CyprusNewsReport.com Style Guide

CyprusNewsReport.com Style Guide

CyprusNewsReport.com follows New Journalism which combines storytelling and opinion with facts. 

1. Use the information pyramid. Start with the most important information followed by lower priority information. 

2. The lead sentence must contain the most important information whether it’s the facts or a poetic and metaphorical entry into the story. 

3. Keep it simple, no jargon or complicated language.

4. Paragraphs should be no more than three or four sentences.

5. Keep sentences short where possible. 

6. Use English spelling of words but be flexible because there may be situations where the American spelling is appropriate. 

7. Break up the text with relevant sub-titles every three to four paragraphs. 

8. Use the present tense where relevant and appropriate and keep the tenses consistent. 

9. Quotation citations should follow the quoted text: “The new law applies from today,” said Minister XYZ. ‘The new law applies from today, according to Minister XYZ.’

10. If you don’t understand something, don’t release the story until you understand it. 

11. Keep the tone informal and plain with understated eloquence and literacy.

12. Use abbreviations after first writing the name in full. Eg. United Nations (UN). 

13. Start sentences with ‘and’ and ‘but’ where it makes an impact. 

14. Titles: use capitals when the title precedes the name. Use lower-case when the title follows the name. Eg. Captain Rogers. Rogers, captain of the boat. 

15. Don’t be boring, keep your text lively and alive.

16. Hyphenate compound adjectives: eg. Greek-and-Turkish Cypriots, a well-honed leg, up-to-date article. If a compound adjective ends in ‘ly’ do not hyphenate: eg. specially designed graphics.

17. Website names should be spelled like this: CyprusNewsReport.com. Capitalise the first letter of each word.

18. If you’re adding a prefix like ‘pre’, ‘un’, ‘non’ or ‘anti’ to a proper adjective like European, English), use a hyphen: un-European behaviour, non-European countries. 

19. Spell out the word percentage, don’t use the % sign.

20. If you have to, break the rules with discretion for the sake of your article. 

21. Use contractions such as ‘don’t’ and ‘won’t’ unless there is a need for emphasis - ‘I do not lie’.

22. Use the Oxford comma where it’s supposed to be used, to avoid misunderstandings. 

‘I chose between orange-yellow, blue, and orange.’ If the comma after ‘blue’ was missing the reader might think the choice was blue and orange rather than just blue.

23. We refer to the two largest communities in Cyprus as the Greek-Cypriots and Turkish-Cypriots.

24. We refer to Turkey’s 1974 military actions in Cyprus as war, invasion and occupation.

25. We refer to the occupied north.

26. We refer to the Turkish-Cypriot community and are in line with the Republic of Cyprus’ (RoC) and European Union (EU) positions which do not recognise the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).