style guide
TRAVEL LAW QUARTERLY STYLE GUIDE
General Principles
Theodore Roosevelt, when addressing the American Historical Association in 1912, said:
“Writings are useless unless they are read, and they cannot be read unless they are readable.”
As a guiding principle for contributors to the TLQ this is as good a starting point as any. Another set of guiding principles are supplied by George Orwell who provides the following set of guidelines for good writing:
- Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print
- Never use a long word where a short one will do
- If it is possible to cut out a word, always cut it out
- Never use the passive where you can use the active
- Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent
- Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.
At the risk of labouring the point it is also worth quoting from Barbara Tuchman the great American historian who had this to say about writing good English:
“Historians can – though not all do – make themselves understood in everyday English, the language in use from Chaucer to Churchill. Let us beware the plight of our colleagues, the behavioral scientists, who by use of a proliferating jargon have painted themselves into a corner – or isolation ward – of unintelligibility. They know what they mean, but no one else does. Psychologists and sociologists are the farthest gone in the disease and probably incurable. Their condition might be pitied if one did not suspect it was deliberate. Their retreat into the arcane is meant to set them apart from the great unlearned, to mark their possession of some unshared, unsharable expertise. No matter how illuminating their discoveries, if the behavioral scientists write only to be understood by one another, they must come to the end of the Mandarins.” (‘Practicing History, ‘Selected Essays by Barbara W Tuchman’, Ballantine Books, 1982, p.55)
It is pleasing to say that no contributor to the TLQ has even come near to plumbing those depths of obscurity but it is a fine quotation from a fine writer and it conveys the message in a gloriously pungent fashion.
Who are we writing for?
The TLQ prides itself on appealing to a diverse readership: travel industry professionals, lawyers, regulators, academics and students. It is essential therefore that articles are written in a style that is accessible to all parts of the readership. As a writer your job is to communicate, not obfuscate; your watchwords should be clarity and simplicity. This does not mean that articles have to be ‘dumbed down’ but it does mean that they have to be:
- Clear
- Attractive
- Readable, and
- Interesting
To make them interesting it would be helpful if they were also challenging and provocative.
Types of article
The TLQ publishes two types of article, short ones and long ones!
Shorter articles
Articles up to about 2000 words are particularly useful for:
- Legal updates
- Newsworthy or topical subjects
- Case comment or case notes
In these articles all references should be incorporated into the text and not put into footnotes. Where appropriate, guidance and practical tips should be given.
Longer articles
These are intended to be more reflective articles, fully referenced with footnotes, and generally in excess of 2,500 words. Advertising Authors are not to use the TLQ as a platform for advertising their services. The quality of your writing is advertisement enough.
House Style
MAIN HEADING. EMBOLDENED. UPPER CASE. CENTRED.
Author’s Name, italicised and centred
Main sub-heading. Emboldened. Lower case. Left justified.
Other sub-headings. Italicised. Lower case. Left justified
• Bullet points within paragraphs are preferable to numbered or lettered lists except where unavoidable.
An author’s cv should be placed at the end. It should be no more than three lines and to include an email address and website if desired.
Case citations
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562
- All case names should be italicised with no full stop after the v as in the example above.
- Not emboldened or underlined.
- The citation should be sufficient for a reader to follow up and find the case if necessary – but no more than that.
- Full stops in the citation should be avoided if at all possible i.e. AC not A.C.
- The full case citation should be given only once, when the case is first cited. After that the name of the case should suffice.
Citation of articles
Articles should be cited in the following fashion
- Karp ‘Survey of United States Travel Law’ [2001] ITLJ 87. The full citation should be given only once, when the article is first cited. After that the name of the author and the page should suffice e.g. Karp, p. 25.
Citation of books
- Saggerson, ‘Travel Law’ 4th ed, Excel, 2008 p.21. The full citation should be given only once, when the book is first cited. After that the name of the author and the page should suffice e.g. Saggerson, p.21.
Citation of websites
Website addresses can be very unwieldy and brevity should be attempted wherever possible – but not at the cost of readers being unable to find the information they are being referred to. The date when visited should also be included in the citation.
Submission of articles
Articles will only be accepted in electronic form. They should be emailed to (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address). They should be in Arial or Times New Roman 12 point font, 1½ line spacing and in Microsoft Word. All articles should have a word count attached. Please supply an address, e-mail address, and telephone and fax numbers with your submission.
Abstracts
A short abstract should accompany every submission. This will be used on the TLQ website.
Copyright
Unless otherwise agreed the TLQ will have first rights of publication in both hard copy and electronic form but authors will retain copyright of their own articles.
Defamation
In the unlikely event that an author submits an article which is defamatory the author agrees to indemnify the TLQ and its editors against any costs and damages incurred by them as a result of the defamatory statement.
