Our content style guide is adapted from the BBC’s News style guide. We have summarised the key ones below.

  • Language, Spelling and Grammar

All written content should be in English. Our preference is for British spelling and words. (E.g Centre, grey, tyre, colour, criticise). American (or alternative) words may only be used in direct reference.

Local dialects (including pidgin or Twi—nglish) may also be used for creative effect. Since readers could be from anywhere, any such words or references (to a person, place or thing) should preferably carry a link which expands on the reference.

  • Profanity

We can allow profanities (swear words) if we believe censoring will otherwise detract from the core of the content. However, it’s up to the writer to justify its inclusion.

  • Uppercase

Uppercase should only be used for abbreviations, acronyms or company names and never for emphasis. (E.g. PWD, WAEC, NASA, BBC )

  • Numbering

Single digits (0-9) have to be spelt out. Anything else from 10 up to 1 million should be in numerical form e.g. One day, four horsemen, six me ludo, nine lives, 11 players, call 999, 90 days of summer, 10,000 leagues, 1 million, 50 million, 1 billion.

Only numerical values should be used when writing currency or measuring units E.g. £0.99, $4.50, €7000, 5kg, 12.5m, 6.5ft. Shorthand notation should only be used for currency values above 10,000 e.g.  £10k;  $50m.