Style Guideline

[Link to Editorial Guideline. This document was last updated on 14th October, 2019 at 11:25 BDT]

This guideline is to be followed for any writing about and around Bengal Institute. Including all internal, external communications, emails, notes, formal/informal publications and all-over the Internet medias. For any style related decision making, this guideline takes precedence over popular or standard norms and any other style. Bengal Institute may have its own style for writing certain things that may not comply with any other standards or grammar.

English Language Style

British style grammar and spellings to be used.

If your primary comfort is US English, use it initially, then ask for help to convert it to British style before publishing/sending/communicating.

Bengali Language Style

সকল ক্ষেত্রে বাংলা একাডেমি প্রবর্তিত আধুনিক প্রমিত চলিত বাংলা ব‍্যবহার হবে।

দীর্ঘ-ঈ-কার, দীর্ঘ-ঊ-কার, মুর্ধণ‍্য, মুর্ধণ‍্য-ষ শুধুমাত্র তৎসম শব্দে প্রচলিত নিয়মে ব‍্যবহার হবে। সকল বিদেশি শব্দে দীর্ঘ-ঊ-কার, মুর্ধণ‍্য, মুর্ধণ‍্য-ষ পরিহার করতে হবে (প্রচলিত বানান ভিন্ন হলেও)। উদাহরণ:

সঠিক: কিন ব্রিজ, শহিদ, স্টেশন, কর্নার

ভুল: ক্বীন ব্রীজ, শহীদ, ষ্টেশন, কর্ণার

Capitalisation

Do not use ALL-CAPS, do not use all-small-caps at any circumstance. Wherever possible follow the standard English capitalisation. Titles will be capitalised as this:

All initial letters of each words will be capitalised, except prepositions, conjunctions and articles, exception: when they are at the beginning of the sentence. Example:

“A Forum with Gary Hack with the Educators of Bangladesh.”

Only in case of visuals and graphic designs all-caps maybe used.

Special Punctuations and Symbols Instructions

1. Use Oxford Commas when the conjunction is connecting long phrases or statements. Do not use Oxford Commas in a serial of single words.
   
   Examples: 
   
   Use Oxford Comma: 1. There will be some timber logs, and also a few steel posts.
   2. While many architects in Bangladesh by and large claimed the Kahn complex as their own, and sought inspiration from it, they continued to work to arrive at their own destinations.
   
   Avoid Oxford Comma: Bring in some timber, steel, stone and bamboo.
   
   
2. Do not use ampersand ‘&,’ it is always ‘and’ in its full form (applicable universally, including graphics; unless it is a part of a brand name or a proprietary stylisation, example: V&A is stylised for Victoria and Albert Museum).
   
   

3. Double Quotes: Double quotations will only be used to directly quote a statement or reference from books etc., it will not be used for emphasis. Full stops, commas, semicolons will be inside the double quotation marks. 

   Examples:

   Louis Kahn said “the sun never knew how great it was until it hit the side of a building.” Kazi Ashraf said “read all these books,” pointing at the pile of books on the table.

   Single Quotes: Single quotes will be used to separate phrasal nouns in a list, or to emphasise something. Full stops, commas, semicolons will be outside of the single quotation marks.

   Example: For example ‘this is an item’.

Names

Name of the Institute and its stylisation:

Formal full name:

Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements
বেঙ্গল ইনস্টিটিউট ফর আর্কিটেকচার, ল‍্যান্ডস্কেপস অ্যান্ড সেটেলমেন্টস

বহুল ব‍্যবহৃত ভুল বানান: ইন্সটিটিউট, ইনষ্টিটিউট, ইন্ষটিটিউট, এন্ড, এ্যান্ড, সেটলমেন্ট।

Allowed short forms: BI or Bengal Institute, in case of repetitive mentions in a paragraph or casual use. Do not use BIALS.

Title stylisation:

This format can be used for graphic design, banners etc.:

Bengal Institute
Architecture • Landscapes • Settlements

Regular capitalization. Helvetica Neue font. Bengal Institute bold. Vertically centered dot between the words of the tagline.
Download BI’s current standard Logo here: bit.ly/BILogo

Names of Departments

Standard: Academic Program
Acceptable short forms in web-tabs and graphics only: Academic
Bengali standard: অ্যাকাডেমিক প্রোগ্রাম

Standard: Research and Design Program
Acceptable short forms in web-tabs and graphics only: Research and Design
Bengali standard:  রিসার্চ ও ডিজাইন প্রোগ্রাম

Name of a Person:

In all public communications avoid all titles, salutations, prefix or suffix. Write only the ‘name’ of the person. i.e: avoid Dr., Professor, Sir, Madam, Architect, Ar. Engr. etc. Also avoid abbreviations, acronyms and initials.

Example: It is not KKA or K. K. Ashraf. It is always Kazi Khaleed Ashraf. It is not Dr. Kazi Khalid Ashraf or Professor Kazi Khaleed Ashraf.
Exception: In case of invitation or salutation in emails/letters etc. the titles (Dr. Professor, Honorable etc.) can be used based on specific instructions.

Names of Organisations and Products:

Be careful about spelling and stylisation of other organisations. For example: University of Pennsylvania is stylised as UPenn or Penn. UPENN, uPenn, U-Penn all are wrong. Similarly BRAC is always BRAC not Brac. iPhone is iPhone and not IPhone or i-phone. Similarly it is always PowerPoint, not powerpoint or Powerpoint.

Titles: Names of Books, Publications, Exhibitions etc.

All names of books, published titles of papers and movies would be in italics.
Example: She was similar to one of the Bennet sisters from Pride and Prejudice.

Date, Time and Numbers

Dates: English style dates with fully spelled name of the month. Example: 1st August, 2015. Avoid any other format wherever possible.

Time: Use 24-hours clock system, written with four digits and a colon in between hour and minute.
Example: 14:30, 09:45.
Incorrect: 2:30 pm / 230pm / 1430 / 14:30hr, 1430hrs.

Numbers: Inside paragraphs, numbers are to be written in words, like three thousand not 3,000. The commas in numbers will follow local Bangladeshi style, the commas will be in place of thousands, lakh and koti; not millions.

Units

In paragraph texts

Square feet: sq ft or square feet.
Square kilometre: square kilometre
Square Metre: square metre
Square Miles: sq mi or square miles

In technical drawings: As per specification/ as decided by the team-lead.