Styleguide

Our Style Guide provides an overview of the rules for writing English-language texts at KIT. The most important and most frequently used English terms can be found in the KIT Glossary. If you have any questions about the Style Guide or your translation process, please send us an email.  

American English  
KIT generally uses American English. Exceptions are texts and reports for the European Commission. American English differs from British English in terms of pronunciation, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation. Regular differences in spelling are e.g:  
Words that end in -re in British English are spelled with -er in American English.   
Examples: center, fiber, theater etc.  
The British ending -our becomes -or in American.   
Examples: behavior, favor, tailor, neighbor, etc.  
The British -ise and -isa- become -ize and -iza- respectively in American.     
Examples: minimize, organize, organization, optimization, analyze, etc.  
 
Capitalization for Headings  
In American English, headings are written with capital letters at the beginning. At KIT, this also applies to subheadings.   
Exceptions: Prepositions (in, at, ...) and articles (the, a) if they are not at the beginning of a sentence.  
Example: Breast Cancer Marker Identified in the Bloodstream  
Punctuation  
In American English, the colon is followed by a capital letter.  
Hyphens are usually omitted in American English.   
Examples: AIDA facility, AI chips, open-source software etc.  
The quotation marks in direct speech are placed at the top at the beginning and end and also include punctuation marks.   
Example: “Freedom,” Professor Oliver Kraft, Acting President of KIT, said, “is no matter of course. We are constantly made aware of that. This also holds for the freedom of science.”  
In a list of three or more terms, we use the so-called “Oxford comma” directly before the conjunction (usually “and”/“or”) that follows the last term listed.   
Examples: She visited France, Italy, and Germany.  
Dates, Times, and Numbers  
The date is preceded by the month which is written out in full, the year is always included. Writing the month names in full is important, as the American spelling (e.g. 12/06/09 for December 6, 2009) could lead to misunderstandings.  
Examples: March 7, 2024; January 1 to December 31, 2025.  
  
The time is stated in a 24-hour format and with “hrs”.  
Example: 14:00 hrs, from 9:00 hrs to 12:00 hrs.  
  
With numbers, the use of periods and commas is the reverse of German: Decimals are separated by dots, thousands are separated by commas.  
Examples: 2.5 million inhabitants; 300,000 houses  
In order to ensure barrier-free accessibility, we recommend writing out currency designations in full and using lower case (with the exception of headings).  
Examples: 400 euros, 200 dollars.  
  
Persons, Forms of Address, Titles  
The direct form of address is Mr. or Ms. Unlike in British English, in American English the abbreviations Mr., Ms., and Dr. are followed by a period. There is no longer a distinction between “Miss” and “Mrs.”; “Ms.” is used as a neutral term.  
In English, “they” is used more and more frequently as a singular pronoun when the gender of the person being referred to is unknown. This means that the more cumbersome “he/she” or “she or he” can be avoided. This is particularly useful when several pronouns are used in succession in a sentence. 
 Examples: A researcher must be completely objective in his or her findings.  
=> A researcher must be completely objective in their findings.  
The goal is to support him/her with his/her career and reaching his/her individual goals. 
=> The goal is to support them in their career and reaching their individual goals.  
CAUTION: The English term PhD is a protected term and may not be used as a synonym for the German doctorate (Doktortitel, Dr.). It may only be used if the title is awarded as a PhD by the university that issues the certificate.  
 Proper Names  
As a rule, proper names are left in their original spelling. 
Example: Baden-Württemberg.   
Translations of names for institutions, foundations, etc. should be taken from the respective websites. Some translate themselves, others do not, some in British English, some in American English. 
Examples: CISPA - Helmholtz Center for Information Security, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Forschungszentrum Jülich.  
 Special KIT Wording  
KIT is written without an article in English. 
Example: Being “The Research University in the Helmholtz Association”, KIT creates and imparts knowledge for the society and the environment.  
For business cards, titles such as Akad. Oberrat, Dipl.-Ing., Dipl.-Phys. are adopted and not translated.  
If 'KIT' is combined with a hyphen as a prefix in German (KIT-Dekan), the hyphen is omitted in the translation (KIT Dean). 
The German term “KIT-Fakultät” translates to “KIT Department”. “Faculty” refers to the teaching staff as a group in German.   
The German “KIT-Bereiche” are KIT Divisions in English.    
Frequently Occurring Terms 
  • Dachstrategie KIT 2025: KIT 2025 Strategy  
  • KIT – Die Forschungsuniversität in der Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft: KIT – The Research University in the Helmholtz Association  
  • The German “Bachelor- und Master-Studiengang” translates to “bachelor’s and master’s program”.  
  • “Postdoc”, “postgraduate”, “startup” and “spinoff” are written as one word.  
  • The German “E-Mail” becomes “email” or “Email” at the beginning of a sentence, respectively.  
  • In contract texts, “§” becomes Article (or Art.), the German Term “Absatz” becomes paragraph (or par.), “Satz” becomes clause (or cl.), and “Ziffer” becomes No.