This is a style guide for the Xinhua Financial News Network (XFNN) news service. The fundamental style is American English. The XFNN news service is aimed at the international financial community, and the style and presentation of all material must be clear and easily understood. Elegance is nice, but not essential.

This style guide draws on a number of different sources, including the AP and Reuters Style Guides, the London Times and Guardian style guides, Leslie Sellers' Doing It In Style, Fowler's Modern English Usage and E.B. White's The Elements of Style, and my own experience in this field.

Specific decisions on style and usage are made in the context of the XFNN news service and the production of news items from and about China aimed at readers all over the world.

Graham Earnshaw
Beijing
April 11, 2001