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On Style: J to Y
(taken from PDI Stylebook by Yambot and Hidalgo)

JARGON (1) specialist language; (2) writing full of unfamiliar words or phrases

JOURNALESE refers to reporter’s jargon

LEGALESE refers to lawyer’s jargon

JUVENILE people under the age of 18

KIN collective noun referring to relatives by blood; not to be used to refer to

only one relative

KORAN Islam’s sacred book

KUDOS is a credit or praise for an achievement; singular

LAST should not be used synonymously with LATEST. Use LATEST UPDATE, not
last update.

LAST is also not used in the story. Don’t say LAST MONDAY but MONDAY is
enough.

LATE (in the sense of dead) is to be used only to refer to a person who just
died recently; No need to say LATE PRESIDENT MARCOS because he has been
dead quite a long time ago.
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LAY is transitive, LIE is intransitive.

Other notes: lie (present,) lay (past) and lain (past participle)

lay (present), laid (past) and laid (past participle)

Lie
Present tense: I lie down on my bed to rest my weary bones.
Past tense: Yesterday, I lay there thinking about what I had to do during the day.
Past participle: But I remembered that I had lain there all morning one day last week.
Lay
Present tense: As I walk past, I lay the tools on the workbench.
Past tense: As I walked past, I laid the tools on the workbench. And: I laid an egg in class
when I tried to tell that joke.
Past participle: . . . I had laid the tools on the workbench.

From: http://web.ku.edu/~edit/lie.html

LECTERN, PODIUM, ROSTRUM, PULPIT a speaker stands at or behind a lectern,

on a podium, or rostrum and in a pulpit

LIKELY is used as an adjective, e.g. a likely candidate

LONE is used to emphasize the fact of a subject’s isolation if he took on an

entire police squad. To say lone gunman is redundant.

MAJORITY is more than half of a given number or a group

PLURALITY is the larger portion or greater number

MEDIUM one kind of medium is medium of communication e.g . TV, radio,

newspaper. MEDIA always takes plural verb.

MIDNIGHT comes at the end of the day

MID has no hyphen unless followed by a capitalized noun e.g. midnight,

midsummer and mid-America
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MINI generally has no hyphen when used in a compound word

MINUSCULE not miniscule

MISHAP is a minor misfortune; People don’t get killed in mishaps, but in

accidents

MORE should be used more than OVER

MR. Is used in second reference to the president (male)

MS has no period and pertains to MISS or Mrs.

MULTI in general doesn’t have hyphen when combined with another word

MUSLIM and not Moslem

NONE means not one

OBSCENITY means “gross indecency, unchaste action, lewdness.” It refers to

acts or words “offensive to one’s feelings or to prevailing notions of modesty.
Also means disgusting or repulsive

PROFANITY is “something which treats something sacred with irreverence or

abuse; blasphemy.” Also means showing of disrespect or contempt for sacred
things.

VULGARITY is the “lack of refinement in conduct or speech; coarseness. Also,

a state of being “crude, coarse, unrefined, or indecent.”

ON is not used for time. Don’t say on Monday unless it can make the sentence
confusing.
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ONLY is not used when referring to casualties. It makes the sound as if it is

disappointing to know that for example, only 10 got killed.

ORAL refers to spoken words

VERBAL refers to all words, written or spoken

OWING TO THE FACT THAT is not used; BECAUSE is enough

PEOPLE may be used to refer to a large or small number of individuals.

PERSON is used for singular.

PERCENT is originally spelled per cent but PDI style uses it as one word.

POLICE is always used as a plural noun

PRESS CONFERENCE is used; not abbreviated as presscon.

PRESENTLY means soon or after a short time

AT PRESENT means now

PRETEXT is something put forward to conceal a truth; an excuse

PRETENSE is a false show intended to conceal something, such as personal

feelings.

Example: He was dismissed on grounds of poor health, but this

reason was just a pretext for corruption.

He was able to enter the off-limits area under a

[false] pretenses.

QUEUE should be avoided. Use line up instead.

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QUINTET is journalese for a group of five. Avoid it.

QUOTATION is a noun

QUOTE is a verb

RACK as a noun applies to various types of framework; as a verb, it means to

torment or to torture

WRACK means ruin or destruction (n) ; as a verb, it means the same with rack
but RACK is preferred.

NERVE-RACKING or NERVE-WRACKING are both acceptable. It means

extremely irritating to one’s nerves.

RADICAL refers to a person who believes change can be achieved through

tearing up the roots of foundation of the present order.

REARED Only human beings may be reared. Any living thing, including humans,
may be RAISED.

RALLYIST is not in Webster’s dictionary. Use demonstrator, protester, marcher

or picket

REBUT means to contradict or deny

REFUTE means to prove the other party wrong

RICHTER SCALE a scale of earthquake magnitude

RIFLE To do this is to plunder or steal

RIFFLE means to leaf through rapidly

SHALL is used in the first person and WILL in the second and third, to mean
plain future
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WILL is used in the first person and SHALL in the second and third, to mean
volition, permission or obligation.

SIC is Latin for so; This word is used in bracket or parenthesis after a word that
seems odd or is wrongly spelled, to show that it is being quoted exactly as it
was given. The statue (sic) is in the statue books.

TAKE denotes movement away from the speaker or writer

BRING denotes movement toward the speaker or writer

TEENAGE is used, not teenaged

THAT is used to introduce a clause that is necessary

WHICH is used to introduce a clause, which, when deleted, the sentence would
still be complete.

THAT refers to persons or things or animals

WHO or WHOM refer to persons only

THERE ARE and THERE IS should not be used at the beginning

TRIO is journalese for a group of 3. Must be avoided, unless referring to

musicians

TRIGGER must not be overused; Use cause, produce, signal, start, or begin
instead.

TROOP is a group of people, usually soldiers or animals

TROOPS means several groups but may e used simply to indicate a large
number

TROUPE refers to a group of entertainers.

V. is used in court

VS. is used in sports

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