TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

STRUCTURE
● People have short attention spans. Old-fashioned text is competing with
easy-to-consume videos and podcasts
● So, to make text more visually appealing, more digestible, easier to skim
read and easier to refer back to, news writing is broken up line by line.
● When writing news, always lead with the newest and most important
information, and then introduce more contextual/background
information as the article goes on.
● This is called the ‘inverted pyramid’ structure, and you can read more
about it here.​​
TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

PRESENTATION
● Centre the main body of our articles, and de-clutter the margins

THIS NOT THIS

HEADLINES
● The headline is the most
important line of all
● Many more people will read the
headline than the article itself
● Strong headlines will keep
readers coming back to TFG –
and keep them aware of TFG –
even if they don't click through

● They have to be specific and SEO-friendly,

and as short as possible
● Things to always include in headlines are
names of people, organisations, and
specific times and/or places to put things in
context
● Headlines should be built around a strong
active verb(s) (in the example above:
‘scramble’, ‘dump’).
TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

● On TFG, keep headlines to three lines at the top of the article, although
ideally two.
● Generally, headlines don't need 'and' to separate people and items
● Don't use the same punctuation mark twice in one headline
● Headlines that contain two or more independent parts should be broken
up by a colon or a hyphen
(Tip: hyphen looks stronger, but then capitalise the following word!)
○ E.g. Trade finance dilemmas – Non-bank lenders discuss risk
assessment in MSMEs
○ not Trade finance dilemmas – non-bank lenders discuss risk
assessment in MSMEs

COMMON MISTAKES: ‘On’

● X subject on Y topic headlines
● Cristiano Ronaldo on taking penalties = correct without a comma
● Try not to overuse it, and be wary of having too many 'on's in one
headline

INTROS
● After the headline, the intro is the most important line
● This is the line that explains the crux of the story and ‘hooks’ the reader in
● It should be short (20-30 words)
● It should be clear, so write in the active rather than passive voice
● It should be light on detail, to engage the reader, then gradually unpack
the story as the article progresses.

BAD EXAMPLE: Surecomp® today announced that it is partnering with the Global Legal Entity
Identifier Foundation (GLEIF) - the Swiss-based organisation which supports the implementation
of the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI) and the availability of the Global LEI Index - to facilitate Know
Your Customer (KYC) compliance and provide customers with immediate certainty and
authentication that the credentials of their trade counterparts are verified and trustworthy.
TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

BAD EXAMPLE: Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), a neutral, non-profit group
established to further digitalisation of container shipping technology standards, in conjunction
with its nine member carriers, today announced the formation of the Future International Trade
(FIT) Alliance with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between DCSA,
BIMCO, FIATA, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and SWIFT in which the
organisations commit to collaborating to standardise the digitalisation of international trade.

GOOD EXAMPLE: A plummeting currency and isolation from the financial world means that
Russians are turning to crypto to preserve their wealth and get around sanctions.

GOOD EXAMPLE: A new report has found that the total value of world trade hit a record high in
2021, but is expected to flatline into a sluggish 2022.

TFG’S STANDARDS
● We use UK English at all times! No ifs, no buts… (So spellings with ‘s’ not ‘z’)
○ NOTE: US English can be used as part of a proper noun that was
originally written in US English. E.g. World Trade Organization
● A speaker's job title should only be capitalised if it precedes his/her name,
and is thus part of a compound proper noun
○ E.g. Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook said:
○ No commas are needed when introducing speakers like this
● A speaker's position should not be capitalised if it comes after his/her
name - because it's no longer part of a compound proper noun
○ E.g. Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, said:
● We also need to close the commas when introducing a speaker:
○ No - Sean Edwards, chair of ITFA said:
○ Yes - Sean Edwards, chair of ITFA, said:
● Just say ‘said’
○ Swapping 'said' for 'stated' or 'commented' etc. adds subjectivity
○ E.g. If Bill Holmes "commented" - is he saying something more
forcefully than John Brown, who merely "said" it?
○ One exception to this rule is "added", which is fine because it's still
objective and makes sense when it’s the same speaker
TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

WRITING TIPS

● Good writing is specific, bad writing is vague/ambiguous

● 'Recently' and 'recent' are two words that should be axed from every
journalist's vocabulary - go back and find the exact date!
● We are writing news - not novels - so we aim to be objective. So, write in
nouns and verbs. Don't use adjectives to try and dramatise or glamourise
the story you are writing. Our job is to give readers the facts, let the facts
speak for themselves, and let readers make up their own minds.
● Good writing is concise and gets straight to the point. It omits needless
words wherever possible.
● The Oxford comma is the use of a comma before the final item in a list. It
makes each item of the list clearer. When not used, the final item on the
list is always ambiguous:

○ NO - The University of London is proud to launch its new US politics

modules this year, with courses in constitutional law, freedom of speech,
the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights.

○ YES - The University of London is proud to launch its new US politics

modules this year, with courses in constitutional law, freedom of speech,
the Second Amendment, and the Bill of Rights.

In the first example, how do we know if the Second Amendment and the
Bill of Rights is one course or two? The Oxford comma fixes this.
TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

CONSISTENCY (CURRENCIES, NUMBERS, DATES, ETC.)

● When writing amounts in US dollars, just use the dollar sign

E.g. ‘the spending bill included $100 million in foreign aid.
● It is understood we are talking about US dollars. So only put the country
initial in to signify Australian, Canadian, Singaporean, or some other kind
of dollar.
● For pounds and euros, do the same but with £ and €.
● When a currency amount in the millions, billions, or trillions appears in a
headline, abbreviate it with ‘m’, ‘bn’, or ‘tn’.
E.g. ‘Global trade hits record high of $28.5tn’
● However, in the main body of the article always write out those quantifiers
in full. E.g. ‘$28,5 trillion’ etc.
● Write out four-, five-, and six-figure numbers in full, but with a comma
every third digit.
E.g. ‘£100,000 of dual-use, military goods seized at UK border’.
● When writing dates, use either of the following formats: March 27, 2022 (or)
27 March 2022. Just make sure the same format is used consistently
throughout in each article.
● There is no need to add ‘th’ and ‘nd’ to dates, e.g. March 27th, 2022 (or)
27th March 2022.
TFG Editorial Guidelines | Writing Style

IMAGES AND DATA

● The best financial journalism can provide a chart or table for almost
everything. If you can help the reader visualise a dataset by adding a
chart, graph or infographic, etc., then do it.

If you read/follow the biggest authors at Bloomberg or FT, for example, they
literally have charts coming out of their ears.

● Don’t use stock images.

Sheena and Elcyn (our CMS Managers) are now well versed in combing white
papers and reports etc. for the best charts/tables/graphs, screen-grabbing
them, and then saving them as jpegs to add to our articles.

● When charts/graphs/tables can’t be used to visualise a story, real-life

images of trade in action (ports/ships etc.), or of exotic locations where
trade takes place (cityscapes, rivers, harbours etc.), are always stronger
than boring stock images of people in suits shaking hands (for
‘partnership’ stories) or pictures of flag combinations (for ‘trade deal’
stories).

BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.