Editorial style guide - H

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Headlines, headings and sub-headings

For page headings, headlines and sub-headings use sentence case – an initial capital for the first word only.

You should only use title case if your header is also a proper noun, the official title of something, for instance:

Never use all caps for a header in print or online.

See also Title case and Sentence case

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Headlines and links

The headline of a web page should always be the same as any links leading to that page. For instance, don't call your link How to apply for a place if the page it links to is headed Information for prospective students.

Headlines for magazine and newsletter articles, in print or online, should be kept as short as possible. If your headline runs over more than one line, you should cut it down.

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Higher education

Although it's often abbreviated to HE, higher education isn't really a proper noun so it doesn't need initial caps when you write it out in full.

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Helpdesk

One word.

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Honorary Professor

Honorary Professor, Honorary Reader, Honorary Fellow are proper nouns with initial capitals. Honorary professorship, honorary degree etc are common nouns – no initial caps.

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Hyphen (-)

Hyphens can be used to join together two words to form an adjective. If the first word is an adverb you don't need a hyphen.

Note that in the fourth example there's no need for a hyphen after full.

The following words are never hyphenated:

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Hyphenating compounds

Permanent compounds

You don't need a hyphen if the compound is well-established or if it has become one word, for instance:

Temporary compounds

You can add the hyphen temporarily, as in 'much-needed', to avoid ambiguity. For instance:

means the training Yoda gave was acutely necessary.

If you take the hyphen out:

you're saying that Yoda gave Luke a lot of necessary training.

You don't need to hyphenate a phrase like 'richly deserved' because the adverb clearly modifies the verb. There is no room for confusion.