July Books 3) The Economist Style Guide

[nwhyte]

3) The Economist Style Guide

Mandatory reading for those of us doing editing for a living, of course. Full of useful snippets and helpful hints, though I dare to disagree on a few points:

Dominicans Take care. Do they come from Dominica? Or the Dominican Republic? Or are they friars?
*Snerk!*

federalist in Britain, someone who believes in

Comments

Regarding Basel Stadt/Land

[applez]

Sidenote: I'm still not sure if I should be amused or horrified by their perpetual feud. I remember last year that once again, their respective electorates voted against consolidated their emergency ambulance and fire services - even though it would improve service at lower cost.

The local leaders of each Half-Canton shared bemused smiles at the expected result's annoucement.

[burkesworks]

you should always transliterate "дж" as "j"

No, you are right and the Economist is wrong here. Apart from the fact that "д" corresponds to "D" and "ж" to "ZH", which one would have though logical enough, what of the fact that "j" is invariably pronounced as the English "y" in just about all the Roman-script using Slavic languages I can think of. And what of the Serbian "Ђ" which is pronounced the same as "дж" (near as damn it, anyway) but is invariably rendered as "Đ" or "DJ"?

[nwhyte]

Actually it's Serbian Џ which is pronounced дж; the pronunciation of Ђ is subtly different, though I admit I can't actually hear it, even though I know intellectually that I am forming the sounds differently!

[wwhyte]

I actually met the man who wrote the Economist style guide when I was on safari on my honeymoon. I have to say I was a bit starstruck. His wife is chief book reviewer for the Spectator or something.

[matgb]

Reads through. Understands most, gets confused by the Russian and other linguistic stuff, wonders who on earth was thinking Leghorn was a sensible name for anywhere not in America, and decides to leave again.

But... Belgian administrative divisions, to ignore the three "regions" completely, maybe they're all missed off for the same reason? Unless my memory fails, those three are the next level below national, right?

[nwhyte]

It's in a section on the "main administrative divisions" of certain countries. Since Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia actually have more power than the provinces (and since they list intermediate units for other countries too) it is strnage to omit them.

[matgb]

That then, is very weird. Oh well, Economist is better than most at accuracy.

[del_c]

If only they could be bothered to lavish as much care on their quantitative illustrations as their prose. The New York Times could teach them a thing or two there.