Our proofreading course students become very familiar with the Guardian style guide as they progress through the syllabus. It’s an essential proofreading tool.

As a result, some of them spot possible inconsistencies – that’s what happens when you do our online proofreading course!

Our course has an exercise in which students have to work out the style for a clergyman with the title of Dean. The exercise refers to him as ‘Reverend’.

Most students find the answer under R, in a section marked ‘the Rev’. This is what it says:

However, one eagle-eyed student found an even more appropriate reference under E, in a section called ‘Ecclesiastical titles’, which says:

She was right, and got a big pat on the back from her tutor, Jennie Harborth.

But we wondered whether ‘Ecclesiastical titles’ was the best name for this section. It’s certainly accurate. But how many people would think to search for it? ‘Ecclesiastical’ is not a phrase that many people are familiar with.

We reckon it would be better to merge the two sections into one, called: Clergy. It’s more user-friendly.

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