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King County Editorial Style Manual
-N- n. Abbreviation for noun in this style manual. See noun. nameplate. See masthead, nameplate entry. names. People are entitled to be known however they want to be known, if their identities are clear. In publications, use a person's full name on first reference, last name only on second reference. Don't repeat a person's title before the last name on second reference. See brand names; capitalization; correspondence; junior, senior; middle initials; Miss, Mr., Mrs., Ms.; nickname. National Environmental Policy Act. Spell out and capitalize on first reference. NEPA is acceptable in later references. nationalities and races. See capitalization, race. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Spell out on first reference. NOAA is acceptable for later references. nationwide. One word. Native Americans. See American Indian, Eskimo; tribe. near miss, near-miss. A near miss (without a hyphen) is a miss that is near, like a blue jacket is a jacket that is blue. But near-miss (with a hyphen) is a hit. Avoid confusion by using near-collision (with a hyphen) instead of near miss when describing a narrowly averted collision. See collide, collision. necessitate. Overstated and formal. Simplify. Try call for, cause, need, have to or require. Negro. See African American, black, race. neither. When used on its own without nor, make the verb singular: Neither of the men was ready. neither ... nor. See either ... or, neither ... nor. NEPA. See National Environmental Policy Act. negative. Except in informal writing, avoid using double negatives--two or more words with negative meanings--in a single sentence: I don't want nothing. He couldn't hardly walk. Common negative words include neither, no, nobody, none, no one, not, nothing and nowhere, contractions such as couldn't and don't, and words such as barely, hardly and scarcely. Double negative can distract people who consider them ungrammatical and uneducated or awkward and odd. They can confuse readers and slow down comprehension and understanding. They tend to add unnecessary words. They usually end up stating a positive by canceling out the negative meaning. And they can confuse writers who may unintentionally end up making a positive statement when they mean to be saying no or not. nevertheless. Overstated. Avoid. Try but or however. new development. Redundant. Drop new. news conferences. See press. newsgroup. One word when referring to an Internet discussion group. news media. See media. newspapers. Capitalize all proper nouns that are part of the official title. Italicize them if possible; underline them if not. Capitalize the in a newspaper's name if that is the publication's preferred title. Don't use quotation marks. See composition titles. news releases. See press. New Year's, New Year's Day, New Year's Eve. nickname. Use instead of a person's given name if the person prefers to be known by the nickname. When inserting a nickname into the identification of a person, use quotation marks, not parentheses. But omit the quotation marks when using a nickname without the person's real name: Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt but Teddy Roosevelt. See names. nighttime. One word. No. Use as the abbreviation for number when used with a figure, in both singular and plural forms: the No. 3 choice, invoice Nos. 4311 and 5207, lot No. 23. Don't use the symbol or sign, #, to stand for No. or number. See correspondence. NOAA. See National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. nobody, no one. Nobody is one word; no one is two words. No one is considered more formal. They should take singular verbs and adjectives. non-. The rules in prefixes. apply but usually, no hyphen. noncontroversial. All issues are controversial. A noncontroversial issue is impossible. A controversial issue is redundant. nonmotorized. Don't hyphenate. none are, none is. Both phrases are correct, depending on the noun that follows them (or the understood noun if you're not naming it). If that noun is plural, use a plural verb; if it's singular, use a singular verb. Thus: Of the eight applicants, none of them are qualified. Every child went to the haunted house, and none [of them] are returning. None of the applicant's proposal was persuasive. None of it is safe for children. none at all. Redundant. Replace with none. non-preventable. Acceptable alternatives are not preventable and unpreventable. Capitalize as Non-preventable. See prefixes. non-revenue vehicle. Include hyphen when referring to Metro's non-revenue vehicles. May be abbreviated as NRV on second reference. no one. See nobody, no one above. Northend. Capitalize when referring to the area of Seattle and King County north of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and west of Lake Washington. Use more precise area names if possible: Magnolia, North City. See capitalization, directions and regions. northwest, Northwest. See addresses, Pacific Northwest. notes. See bibliographies and notes; composition titles; footnotes, endnotes. noticeable. Commonly misspelled. not only ... but also. Balance the sentence grammatically when using this phrase. If a prepositional phrase follows not only, for example, a prepositional phrase should follow but also. Correct: The fall in the birthrate varies not only from city to city but also from area to area. Incorrect: Not only does the fall in the birthrate vary from city to city but also from area to area. See both ... and. noun. A noun is a word used to name a person, place, thing, quality or action. A proper noun names a specific person, place or thing and is capitalized: Gov. Mike Yesler, Olympia, The Washington Capitol, Green Lake, Cascade Mountains, Lincoln Park. Don't capitalize a common noun, even if it refers to a specific person, place or thing: the governor, the city, the building, the lake, the mountains, the park. See capitalization, hyphen. number. The number always takes a singular verb. A number always takes a plural verb and plural noun: A small but increasing number of people were using the service. The small but interested number of engineers was essential to the success of the workshop. Use number to refer to items that can be counted. See amount, number; amount of; No.; total number.
Spell out most whole numbers below 10, but
note exceptions in this style manual.
Also, spell out first through ninth when they show sequence in time or location: second base, Third Avenue. Exceptions include county, legislative and congressional districts: She lives in the 2nd District. See districts. In amounts more than a million--unless the exact amount is essential--round off up to two decimal points. Write out the word million or billion, and use numbers in all but casual uses: 3 million, 85.2 billion, a $6.73 million grant, a million bucks. Always include the words million, billion or trillion when giving ranges: The project could cost $20 million to $25 million, not $20-$25 million. If large numbers must be spelled out, use a hyphen to connect a word ending in y to another word. Don't use commas between the words that are part of one number: two hundred fifty-two. Avoid beginning a sentence with a number. If unavoidable, spell it out. Also, spell out casual expressions: thanks a million, a thousand bucks. See years. Avoid following the word for a number with a figure in parentheses for the same number. It's redundant. Avoid: The contract will expire in eight (8) days. For exceptions and other uses, see addresses, ages, between ... and, from ... to, cents, correspondence, dash, dates, decimals, dimensions, distances, dollars, fractions, headlines, highway designations, hyphen, miles, No., page numbers, percentages, ranges, ratios, room numbers, route number, speeds, telephone numbers, temperatures, time, votes. numerous. Overstated. Simplify. Try many, or be specific. Back to Top
-O- objective. Consider replacing with simpler aim or goal. obligated. Consider replacing with simpler bound or compelled. obligation. Consider replacing with simpler debt. obscenities. See profanity, other offensive language. obtain. See get. occasion. Commonly misspelled. occur, occurred, occurring, occurrence. Commonly misspelled. Also, use occur to refer to "an accidental or unscheduled event." Use take place to refer to "a planned event.": The power outage occurred about 5 p.m. The opening ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Friday. of all. Wordy. Try omitting: Nils Johansen is the most careful driver. Not: Nils Johansen is the most careful of all drivers. offensive language. See profanity, other offensive language. office. Capitalize when part of an agency's formal name: Customer Assistance Office, King County Sheriff's Office. Lowercase all other uses: the executive director's office, the attorney's office. offline. One word in all uses. See e-mail, Internet, intranet, online, World Wide Web. off of. Wordy. Change: Stay off of the highway. To: Stay off the highway. Or use from. Change: She moved off of the campus. To: She moved from the campus. off-, -off. Follow Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Hyphenate if not listed there. off-peak. Hyphenate. off-ramp, on-ramp. Hyphenate. offshore. One word. off-site. Hyphenate. of major importance. Wordy. Simplify by replacing with is important, are important or was important. oils. See collective nouns. OK, OK'd OK'ing OKs. Do not use okay. omitted. Commonly misspelled. on. Avoid using on before a date or day of the week, unless its absence would lead to confusion. Change: The council will meet on Dec. 12. To: The council will meet Dec. 12. Use on to avoid an awkward juxtaposition of a proper name and a date: Peter met Tina on Tuesday. He told the Starr on Thursday that the project was complete. See on, onto, on to, upon. onboard. One word, no hyphen. one another. See each other, one another. one time, one-time, onetime. They arrived early one time (or once). But: She is a onetime winner. They were onetime colleagues. one of the. Verbose. Drop of the or use a or an instead. Change: One of the purposes of the meeting was to select a new chair. To: One purpose of the meeting was to select a new chair. Or: A purpose of the meeting was to select a new chair. Also, don't use the illogical one of the only; instead, choose one of the few. ongoing. Overstated and bureaucratic. Omit, or consider using continuing, developing, under way or active. online. One word in all uses. See e-mail, Internet, intranet, offline, World Wide Web. only. Incorrect placement of only can change the meaning of a sentence: Only David said he was hungry. (David alone said.) David only said he was hungry. (He was not hungry, but he said he was.) David said he was only hungry. (He was not also thirsty or tired or dirty or angry.) To avoid confusion, place only directly before the word or phrase it modifies. Any words separating only from the word or phrase it's intended to modify can lead to ambiguity and confusion. on, onto, on to, upon. Use onto when two elements work as a compound preposition: He jumped onto the horse. But use on to where on is an adverb: We moved on to the next subject. There is little difference between the words on and upon, though on is preferred as more common. See on. on-site. Hyphenate. on the part of. Wordy. Simplify. Replace with by. operational. Try replacing with simpler working, active, live or running. optimum. Overstated. Simplify. Consider replacing with best, greatest or most. or. When all the elements of a conjunction using or are singular, use a singular verb. When all the elements are plural, use a plural verb. When the subject has a mixture of singular and plural elements, make the verb agree with noun or pronoun nearest it. See and (conjunction). oral, verbal, written. Use oral to refer to spoken words: The planner gave an oral presentation. Use verbal to compare words with some other form of communication: His facial expression revealed the ideas that his limited verbal skills could not express. Use written to refer to words on paper: The two jurisdictions had a written agreement. organizations and institutions. Capitalize the full names of organizations and institutions. Lowercase the internal elements of an organization when the names are widely used generic terms: board of directors, history department of the University of Washington. Capitalize the names of King County departments, divisions, offices, sections, units and work groups. See capitalization. Oriental. Asian or Asian American is preferred when referring to inhabitants or descendants of Far East nations of Asia. See Asian, Pacific Islander; capitalization; race. orientate. Simplify. Use orient instead. outbreak. For disease references, reserve for large numbers of an illness or a larger number of illnesses than typically expected. Can also be used to describe a cluster of illness associated with a particular area or group. outgoing. Be careful in using this word as an adjective describing people. It has two differing meanings: One is going away, retiring or withdrawing from a place or position, and the other is friendly or responsive. output. See input, output, throughput. over, more than. Over usually refers to spatial relationships: The plane flew over Bellevue. More than is preferred when using figures, numbers and amounts: More than 300 people attended the meeting. The document had more than 40 pages. At times, over may seem less awkward: He is over 40. Let your ear be your guide. See less than, under. over-. Usually, don't use a hyphen: overexert, overexpenditure, override, overspend. But see prefixes. -over. Follow Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary. Hyphenate if not listed there. overall. Hackneyed. Simplify. Delete or try total, complete or general. over and over. Wordy. Simplify. Try again or repeatedly. overexaggerate. Redundant and overstated. Drop over. oversight. Potentially misleading euphemism that means both watchful, responsible care and an inadvertent omission or error. Back to Top |
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Updated: Oct. 23, 2007 |
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