grand national broadcasters to upstart websites, has a style guide of some description. It’s the set of rules that makes life easier for reporters, avoids newsroom arguments, and makes sure readers aren’t lost in a fog of inconsistency.

Some style guides are gargantuan beasts, painstakingly compiled by editors over years, others barely stretch to a couple of sides of A4 for the most essential elements.

The basics are obvious. We need hard and fast rules for how to write out currencies, how to refer to high court judges, which profanities to asterisk into oblivion, or the form of words to take when reporting from disputed territories.