Use of English

brackets ( ) [ ]

Follow OD's advice on brackets, copied here below:

There are two main types of brackets.

Round brackets

Round brackets (also called parentheses) are mainly used to separate off information that isn’t essential to the meaning of the rest of the sentence. If you removed the bracketed material the sentence would still make perfectly good sense. For example: 

Mount Everest (8848 metres) is the highest mountain in the world.

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grammar, punctuation

brand new

not "brand-new"

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translation

break-up (noun), break up (verb)

translation

breakdown (noun), break down (verb)

translation

breakthrough (noun), break through (verb)

translation

broadband

translation

Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) mechanism

Not "Higgs mechanism" or "Higgs-Brout-Englert" mechanism. 

See Higgs boson

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abbreviations, acronyms, style

budget, budgeted

but capitalise CERN Budget

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translation

build-up (noun), build up (verb)

translation

bureau, bureaux (pl.)

translation

busbar

Courier

by-product

use hyphen

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translation

bypass (noun and verb)

translation

C-RBB

Computing Resources Review Board

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

C-RSG

Computing Resources Scrutiny Group

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa (CKM) matrix

Spell out in first use then use acronym for the CERN Courier

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abbreviations, acronyms, Courier

CAC

CERN Audit Committee (replaced by SACA)

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

cancel, cancelled, cancelling

spelling, translation

capacity-building (adj. and noun)

translation

capital letters

Use minimal capitalisation. A heading starts with a capital, but other words should not be capped up, unless they are proper nouns. If in doubt, choose lower case.

Exceptions include: our Sun, Earth (the planet), and our Solar System, Universe and Moon, but not other suns, solar systems, universes and moons, or earth as in soil.

Use a capital letter when you are writing the names of people, languages, places and words relating to them:

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punctuation, style, translation

captions

General

Use normal punctuation in captions, except at the end – no full stop at the end of the caption.

Image captions are a maximum of 200 characters (including spaces), and must include a credit in the format "(Image: name/organisation)" Note that there is no full stop after the parentheses at the end of the caption.

Text

The image caption should be directly linked to the body text. So instead of:

The Antiproton Decelerator (Image: CERN)

Write

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style

car park

not carpark

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translation

carry-over (noun), carry over (verb)

translation

CAS

CERN Accelerator School

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

case law

translation

case study

translation

case-by-case (adj.)

translation

CAST

CERN Axion Solar Telescope

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

catalogue

translation

catalyse

translation

CBD

Cumulative budget deficit

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

CCC

CERN Control Centre

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abbreviations, acronyms, Courier, translation

CCP

Comité de Concertation Permanent (Standing Concertation Committee)

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

CDM

Cold dark matter

Spell out in first use then use acronym for the CERN Courier

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Courier

CDR

Conceptual design report

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

CDS

The CERN Document Server.

See video.

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abbreviations, acronyms, style, translation

CEA

Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Agency)

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

centimetre

Not centimeter. See units.

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spelling

centre of excellence

translation

centre or center?

Use the American spelling only for American organisations and place names:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Rockefeller Center

Otherwise, stick to centre:

The Sun is at the centre of our Solar System.

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spelling

centre, centred, centring

spelling, translation

CERN

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the organisation that operates the European Laboratory for Particle Physics. Lots of experiments take place at this laboratory.

Stick to the official title "European Organization for Nuclear Research" for CERN websites. 

Use the acronym CERN in the singular: 

CERN offers student work placements (not "CERN offer student work placements")

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style

CERN Council

Upper case

 

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style

CERN Data Centre

Formerly the CERN Computer Centre, the CERN Data Centre (CDC) forms Tier-0 of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG). 

The change was made to avoid confusion with the CERN Control Centre (CCC). 

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style

CET

CERN Expenditure Tracking application

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abbreviations, acronyms, translation

chair

not chairman, chairwoman or chairperson

See gender neutrality

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translation

channel, channelling, channelled

spelling, translation

chargé d’affaires, chargés d'affaires (pl.)

no italics

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style, translation

charge-parity (CP)

use hyphen

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Courier

check-up (noun), check up (verb)

translation

Pages

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