STYLE GUIDE - Go To Bermuda · 2016. 11. 17. · BERMUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY: STYLE GUIDE -2 -VOICE Bermuda has its own way of life and its own way of speaking. When the Bermuda brand

STYLE GUIDE

Last revised: November 1, 2016

BERMUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY: STYLE GUIDE

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VOICE Bermuda has its own way of life and its own way of speaking. When the Bermuda brand speaks, it should always be:

• RELAXED – never rushed, never pushy • GENUINE – if it’s not true to Bermuda, it’s not for us to say; we never compare ourselves to

other destinations • PROUD – Bermuda has a certain swagger; we’re not afraid to let you know we’re out here • REFRESHING – if another island can say it, we don’t need to; we are above the sea of sameness • PROVOCATIVE – there’s a certain mystique that surrounds Bermuda; we should leverage that

intrigue to our advantage

NOTE: Only attempt this one after you master the first four PROPER: Queen’s English Spelling should be used (see general considerations) YOU vs. OUR: Using the word YOU makes your customers feel ownership. The best way you can help your prospects understand “what’s in it for them” is to use or say the word YOU. By wording with YOU, your customers will unconsciously experience owning and using your experience. Your messages instantly become more personal and the customer will feel you are genuinely interested in helping them. This also goes for the word YOUR. Use “our” sparingly.


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SAMPLE WORD LIST When writing materials for Bermuda, language should be engaging, energetic and hint at what it means to be “Out There.” The following is by no means a definitive word list, but suggests the type of adjective choice preferred (when used appropriately). YES NO Mystique Secretive Original Authentic Colourful Rustic Welcoming Friendly Genuine Distinct Elegant Chic Uncharted Remote Peaceful Lazy Secluded Beachy Adventurous Cool Alluring Charming Romantic Exotic Casual Random Natural Refined


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A

ABBREVIATIONS: Unless a term and its abbreviation are so well known and interchangeable (for example, JPEG), spell out the complete term the first time it is used and include the abbreviation in parentheses; for example, Bermuda Tourism Authority (BTA) in the first reference. Each subsequent use of the term should just use the abbreviation. ADDRESSES: In articles, spell out Road, Street, etc. within copy. For example: on the corner of Burnaby and Front Streets. In listings, abbreviate Rd., St., Ave., Hwy., etc. AMPERSANDS: Use the “&” symbol in headlines, section headings and navigation headers. Spell out “and” in body copy unless a proper name of a place or business uses the “&” symbol

B

B2B: Use all caps, do not use “b-to-b” or “B-to-B.” BERMUDA SLANG:

• Catch & Cook – Catch your own fish and cook it • Traditional codfish breakfast – served on Sundays • Rum Swizzle- traditional rum drink • Wopnin-What’s happening? • Onion- A born and bred Bermudian • Black – Short for Gosling’s Black Seal Rum • Bermy- locals shortening the word Bermuda • The Rock or De Rock - locals call Bermuda this • Greeze – a big meal or food in general • Ace Boy/Ace Girl – What you call your Bermudian BFF • Chingas – an expression of surprise or delight • Bermp! Bermp!- a salutation of excitement • Aye Bye – Hey boy or male child • Cup Match - a public holiday unique to the island of Bermuda, is a time in which the community

enjoys a two-day celebration of camping, boating, swimming and most importantly cricket • Crown and Anchor- Bermudian Board Game played during Cup Match • Shark Oil – Custom to see if it will rain or not

BLOGOSPHERE: lowercased BLOGS: lowercased, short for weblogs (also acceptable) BROADBAND: one word; no capitals

C

CELLPHONE: all one word, but mobile phone is two words CLICK-THROUGH: one word, hyphenated


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COLONS: In a headline, capitalize the first word after a colon. Example: The X-Factor: The Best Factor COMPANY NAMES: Respect all companies’ rights to control the spelling and punctuation of their names; our main responsibility is to retain readability. For this reason, please follow standard grammar rules for spelling company names.

• Example: The Ritz-Carlton, not the Ritz

Companies are an entity and should be referred to as an “it” not a “they.”

• Example: BTA reported significant gains in its second quarter of 2016 (not: BTA reported significant losses in their second quarter of 2016).

COMMAS: Put commas between the first two items, not the last in a list.

• Example: Bermuda is beautiful, perfect and convenient.

D

DARK ‘N STORMY ®: Trademarked cocktail made with Gosling’s Black Seal Rum and ginger beer DASHES: Dashes – Use the en dash (–), not the longer em dash (—), to indicate an abrupt pause in copy or to connect times and dates spanning different months or times of day:

• Try the famous Dark’ n Stormy® – Bermuda’s national drink – at any bar on Front Street • Cup Match takes place March 28–April 2 • Brunch at Marcus on Sundays from 11 am–2 pm

Hyphens – Only use the hyphen (-) to join words to words, or numbers to numbers

• Two-story deck • Well-known artist • 1-3 pm


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DATES, DAYS & MONTHS:

• Avoid using th or st after numerals in dates. For example: April 8, not: April 8th. • Spell out month names in full in articles. In calendar listings, abbreviate months without periods:

– Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, June, July, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec • Spell out days of the week in articles. In calendar listings, abbreviate days without periods:

– Mon, Tues, Wed, Thur, Fri, Sat, Sun • Remember to include a comma after the year if a full date is given (for example, “On October

11, 2007, the NCAA ruled.”). No comma is needed when only the month and year are used (for example, “The America’s Cup will take place in June 2017.”).

• When writing numerical dates, use MM/DD/YYYY. For example: 12/31/2016

DEGREES: Spell out in articles; use symbols in listings and charts (for example: 10 degrees in articles and 10° in listings and charts). DOTCOM: one word; for example: “Ever since the dotcom implosion…” “It’s been a great year for dotcoms” DO’S AND DON’TS: Note where the apostrophe is. Add an “s” to “don’t.” For example: Below is a list of do’s and don’ts for your next online media buy.

E

EMAIL: never hyphenate e-mail, not eMail, email. ETC.: always abbreviate and use a period at the end. EXCLAMATION POINTS: Use sparingly, if ever


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F

FILE FORMATS AND SOFTWARE ABBREVIATIONS: As a general rule, use all-capital-letter abbreviations for formats that are acronyms. (there’s no need to write these out on first use): GIF JPEG MP3 PDF Capitalize only the first letter of proprietary program names: Flash Java

H

HEADLINES, capitalization in: Headlines Should Appear in Initial Capitals. HEADLINES, writing guidelines: When writing headlines, our main goal is readability. Here are some general guidelines to follow:

Use the target SEO keywords for the page in headlines where possible. These are words users are likely to be searching for in the content.

Do not apply extra spacing, bold or ALLCAPS styles to headlines on the site. H2 and H2 styles have been set up within the website CSS. Simply applying the H2 or H3 setting to the content will ensure it renders properly on the front end. Adding additional bold or allcaps to the content will create visual inconsistencies and complicate making visual style changes to the website if they are needed later.

HYPHENS: Hyphens are joiners. Use them to avoid ambiguity or to form a single idea from two or more words. As a general rule, compound nouns do not need a hyphen; compound adjectives do.

• Real-time processing • She played the game in real time • Hyphenate multi-dimensional, multi-channel, multi-cultural. Exception: multimedia • Do not use a hyphen between adverbs ending in -ly and adjectives they modify. For example:

o an easily remembered rule o a badly damaged island o a fully informed woman

I

ITALICS: See Titles

J


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JPEG: Capitalized, with no period at the end,

M

MEDIA: Always use as the plural version of medium (never mediums), but paraphrase where possible; for example: “ad channels.” MEDIUM: Use as the singular form of media. MILLENNIAL: Capitalize MULTIPLES: Do not use a hyphen in “five times,”, but hyphenate “six-fold,” etc.

N

NONPROFIT: one word NUMBERS:

• Spell out all whole numerals less than 10. For example, “one” instead of “1.” All numbers greater than nine are in numeric form; for example: 12, 33, 10,000

– Exception: If it’s not a whole number (for example: 5.2, 3.6), use the numbers; for example: 5.2 percent and 1.5 grams.

– Exception: At the start of a sentence, always spell out numbers. – Exception: Numbers less than 9 that are accompanied by a dollar sign or percent sign

should use numerical spellings (for example: $9 million; 4 percent raise) – Exception: Use numbers in headlines.

• For ages, follow general number rules. For percentages, always use numbers. – Example: She was only eight years old when the earthquake struck. – Example: Only a two-year-old child would know how to do that. – Example: The company’s earnings rose 4 percent over last year’s 10 percent drop.

• When referring to quantities of millions and billions, numbers should be used, and not just in reference to money.

– Example: His new salary was $12.5 billion. – Example: There were 256 million starving children. – Example: The nation has 1 million citizens.

• Spell out numbers that start a sentence; if the result is awkward, recast the sentence. – Example: Twenty-seven detainees were released yesterday. – Example: Yesterday, 993 freshmen entered the college. – The one exception to this rule is in a sentence that begins with a calendar year.

Example: 1938 was a turbulent year for Leon. • Use Roman numerals for wars, monarchs, and popes.

– Example: World War II – Example: King George VI

• Spell out casual expressions. – Example: A thousand times no. – Example: Thanks a million.


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O

OFFLINE: one word ONLINE: one word ON THE ISLAND - Use this term instead of on island OPT-IN: two words, hyphenated

P

PAY-PER-CLICK (PPC): hyphenated PDF: all capitals, no period PERCENT: Spell the word percent out in articles. Only use the symbol (%) in headlines to save space. PART: When referring to parts in the title of an article, capitalize “Part.” But do not use Part 1 in headlines

• “Behavioral Targeting Secrets (Part 2)”

POP-UP: two words, hyphenated PHONE NUMBERS: Use dashes to separate area code and numbers in a series. Use the + symbol and country code to simplify dialing for international and click-to-call callers. +1 (441) 123-1234 For toll-free numbers, leave off the + at the start of the number. PROPER NAMES: Use words or numerals according to an organization’s practice. Examples: 3M, Twentieth Century Fund, Big Ten

• Town of St. George but then referred to St. George’s on its own • Crystal Caves • Fort St. Catherine • St. Peter’s Church • Swizzle Inn • The Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art, then Masterworks • Bermuda Botanical Gardens • Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI), then BUEI • City of Hamilton but then referred to “Hamilton” after first initial reference to the “City of

Hamilton” in the copy • Hamilton Parish will always be used together never Hamilton alone when referring to the parish • Front Street • Island Tour Centre • Great Sound of Bermuda


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• Bermuda Aquarium, Museum and Zoo (BAMZ), then BAMZ • Royal Naval Dockyard • National Museum of Bermuda • Gibbs Hill Lighthouse • Railway Trail • Gombey dancers • Fort Scaur • Tobacco Bay Beach – St. George’s • Daniels Head Park • Somerset Long Bay • Fort Hamilton • Horseshoe Bay – South Shore, Southampton • Clearwater Beach & Turtle Bay – St. David’s Island, St. George’s • Warwick Long Bay, South Shore, Warwick • Jobson’s Cove, South Shore Warwick • Somerset Bridge • Heydon Trust Chapel • Admiralty House • Paget Marsh • Sherwin Nature Reserve • Old Devonshire Church • Spittal Pond Nature Reserve • Tom Moore’s Jungle • St. David’s Lighthouse


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Q

QUEEN’S ENGLISH:

• Words that use “re” For example: centre, litre, metre • Words ending in “our” For example: colour, favour, honour, labour • Words that use “ph” vs. ‘f” For example: Sulphur vs. American English: Sulfur • Words using “s” where “z” is normally used. For example: colonisation, realisation, organisation • Words ending in –yse not American –yze. For example: analyse, breathalyse, paralyse • Words ending in a vowel plus l – Verbs ending in a vowel plus l/double the l/when adding

endings that begin with a vowel. For example: travel/travelled/travelling/traveller • Nouns ending in -ense in American are spelled with an –ence in British English. For example:

defense, license, offense, pretense to defence, licence, offence, pretence • Nouns ending in -ogue. For example: Analogue, catalogue, dialogue

QUOTES: Use scare quotes (quotes for emphasis) very sparingly. Always use double quotation marks unless there is a quote within a quote.

R

REGIONS AND DIRECTIONS:

• When referring to regions, these should be capitalized and one word: – Examples: East, Central, West,

• When referring to general directions, these should be lowercase and one word: – Example: He traveled east to the airport.

RERUN: no hyphen RINGTONE: one word

S

SAID AND SAYS: Use said in straight news articles. In features and cover stories, generally use says, but be sure to be consistent throughout the article. SEARCH: Lowercase it unless it is part of a proper noun. SERIES TITLES: As a rule, we don’t reference the fact that an article is part of a series in its title, rather in the body of the article. SPACING BETWEEN SENTENCES: Use a single space. SUPERLATIVES: Avoid using superlatives such as “leading” or “best known” in describing a company or experience, unless backed by a third-party endorsement (such as AAA, Forbes, etc)


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SECONDS:

• Do not use hyphen when describing increments of time less than one minute. – Examples: 55 seconds, 30 seconds

• Hyphenate when time is used as an adjective: 30-second spot • Avoid using colon constructs (e.g., :30, :55)

SPAM: lowercased STATES: In listings, use postal abbreviations (NJ, CA, FL) rather than AP abbreviations (for example, Calif., N.J., Fla.). In articles, spell out states. Also, there should be a comma after all city/state constructs (for example, “We left the La Quinta, California, conference on Tuesday.”).

T

TEMPERATURE: Fahrenheit is referenced first followed by Celsius. Remember to use Celsius for all UK market materials. THAT, WHICH, AND WHO:

• Who refers to people, and that and which refer to groups or things. – Example: Consumers who respond to surveys are likely to be more deeply engaged. – Example: Companies that issue surveys are likely to deliver better consumer

engagement. • That introduces essential clauses, and which introduces nonessential clauses.

– Example: I do not trust editorials that claim racial differences in intelligence. – Example: The editorial claiming racial differences in intelligence, which appeared in the

Sunday newspaper, upset me.

TIME: hour, minute (if other than zero), a space between the number and am or pm, no periods and lowercase pm and am (for example: 7 pm or 7:15 pm)


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TITLES:

• Book titles, movie titles, museum exhibit titles, play titles, poem titles, song titles, television program titles and titles of lectures, speeches and works of art should be italicised.

• Magazine titles are in italics. Also, lowercase magazine unless it is part of the name; for example: Newsweek magazine. Capitalise The in publication titles where it is part of the brand name; e.g., The New York Times; The Wall Street Journal.

• Capitalise all job titles. • Names of ships should be capitalised and italicised. For example: Queen Mary

TiVo: Lowercase the i and the o. TOUCHPOINTS: one word

U

UNITED STATES/UNITED KINGDOM: Always abbreviate, with periods (U.S., U.K.). URL: Do not use “www” in website addresses when referring to websites by name. When spelled out, lowercase: “world wide web” but avoid whenever possible

• GoToBermuda.com

V

VERSUS: Either versus or the abbreviation vs. is acceptable, use best judgment but remain consistent within a body of work.

W

WALLPAPERS: Use as plural when referring to desktop/website graphics WEB: lowercased WEB-BASED: hyphenated WEBCAST: one word WEBLOGS: Lowercase it, but use blogs unless making a technical point WEB PAGE: two words WEBSITE: one word, lowercased WEB 2.0: capitalised


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Wi-Fi: Capitalise both the w and the f, and use a hyphen. WORD OF MOUTH: Lowercased. Hyphenate when used as an adjective. For example:

• Example (adjective): We do word-of-mouth marketing. • Example (noun): Word of mouth is an important thing.

Documents

STYLE GUIDE - Go To Bermuda · 2016. 11. 17. · BERMUDA TOURISM AUTHORITY: STYLE GUIDE -2 -VOICE Bermuda has its own way of life and its own way of speaking. When the Bermuda brand