Editorial style guide: H

 

A      B      C      D      E      F      G      H      I      J      K      L      M

N      O      P      Q      R      S      T      U      V      W      Z

 

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On this page:

• head of department
• headlines, headings and sub-headings
• headlines and links
• Henderson's
• healthcare
• helpdesk
• higher education
• Honorary Professor
• honorary titles
• Houses of Parliament
• hyphen (-)
• hyphenating compounds

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head of department

Use sentence case, unless you're referring to a specific individual when you should use title case.

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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.

Headlines should generally be kept as short as possible.

See also Title case and sentence case

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Henderson's

Use an apostrophe when writing Henderson's Relish or the name of the Unversity pub.

The abbreviated version is Hendo's.

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healthcare

One word.

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helpdesk

One word.

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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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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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honorary titles

Write the titles of academics with a knighthood or damehood in this order: Academic title > honorary title.

When first referring to someone, use a full formal title.

For secondary mentions, use a shortened version.

Ask the person which title they would prefer you to use, for example:

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Houses of Parliament

Upper case H and P. If you're just writing 'parliament' then use a lower-case P.

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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:

See also ranges 

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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.

means the training was acutely necessary.

If you take the hyphen out:

you're saying that Jayne gave us 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.