Editing and proofreading

British style

This section covers some common differences between American and British English spelling and punctuation encountered in PATH documents.

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In most cases, PATH documents should use standard American spelling and punctuation; however, British spelling and punctuation is fine if appropriate for the primary audience.

Dates

British style for dates is day month year: 1 January 2023.

Full stop

In British punctuation, a period is a full stop. Mr, Mrs, and Dr are written without a full stop.

Numbers

In four-digit numbers, do not use a comma: 4239. In five- and six-digit numbers, separate the first two or three numbers from the last three with a space: 10 817.

Quotation marks

Typical British usage prefers single quotation marks, with punctuation outside the quotation marks unless part of the quoted material:

  • ‘The pandemic has shifted multiple paradigms for vaccine development’, says Dr Bhat. ‘We must ensure that rapid inclusion of pregnant people is one of them’.
  • The moderator asked the panelists, ‘What can we do to improve the supply chain?’
  • Did you read the article where Dr Mahmood stated that ‘global demand for IPV is growing’?

PATH style prefers the use of italics to denote words referred to as words (see also Formatting PATH documents / Italics). However, in situations where quotation marks are used for this purpose, the same rules apply:

  • The Uniject™ injection system is described as 'autodisable', 'prefilled', and 'single-dose'.
  • The Uniject™ injection system is described as 'autodisable'; the SoloShot™ syringe is also in this category.

To see these examples in American style, go to Punctuation and special characters / Quotation marks.

Spelling

A hallmark of British spelling is the use of a double letter l in many words that contain only a single letter l in American English (with some exceptions). The following are British spellings of words commonly used in PATH documents:

acknowledgement

amongst

anaemia

analyse

authorisation

behaviour

caesarean

centre

characterise

computerise

colour

counselled, counselling, counsellor

diarrhoea

emphasise

enrol(s), enrolment

finalise

foetal

formalise

generalisability

gynaecology

haemorrhage

immunisation

internalise

itemise

labour

learnt

legalisation

litre

minimise

mobilise

modelled, modelling

nationalisation

optimise

organisation

paediatric

practice [noun], practise [verb]

prioritisation

programme

randomise

rationalise

realise

recognise

scrutinise

specialise

stabilise

sterilise

stigmatise

summarise

theatre

titre

towards

travelled, traveller, travelling

unsterilised

utilisation

whilst

For a guide to American spelling—not necessarily of the words listed here—see Spelling.