Glossary for the Trumpet
- & | The ampersand (&) is generally used in informal contexts or in specific instances such as company names or titles (eg, “Johnson & Johnson), abbreviations (eg, “R&D”), certain expressions, titles, or citations (eg, “Romeo & Juliet”). In formal writing, “and” is preferred over the ampersand
- air conditioning | Two words without a hyphen. Avoid the informal “air con”
- alumni | Alumnae (plural form for female former students or graduates; singular, alumna) and alumni (male former students or former students or graduates in general; singular, alumnus). This is the body of men and women who have completed their studies at TTC. For now, we avoid the gender-neutral but informal terms: alum and alums
- Bible | It’s the Bible with an upper-case B
- Biblical studies | Biblical studies is treated as a singular field or subject
- Bishop | Use in full, always
- car park | Car park, not carpark. Car parking but never carparking. A car park, the entire space or structure, is one parking lot. A parking lot has many parking spaces or parking spots, but is just one lot. The use of lots for parking spots is Singlish. Yes, it is used in official communications in Singapore, but it is still Singlish, or a form of non-standard English
- CCC&TSMP | The China Christian Council and Three-Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China is abbreviated as CCC&TSPM, without spaces
- circuit breaker | Yes, it had a big impact on our lives, but there’s no need for the capital letters
- city-state | Hyphenated
- cooperation | Not hyphenated
- Covid-19, not COVID-19
- e-book, not ebook or eBook
- eg, | End the abbreviation of exempli gratia with a comma; no full stop needed
- email | No hyphen. For the electronic computer messaging system, email (mass noun, no plural). As individual messages, emails
- EQUIP | The name of TTC’s lay training initiative is in all caps
- ETHOS Institute | The ETHOS of ETHOS Institute for Public Christianity or ETHOS Institute is in all caps. Cite without a definitive article, so it’s just ETHOS Institute
- everyday and every day | They are not the same. Everyday (adjective) events don’t happen every day (each day)
- FaceTime and FaceTiming | Note the capitalisation of this proprietary video and audio calling service developed by Apple
- faculty | A collective noun. We use it to refer to all our lecturers. And as a collective noun, it can be used with either a singular or a plural verb (OED). A lecturer is a member of the faculty or a faculty member
- faculty-in-development | We use this to refer to all the persons on this programme collectively. A person can be a member of our faculty-in-development or a faculty-in-development member, not a faculty-in-development
- full stop | The mark used at the end of a sentence to emphasise that there is nothing more to say about a subject? It’s the full stop. Prefer this over period. Unless it’s for effect, eg, The mark used to end a sentence is called the full stop. This is the end of the discussion. Period
- himself or herself | Themself can be used as a gender neutral substitute for himself or herself (third person singular). Sounds awkward but themself is recognised in the OED so use it if you need a gender neutral reflexive pronoun
- hyperrealism or hyperrealistic | One word, without hyphens
- got | The past participle of get is got, not gotten—an American usage which is best forgotten
- Great Commission | The Great Commission
- grey, not gray
- first come, first served | No hyphens. Eg, tickets are available on a first come, first served basis
- hard copy, not hardcopy
- ie, | End the abbreviation of id est with a comma; no full stop needed
- internet | The internet (no capitalisation)
- laity | All the members of a church who are not clergy are its laity
- layperson | It’s a single word, but it’s two words for a member of the laity chosen as a leader, a lay leader
- live stream | A live stream (noun) is live-streamed (verb)
- live-streamed | A live stream (noun) is live-streamed (verb)
- long-standing | hyphenated
- multipurpose hall | It’s a multipurpose hall or multipurpose hall; never a multi-purpose hall
- normality | Use normality, an older word, instead of normalcy which is more popular in the USA and with a certain local broadsheet
- phone | Prefer mobile phone over cell phone (American) or handphone (Southeast Asian)
- office holders, not officeholders
- Pastor | Abbreviate to Ps
- Pastor-in-Charge | Abbreviate to PiC. Note that “in” is lowercase
- per cent, not percent or %
- period | The mark used at the end of a sentence to emphasise that there is nothing more to say about a subject? Prefer full stop. Unless it’s for effect, eg,
The mark used to end a sentence is called the full stop. This is the end of the discussion. Period - Presbyterian Church in Singapore, The | We use The Presbyterian Church in Singapore instead of The Presbyterian Church of Singapore
- Principal | Our Principal, the Principal, or Rev Dr Tay after the first full mention
- programme | TTC runs programmes (planned series of future events training, etc) but our computers run programs (software)
- QiCheng | Note how the name of TTC’s Chinese lay training initiative should be. Note also that as it is in a non-English language, it should be italicised
- Q&A | For this dialogue or session consisting of alternating questions and answers, there is no need for caps or hyphens in the long form, a question and answer session
- real time, not real-time
- Reverend | Abbreviate to Rev, not Revd
- think tank | Two words without a hyphen
- Trumpet, insert “the” before the name of our college magazine, as in the Trumpet
- Trinity Anthem | Our college anthem, composed by Rev Dr F Olin Stockwell and his wife, Mrs Esther B Stockwell, is formally called the Trinity Anthem, not the Trinity Theological College anthem or the TTC anthem
- 24/7 | Something always available; twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, or running all the time
- video cameras, not videocameras
- web page | There are web pages on our website
- Wi-Fi | A facility allowing computers, smartphones, or other devices to connect to the internet or communicate with one another wirelessly within a particular area
- world view | Two words
updated 240815