Punctuation and Figures

Capitalize the initial letters rather than using quotation marks for the titles of

• films
• books
• songs
• television programmes
• newspapers
• magazines
• ships
• space shuttles
• airlines
• political parties

When using direct speech, place commas and full stops inside quotation marks, e.g.:
"The exhibition will open on Friday," the spokesman said.
The spokesman said the exhibition would "open on Friday."

Nest punctuation so as to help the reader. In the same way, when a question mark applies to a whole passage, not just to the quoted portion, the question mark comes outside the quotation marks, e.g.: He told his supporters, "Why worry?" but Didn't he tell them, "Don't worry"?

Use a comma to introduce a full quote of one sentence. Use a colon to introduce full quotations longer than one sentence.

Prefer double quotes (") to two apostrophes (' ') for speech marks (see Typography.)

Omit any comma before the last item in a series ... red, white and blue. Omit second commas from dates and place descriptions, e.g.: ... a ruling on July 17, 2005 against ... (not "2005,") and ... landed in Rennes, France using a ... (not "France,"). When a phrase is in apposition, it does require two commas, e.g.: "Bill Clinton, who survived impeachment over his love affair with Monica Lewinsky left the White House ..." is wrong: a comma is required after Lewinsky.

Possessives of singular proper names ending in "s" take only an apostrophe, not an extra "s": ... Marcos' wealth, Dickens' novels.

Note the correct use of hyphens in 9-year-old girl (not "9-year old" or "9 year-old"). Up 6 per cent, but a 6-per-cent increase. More rules concerning hyphens are on the Spelling page (use in the "co-" prefix and in company names), the Capitalization page (vice president and secretary general), the Diplomatic page (treaty names), the Arabic Names page (prefixes) and the Cyber page (e-mail etc.).

Foreshadowing the rules on the Typography page: write a dash as follows: single space, single hyphen, single space ( - ). Where there are gaps in quotes, use an ellipsis ( ... ) composed of three dots with a letterspace before and after.

Spell out numbers from one to nine in text. Use numerals for 10 onwards. Two hostages, a four-point plan, 12 players. Exceptions: use numerals for the following even when below 10:

• ages
• measurements
• percentages
• millions
• prices
• dates
• times
• military designations

E.g.: 5 degrees Celsius, 3 dollars, 4 per cent, January 7, 9 a.m., 6th Fleet.

Do not begin a sentence with a numeral. Spell it out or recast the sentence.

In line with most English-speaking news media, dpa follows the Latin Rule definitions of billion and trillion:

• million = one thousand times a thousand = 10⁶
• billion = one thousand times a million = 10⁹
• trillion = one thousand times a billion = 10¹²

Devised by French arithmeticians, this usage is standard in the United States and was formerly the convention in Italy and France. The competing system of large-number names, the N Rule, is used in Germany, has been legally mandated in France since 1961 and has historically been used in Britain. It defines a billion as a million to the second power and a trillion as a million to the third power.

When reporting on opinion polls, always try to give the number of people surveyed and a margin of error, if available.

Give dollar conversions for all currencies. For the dollar/euro conversion use the latest rate reported by a currency converter website like oanda.com or xe.com. When reporting business news, it is sufficient to convert the first figure and leave the remainder in the original currency. In items where figures to be converted are for previous years, it should be stated that conversion is based on current rates ... Porsche reported profits of 66.4 million euros for fiscal 1999 (50.1 million dollars at current exchange rates). The former German currency was the deutschmark. D-mark, mark and German mark are also acceptable on first reference. The European currency is the euro, plural euros. Spell out $ as dollar. (See section on Business and Economics.)

Add the name of the country to a dateline if the town is not well known: ... Mannheim, Germany (dpa) - A train collided with ... For stories from the United Nations use a New York dateline: e.g. New York (dpa) - The United Nations Security Council went into emergency session Thursday ...

Avoid double datelines. Exceptions are possible in wars or armed confrontations when extensive source material comes from different countries.

Do not use the word "here" in the text of a story to refer back to the name in the dateline. Specify the name of the place you are referring to if it is different from that in the dateline.

Use the day of the week instead of "today", "yesterday" or "tomorrow". Don't use "last night" or "this morning".

Use a.m. and p.m. for local times with a GMT conversion when available. An online converter is listed on the Links page. Use the 24-hour clock for GMT ... In Bonn, it was 5 p.m. (1600 GMT). Don't say 5 p.m. "local time". For more time formats see Sport. Local times in hours and minutes are separated by a colon - 12:15 p.m. Dates are written month - day - comma - four-digit year.

In headings, capitalize By, e.g. By Jeff Morgan, dpa. At the end of a take (and this effectively only applies for Sports Results), write More capitalized if another take is to follow.