Style guide changes

Where I work, we recently agreed a few minor changes to our style guide. We're now using:

• cashflow instead of the Oxford English Dictionary's 'cash flow'

• seatbelt instead of the OED's 'seat belt' or our previous 'seat-belt'

• T-shirt instead of our previous 'teeshirt'

So we're moving away from the OED when it comes to compound nouns. At least we're now in agreement with the dictionary over 'T-shirt'.

House style: job titles, positions and ranks

We're currently overhauling our house style so that it is consistent across two print publications and one online publication, and the issue of job titles has come up. Currently, on one of the print publications at least, we use lower case for job titles but initial caps for "positions of public office and police ranks", for example:

• senior reporter John Doe
• Prime Minister John Doe
• Police Constable John Doe

(I know, that John Doe has had a very checkered career...)

This approach has several drawbacks, notably a) it can look inconsistent to readers who don't understand the rules behind it, and b) it leads to interminable discussions as to whether local councillors really should get initial caps.

So we're thinking of taking the lead of The Guardian and using lower case for all job titles and positions of public office. However The Guardian does use initial caps for police ranks (I don't know how it treats military ranks, but I imagine it also gives them initial caps).

What do you think? And if you work for a publication, what approach does it take?


Incidentally, I really like The Guardian for putting its style guide online and making it so clear and easy to use. The guide also displays both wit and grumpiness, which I think are necessary components of any style guide (or sub)...