A Guide To Style And Usage - Congressional Budget Office
CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATESCONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICECBOA Guide toStyle andUsage2013
I feel strongly that our reports should be lucidly written and comprehensible tononeconomists. We should break with the ponderous prose of most officialeconomic writing and aim at giving Congressmen themselves something they canactually read and understand. We should assume that the reader is an intelligent,well-informed person without formal training in economics (the averageCongressman is a middle-aged lawyer who may or may not have had aneconomics class 30 years ago in college). We should not be patronizing or talkdown to the audience, but we should avoid jargon and explain all the concepts aswe go along.— Alice Rivlin, Founding Director of CBO, 1975
PrefaceSince its inception, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has stressed the importance ofgood, clear writing. This guide to style and word usage, the fourth in CBO’s history, updatesthe 1996 publication A Style Guide for CBO. It reflects the evolution of the agency’s style rulesand should be followed in all CBO documents.The bulk of the guide consists of entries, arranged alphabetically, that answer the mostfrequently asked questions about grammar, punctuation, and word usage at CBO. In general,examples of correct usage are shown in italics, and examples of incorrect usage are shownin quotation marks. Entries that consist of a word or phrase without further explanationare intended to illustrate a term’s spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, or lack thereof.Definitions of common economic and budgetary terms come from the glossary periodicallypublished with CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook.The style guide concludes with a section about footnotes and references that shows in detailhow to cite many types of source material. The notable addition to that section is informationabout citing online sources (which were not widely used when the previous guide waspublished).Unless shown otherwise in the style guide, the spelling of words in CBO documentsshould agree with the latest edition of Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (available atwww.m-w.com). When Webster’s lists alternative spellings of a word, CBO’s practice isgenerally to use the first one listed. For more details about grammar, punctuation, and wordusage than are contained in this guide, good sources to consult are The Chicago Manual ofStyle and The New York Public Library Writer’s Guide to Style and Usage.
Table of ContentsAlphabetical Guide to Style and Usage1Special TopicsAbbreviations2Active and Passive Voice3Foreign Phrases and Abbreviations27Hyphenation and Compound Words33Numbers48Plain English53Possessives54Pronouns57Footnotes and ReferencesWhat to Put in References7778Examples of References81CBO Publications81Books, Reports, and Working Papers From Nongovernment Sources83Articles in Periodicals85Government Publications87Legislation, Laws, Regulations, and Court Cases90Websites94Other Sources94
Aa-. achromatic, atypical. See prefixes.abbreviations. For information about when andhow to use abbreviations, see the box on page 2.Some common terms and their abbreviationsare listed separately and alphabetically in thisstyle guide.acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.See AIDS.across. Do not use across to mean “between” or“among,” as in “The new program would avoidinequities across crop types.” Such constructions sound like jargon and are best avoided.Across, however, is an appropriate substitute for“throughout”: Payments have been evenly distributed across the school district. Also see among/between.act. Lowercase when not part of a formal title:Referring to the provisions of ERTA, critics arguedthat the act would have grave repercussions.Uppercase in shortened titles: CongressionalBudget Act of 1974, the Budget Act, the BalancedBudget Act. Names of Congressional acts are notitalicized or underlined.One exception is a joint resolution proposingan amendment to the Constitution. Before aconstitutional amendment takes effect, it mustbe approved by two-thirds of both Housesand ratified by three-fourths of the states.Presidential approval is not required.Simple resolutions and concurrent resolutionsdo not become laws when they are agreed to.Instead, they serve to express the sense of oneHouse (a simple resolution) or both Housesof Congress (a concurrent resolution) or toaccomplish housekeeping functions.All of the types of legislative vehicles discussedabove may be referred to as measures. TheCongress considers and disposes of measures.Also see adopt/agree to/approve/enact/pass/ratify.acute care. No hyphen as an adjective: acute carehospital.ad hoc. Not italicized. See the box about Foreignactive-duty personnelPhrases and Abbreviations on page 27.active voice. See the box about Active and PassiveVoice on page 3.act/bill/law/measure/resolution. A piece oflegislation in the Congress is a bill until it ispassed by either the House or the Senate; then itis called an act. A joint resolution, by contrast,continues to be called a joint resolution whenit is passed by either House. Acts and jointresolutions become laws after passing bothHouses of Congress and being signed by thePresident (enacted). Note that it is usuallyinaccurate to say “The Congress enacted a law.”Except in very rare cases in which the CongressCBO ’ S GUIDE TO STYLE AND USAGE ,overrides a Presidential veto, enacting a lawrequires action by both the Congress and thePresident.2013adjustable rate mortgage (ARM)adjusted gross income (AGI). Income fromall sources not specifically excluded by thetax code, minus certain deductions. Personalexemptions and the standard or itemizeddeductions are subtracted from AGI todetermine taxable income.Administration. Uppercase when referring tothe executive branch of the U.S. government:one of the Obama Administration’s proposals, aprogram carried out by several Administrations.(Refer to a plan or budget of the Administration1
ADMINISTRATION ADVANCEDAbbreviationsAbbreviations are a useful tool to avoid repeating cumbersome names or phrases, but they require work on the partof readers to remember them, so use them judiciously. If a term appears once or only a few times in a document, donot abbreviate it. Also, try to avoid abbreviating terms of just two words, such as budget authority.If a report is heavily laden with often-used special terms or names of organizations, a list of abbreviations can behelpful. Such a list can appear in a box early in the text; a longer list can appear as a glossary at the end of thereport.Where to Use. At first mention in the text of a document, spell out a name in full and give its abbreviation inparentheses: the consumer price index (CPI), power marketing administrations (PMAs), the CongressionalBudget Office’s (CBO’s). If a report is divided into chapters, in any chapter after the one in which the abbreviationwas introduced, spell out the name at its first appearance, with no parenthetical abbreviation—The CongressionalBudget Office has analyzed the 2011 budget—and then use the abbreviation freely. However, in reports withchapters that may be read independently, such as The Budget and Economic Outlook, spell out a name and includeits abbreviation in parentheses at the first mention in each chapter.Because appendixes and boxes are generally treated as independent of the main text and of each other, a nameshould be spelled out and followed by its abbreviation in parentheses at the first mention in each appendix or box.The same is true in a summary that functions as a separate chapter rather than as the first section of a report.Once a term has been introduced, the full name, the abbreviation, or an informal reference (the act, the program,the department) can be used interchangeably for variety.Punctuation. Although a few abbreviations take periods (U.S., U.N., U.K.), most do not (NATO, ROTC). Pluralabbreviations take no apostrophes: the GNPs of the United States and Japan. Possessive abbreviations do takeapostrophes: DoD’s report, the USPS’s budget.With Definite Article. Whether to use “the” before an abbreviation is not established by any reliable rule. Ingeneral, an abbreviation that starts with a vowel (or with a consonant that has a vowel sound) takes a definite article(the IRS, the USPS, the SBA, but OMB and EPA); one that begins with a consonant usually does not (CBO, HUD,DoD, VA). The most important thing is to treat an abbreviation consistently within a document.In Tables and Figures. Avoid abbreviations in tables and figures. If they must be used because of lack of space,as in a column heading, spell them out elsewhere in the table or in a note at the bottom. (Note: CPI consumerprice index.)as the Administration’s plan, not “the Administration plan.”) Lowercase administration whenreferring to the management of something.Administrator. See titles of office.adopt/agree to/approve/enact/pass/ratify.When discussing legislation, using the correctverb is important. Congressional amendments,ordinances, resolutions, and rules are adopted,agreed to, or approved. Bills, acts, and jointresolutions are passed. Laws are enacted. Treaties and constitutional amendments are ratified.Also see act/bill/law/measure/resolution.2ad valorem. Not italicized. A term characterizingan excise tax as one levied on the value of acommodity rather than on some physicalmeasurement such as the commodity’s weightor volume.advanced/advance. The adjective advanced isfrequently used where advance is correct.Advanced means “far on in time or course” or“beyond the elementary or initial stage”:advanced degree, advanced mathematics. Advancemeans “furnished ahead of time” or “going orsituated before”: advance funding, advanceprocurement, advance guard.CBO ’ S GUIDE TO STYLE AND USAGE ,2013
ADVERB PLACEMENT AGESActive and Passive VoiceTo be readable, writing should mirror speech patterns. Thus, most sentences should be in the active voice ratherthan the passive voice. (The passive voice generally contains a form of the verb to be plus a past participle: “wassaid,” “is driven.”)The active voice emphasizes the doer of an action (George processed 12 applications today). The passive voicesubordinates the doer to what is done, or drops the doer entirely, and thus sounds either stilted (“Twelve applications were processed by George today”) or imprecise (“Twelve applications were processed today”—by whom?).Notice the difference in clarity and strength between these passages in passive and active voice:In 1981, the legislation was passed by the Congress, although the potential adverse effects of increasedinflation and added pressure on interest rates were noted during the deliberations by a vocal minority.When the Congress passed the legislation, in 1981, a vocal minority noted potential drawbacks: thethreat of increased inflation and pressure on interest rates.Use the passive voice sparingly—for example, when you want to emphasize the action rather than the doer or whenthe doer is unknown or unimportant.adverb placement. When an adverb modifies averb that includes one or more auxiliary verbs(such as can or could, may or might, will orwould), the adverb should generally follow thefirst auxiliary verb for readability: The subsidieswould greatly reduce total revenues. She may actually have said that. Do not confuse the placement of adverbs in this situation with theirplacement when they modify an infinitive; seesplit infinitive.affect/effect. Affect is used primarily as a verbmeaning “influence”: The programs may affectlow-income families. (Affect also means “tofeign,” which has little application at CBO.)The result of affecting is the noun effect:Low-income families are likely to experiencepronounced effects. Effect can also be used as averb meaning “to bring about, to cause tohappen”: The new law effected a change inparticipation. Also see impact.Affordable Care Act. This term refers to thePatient Protection and Affordable Care Act(Public Law 111-148); the health care provisions of the Health Care and EducationCBO ’ S GUIDE TO STYLE AND USAGE ,2013Reconciliation Act of 2010 (P.L. 111-152);and, in many cases, the effects of relatedjudicial decisions, statutory changes, andadministrative actions.African American. Never hyphenated.after-tax income. After-tax and before-tax arepreferable to “posttax” and “pretax.”agency. Uppercase when referring to a specificagency by name: the Agency for InternationalDevelopment. Lowercase when referring to thesame body informally: projects funded by theagency.agencywideagenda, agendas (pl.)ages. Ages of people should be given in numerals:7-year-olds, a 3-month-old boy, a worker who is30 years old, people ages (not “aged”) 45 to 50,women age 60 or older, the under-25 population.Ages of other things should follow the generalrule for numbers—spelled out below 10, innumerals above that: three-year fight, a city thatis more than 200 years old.3
AGGREGATE DEMAND AMONGaggregate demand. Total purchases byconsumers, businesses, government, andforeigners of a country’s output of final goodsand services during a given period.agree to. See adopt/agree to/approve/enact/pass/ratify.AIDS. Stands for acquired immunodeficiencysyndrome. AIDS is well enough known by itsacronym that it does not need to be spelled out.aircraft. Names of aircraft have hyphens afterletters (A-12, B-1, F-16) but not after numbers(C-5A, F/A-18E/F).aircraft carrier battle groupair-defense radar systemairfieldAir Force. Uppercase when referring to theU.S. Air Force. Lowercase when referring to theservices of other countries: China’s air force.Air National Guard (ANG), the GuardAirport and Airway Trust Fund (AATF),airport and airway tax ratesairspaceair-support missionair traffic control (ATC) systemair wingall-. all-around, all-day, all-encompassing,all-important, all-inclusive. See prefixes.alliance, allies. Lowercase even when referringto the NATO allies.allot, allotted, allottingall-payer systemAll-Volunteer Force (AVF)4alternative-fuel vehicle (AFV)alternative minimum tax (AMT). A taxintended to limit the extent to which higherincome people can reduce their tax liability (theamount they owe) through the use of preferences in the tax code. Taxpayers subject to theAMT are required to recalculate their taxliability on the basis of a more limited set ofexemptions, deductions, and tax credits thanwould normally apply. The amount by which ataxpayer’s AMT calculation exceeds his or herregular tax calculation is that person’s AMTliability.although/though. These two words mean thesame thing and are generally interchangeable.Although is the more commonly used of thetwo and is preferable at the beginning of asentence. Also see however and while.a.m. Stands for ante meridiem. Never use with“morning”: 10:45 a.m., at 9:30 in the morning.amendments. Lowercase when referring to anunratified constitutional amendment: thebalanced budget amendment. Uppercase whenreferring to a ratified amendment if its formaltitle or number is used: the Fifth Amendment,the 18th Amendment.American. If possible, avoid using the wordAmerican—as either an adjective or a noun—when referring to people in the United States,because all citizens of Central, North, andSouth America are Americans. An alternative isto use U.S. as an adjective and U.S. residents orU.S. citizens (if citizenship is important in thecontext) as a noun.among/between. The rule seems simple enough:Use between when discussing two things,among when referring to more than two.Rivalry has long existed between the two companies. Revenues were distributed evenly among thefour states involved. Unfortunately, enoughexceptions exist to bedevil even the most carefulCBO ’ S GUIDE TO STYLE AND USAGE ,2013
AMONG A PRIORIwriter. The distinction to bear in mind is thatamong implies a looser, less direct relationship.Between should be used for more than twoitems if each item is considered separately.Therefore, it is correct to write Talks betweenFrance, Germany, and the United Kingdom endedin an agreement to divide the responsibility amongthe three nations or Train service is availablebetween New York, New Haven, and Hartford.Also see across.analytic, analytical. Synonyms that mean “of orrelating to analysis”; analytic is a bit neater.and. This conjunction may be used sparingly tobegin a sentence within a paragraph. Whenused that way, and imparts emphasis. It is apoor way to start a paragraph, however. (Thesame applies to but.) Also see comma.and/or. This usage is awkward and sounds toobureaucratic for CBO writing. Instead of “Xand/or Y,” better options are X, Y, or both orX or Y or both. Also, in many cases, using or byitself conveys the same meaning. For example,fiscal policy can affect behavior by changingpeople’s current or expected income implies thatfiscal policy can affect current income for somepeople, expected income for other people, andboth types of income for yet others.annualized. In writing intended for a generalaudience, average annual is clearer.follows the same rule as collective nouns: Ifwhat follows any is plural, use a plural verb(Any of my friends are happy to go); if whatfollows is singular, use a singular verb (Checkto see whether any of the cash is missing).anybody, anyone. These nouns take singularverbs and pronouns: Anybody who enrolls inthe auto club receives a decal for his or her carwindow. When “his or her” proves too awkward,recast a sentence in the plural. For example,instead of writing “If anyone arrives before themeeting, he or she will not be able to park his orher car,” write If any participants arrive before themeeting, they will not be able to park their cars.The same rules apply to everybody and everyone.Also see the box about Pronouns on page 57.any-willing-provider lawAppalachian Regional Commission (ARC)appendix, appendixes (pl.). Uppercase whenreferring to a specific section of a report: seeAppendix B. Lowercase when referring to suchsections nonspecifically or when there is onlyone: in the three appendixes to this paper or see theappendix.appreciation. Gain in the exchange value of acurrency.appropriation. The legal authority for a federalanother. Means “one more of the same kind” andthus, in reference to a number, should be usedonly when repeating a number mentionedearlier. For example, another is incorrect inthis sentence: “The cuts will reduce outlays by 62 billion in 2013 and by another 640 billionin 2014”; another would be correct only if thesecond number was also 62 billion. With adifferent number, say by an additional 640 billion or by 640 billion more.anti-. antiair, antiaircraft, antidiscrimination,antipathy, antisatellite, antiship, antisocial,antisubmarine, antitank, antitrust, butanti-inflationary, anti-intellectual. See prefixes.CBO ’ S GUIDE TO STYLE AND USAGE ,any. In terms of subject-verb agreement, any2013program or agency to incur obligationsand make payments from the Treasury.Appropriations takes an s only when used as anoun: Those appropriations would permit HHSto expand the program. The adjective form isappropriation: the appropriation process, theappropriation act. The one exception isthe appropriations committee. Also seespending/funding.approve. See adopt/agree to/approve/enact/pass/ratify.a priori. Not italicized. Also see the box aboutForeign Phrases and Abbreviations on page 27.5
ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE AVERAGE INDEXED MONTHLY EARNINGSArctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)areawideArmy. Uppercase when referring to the U.S. Army.Lowercase when referring to the services ofother countries: Russia’s army.Army Corps of Engineers, the Corps, theCorps’Army National Guard (ARNG), the Guardaround. As a synonym for approximately, aroundhas informal connotations. A better choice isabout or roughly.as. See because/since/as and like/as.Asian American. Never hyphenated.assure/ensure/insure. Assure means “to makesafe or certain,” but it also implies the idea of“reassuring or giving confidence to someone.”Ensure
This guide to style and word usage, the fourth in CBO’s history, updates the 1996 publication A Style . good sources to consult are The Chicago Manual of Style and The New York Public Library Writer’s Guide to Style and . so use th em judiciously. If a term appears once or only a few times in a document, do not abbreviate it. .
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Undergraduate Form and Style Guide 5 Introduction Academic writing style refers to the style accepted by a college or university for academic papers. Most universities adopt an academic style compatible with their academic disciplines and modify that style to meet their specific criteria. The Global U
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Collectively make tawbah to Allāh S so that you may acquire falāḥ [of this world and the Hereafter]. (24:31) The one who repents also becomes the beloved of Allāh S, Âَْ Èِﺑاﻮَّﺘﻟاَّﺐُّ ßُِ çﻪَّٰﻠﻟانَّاِ Verily, Allāh S loves those who are most repenting. (2:22
