HSE Style Guide (for the website and promotional literature)

British or American English

We try to use British English wherever possible. The decision to use the British English in official materials was made a long time ago and now we follow it for the sake of consistency. Our website users are perfectly capable of understanding the British spelling. It does not affect their comprehension.
You can consult Cambridge University Dictionary or Collins for correct spelling or refer to the Guardian Style Guide if you cannot decide which spelling to choose.

Programme, not program. Exception: computer program (talking about software)
Centre, not center
Honour, not honor (also, behaviour, labour, etc)
In verbs we use –ise, not –ize: organise, realise, recognise, capitalise

Abbreviations

Omit full stops for: etc, eg, and ie

Omit full stops in academic degrees, such as PhD, MSc, etc

Omit full stops after Dr, Mr, Ms, St

BUT keep the full stop after Prof.

Addresses (of HSE Buildings)

See the HSE University Glossary for official translations of street addresses. We transliterate the Russian words for types of streets/places: Ulitsa, Ploschad, Bulvar, etc

Capitalisation

We capitalise:

Titles and positions (HSE Academic Supervisor, Russian Prime Minister)
Academic departments (Department of Economics, Laboratory for Research in Inflation and Growth)
Academic degrees (Master’s Degree in Finance, Master’s of Fine Arts)
Official names of individual courses of study (Introduction to Finance)
Official names of organizations (the Green Party, World Health Organization)
Official names of conferences and forums (The International Conference on Emerging Markets; Moscow International Financial Forum 2013)
Names of awards or prizes (Nobel Peace Prize)
Titles of individual lectures (The Department of Economics recently hosted the lecture ‘The Russian Economy and World Markets’.) Note: Names of lectures are also often enclosed in quotation marks.
Titles of publications including books, periodicals, articles, chapter names, section headings

Note: Names of freestanding publications (books, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, and sections of newspapers) that are published separately, as well as films and TV programmes, are usually italicised:

We read the Financial Times every day in our economics class.
My favourite novel is War and Peace.
For my research project, I used the Journal of Economic Theory.
The BBC’s Panorama has been on air for many years.
The film Hipsters was a smash hit in Russia when it appeared in 2008.

Note: With periodicals, if a periodical’s name begins with ‘The’, only capitalise the ‘T’ when it appears at the beginning of a sentence: ‘The Financial Times is the only newspaper I read’. ‘I only read the Financial Times’.

Note: Using quotation marks in titles, a common phenomenon in Russian, should be avoided: the journal Sexuality&Culture, not the journal “Sexuality&Culture”

Do not capitalise:

Names of disciplines unless they form part of a department name, an official course name, or are themselves proper nouns (‘HSE University has introduced a new economics course’.)
Seasons: winter, spring, etc.

Contractions

Contractions (don't, isn't, can't, etc) are acceptable in news items and informal mailshots.

Avoid contractions in official press releases and brochures.

COVID and Related Vocabulary

Use COVID-19 or COVID (all caps) to refer to the illness.
We use 'in-person' classes (NOT 'offline'). Classes can also be taught 'on campus'.
Students can study 'remotely' (also 'online') or in a 'hybrid mode'.
More about the differences between remote, hybrid, and blended learning can be found here.
Safety precautions include: a mask mandate, a vaccination requirement, and social distancing.

Data

We use ‘data’ as a singular noun (not datum)

Dates and Times

Always put the year the first time a date is mentioned, so that in the future, when people are looking back through the archive, it's clear when we are referring to.

Date style:

March 15, 2013. If the year is omitted: March 15

Time: 12-hour clock (8:30 am; 1 pm; 6:15 pm)

Forms of Address

Dr for people with PhDs
Prof. for Professors
Mr/Ms for people without academic degrees

Alternative: use a person's full name (Vera Ivanova)

HSE Departments

Names of HSE and its departments are translated as follows:

Высшая Школа Экономики: HSE University (no article!)

ВШЭ: HSE University

НИУ ВШЭ: HSE University (never NRU HSE)

Вышка: HSE University

Факультет: Faculty (Faculty of Law)

Отделение: School (School of Media)

Департамент: School

Кафедра:Department на всех кампусах. Chair - это только заведующий кафедрой, не сама оргединица (см Merriam–Webster dictionary)!

Если Департамент входит в состав Факультета наряду со Школами (Москва), то департамент переводится как School.
(трехуровневая структура "факультет — департамент/школа — кафедра": faculty—school—department)

В отдельных случаях возможен перевод Департамента как department (В рамках факультета, по запросу).

Сочетание 'academic department' не используется в названиях департаментов. если не подходит слово department, то лучше выбирать school.

Если Департамент входит в состав Школы (Санкт Петербург), то это Department.
(двухуровневая стуктура "школа — департамент / кафедра": school—department)

Лаборатория – Laboratory (not Lab)

For more information, see the Glossary.

For translation of specific HSE faculties, see the list of faculties.

For translation of specific HSE research centres and laboratories, see the research section.

When a department is part of a larger unit: School of Integrated Communications at the Faculty of Communications, Media, and Design

HSE Degree Programmes

Common translations:

Бакалавриат: undergraduate programme / Bachelor's programme

Магистратура: Master’s programme

Аспирантура: doctoral programme

For more information, see the Glossary. The full list of all programmes can be found in Programme Catalogue.

NOTE: Capitalise Bachelor's and Master's when talking about a specific programme. Use lowercase (master's or bachelor's) when talking in general: all master's students, some bachelor's degrees, etc.

EXAMPLES:

HSE University is set to significantly update its range of bachelor’s and master’s programmes for the next academic year.
Our two existing fully online bachelor’s programmes—International Legal Management offered by our Moscow campus and Design offered in Perm
Nizhny Novgorod campus will also run a Bachelor’s in Digital Marketing.

Hyphens and Em and En Dashes

Hyphens are used to combine words (well-read). Do not use hyphens after adverbs ending in –ly (internationally recognised).
The shorter en dash (–) is used to mark ranges (1920–29). No spaces before and after the en dash.
The longer em dash (—) is used to separate extra information or mark a break in a sentence. No spaces before and after the em dash.

Ex: The first two projects took several years to get results—they were long and complicated.

Special cases

Words like webpage, website, internet, and email do not have hyphens or spaces and are not capitalised. E-commerce, e-Sports and other words starting with 'e' for 'electronic' are hyphenated.

Inclusive Language

Avoid using gender-specific words like 'chairman', 'freshman', etc. Choose gender-neutral nouns (a chairperson, a first-year student, a first-year)

Use singular 'they' (instead of his/her) to refer back to a person. (I wanted to ask the student about their career plans)

Avoid using 'young researchers'. Opt for 'early career' or 'early stage' instead.

Avoid using 'the disabled', 'the handicapped', 'the deaf', etc. Use 'disabled people' or 'a disabled person' instead.

Avoid using words like 'victim of', 'suffering from', 'afflicted by', 'crippled by'. Use 'a person with' or 'a person has'.
More on disability language here.

Interviews

Each paragraph in an interview starts with an EM DASH (insert it as a special symbol, do not use the 'List' function) and a SPACE. Questions are in bold.

— Question?

— Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer. Answer.

— Question?

— Answer.

When we translate an interview from Russian which starts with a traditional form of address, such as Алексей Иванович, or Мария Петровна, we replace it with Dr Chernenko, Ms Ivanova, Prof Petrov, etc.
— Элла Львовна, где вы работали до ВШЭ? И почему пришли работать в Вышку?
— Dr Khabina, where did you work before HSE? And why did you come to work at HSE?

Informal Language

Avoid using colloquial language such as

'guys', 'bloke'/'gal' for students
gonna / wanna

Phrasal verbs are generally fine, unless they are marked with 'colloquial' or 'informal' in the dictionaries

Job Titles, Academic Positions

We capitalise job titles and academic positions.

Доцент: Associate Professor (иногда Assistant Professor, в зависимости от условий трудового контракта)
Научный руководитель (ВШЭ в целом, научных работ и подразделений): Academic Supervisor

For the translation of staff positions, see the Glossary.

Links

We add links to HSE University departments, staff members, events and projects where possible, but only once in a text:

Anita Soboleva, Associate Professor at the HSE Faculty of Law Department of the Theory of Law and Comparative Law, has been voted one of HSE’s best teachers by students in 2012. Anita Soboleva [second reference, no link] is a lawyer with 10 years’ experience and the leader of a human rights organization, Lawyers for Constitutional Rights and Freedoms.

We try to add links to words and phrases in the text, not just print them ‘as is’:

WRONG: For more information please visit https://conf.hse.ru/

RIGHT: For more information, please visit the conference website.

Avoid adding links to blank spaces and punctuation marks, unless they are part of the phrase you are using as a link:

HSE/NES research seminar on political economy. Topic: ‘Does Political Competition Matter for Public Goods Provision? Evidence from Russian Regions’
1st International 'Russia Longitudinal Monitoring Survey' User Conference. Moscow, May 17–18, 2013.

IMPORTANT: when inserting a link in the Heading field of a news item or an announcement, make sure the link includes the quotation marks as otherwise extra spaces will appear in the heading.

Lists

We follow the Oxford comma rule. Add a comma before the final ‘and’ in lists of more than two items: it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea) and sometimes it is essential.

compare

I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis, and JK Rowling
with
I dedicate this book to my parents, Martin Amis and JK Rowling

If you have two items, join them with an 'and': Ex: We invited our British and American partners.

News

Each article for the News section should include a heading, a lead-in paragraph of 1–2 sentences, and the body of the text.

News Headings (and Subheadings)

Capitalise all words EXCEPT articles (a, an, the) and prepositions, unless they appear in initial position or after a colon. Conjunctions like and, nor, but, for, and or should also be written in lowercase. If there is a phrasal verb, all its parts will be capitalised.

DO NOT USE ALL CAPS for headings.

The heading should not be overly long. Even if it is an event announcement, do not put all of the information in the heading. The heading should contain only the most important bits.

Generally, it is recommended to omit articles in headings, unless the heading is a quote or contains a long sentence.

Excellent Opportunity to Study, Work, and Live
Strong Side of Public Policy Is Debate
Foresight Is More Prescience Than Prognosis
Foreign Policy Challenges in Iran: An In-depth Study
‘Master’s in Comparative Social Research Is a Perfect Fit for My Academic Needs’

Note: If a word is hyphenated, capitalise both parts: Benefits of Self-Paced Studies

More about capitalisation in headings on Grammarly.

Numbers

Spell out numbers 1–9; always spell out a number if it appears at the beginning of a sentence. (She wrote 23 books. Twenty-three books are sitting on the shelf.)

Large numbers of 4 figures and higher: use comma every third place: 100,000 (not 100000)

For percentages: use the % symbol (The city lost 20% of its inhabitants to the disaster.)

Punctuation

Exclamation marks: Avoid using exclamation marks in English texts. It's considered poor style. Only use it as a very rare exception.

Lists: see Lists

Complex sentences. Generally avoid inserting a comma in situations like these:

Our project will be a success if more students join it.
Our project is successful because we have a strong research focus.

Avoid comma splice when connecting two complete sentences. Join sentences with a conjunction or start a new sentence.

WRONG: HSE University is quite young, it was founded a mere 30 years ago.

RIGHT: HSE University is quite young as it was founded a mere 30 years ago. OR HSE University is quite young. It was founded a mere 30 years ago.

Useful guide on avoiding common punctuation errors can be found here.
For punctuation in the direct speech see below.

Quotation Marks and Direct Speech

Use single quotes at the start and end of a quoted section, with double quotes for quoted words within that section. Punctuation marks go inside the quotation marks. Em dashes are not used to set off direct speech in English texts. Use a comma (or a question or exclamation mark) instead.

Ex: ‘We are looking forward to seeing many of you in our academic teams,’ said Maria Yudkevich, HSE University Vice Rector. ‘Their doors are open to you.'
Ex: ‘It probably also affects them somehow. Then they ask, “Can I bring my girlfriend and friends to show them the school where I study?”'

Note: NEVER USE Russian style quote marks in English texts («»).
More about reported and direct speech in Cambridge Dictionary.

Transliteration of Russian Names

Simplified British Standard:

Valery, Dmitry, and Andrey (Not Valeriy, Dmitriy, Andrei)

However, it is recommended to check the person’s page for correct spelling of their name.

DO NOT include patronymics—they are a foreign notion to an English speaker

HSE University Glossary

Contacts