Style Guide

Overall

• Follow American-style spelling and punctuation
• Follow Revised Romanization
• Follow Cultural Heritage Administration official naming guidelines

Resources

• 관광용어 외국어 용례사전
• 서울시 외국어 표기 사전
• 한국학 영문 용어용례 사전
• 국사편찬위원회 한국역사용어 시소러스
• 부산대 한국어/로마자 변환기 - 오류가 가끔 있음
• YellowBridge Chinese Langauge and Culture
• Chinese Text Project

Punctuation Rules

• Never use the "~" mark
• Include a space before opening parenthesis
• Include the punctuation (comma, period) inside quotation marks
• Do not use single quotation marks
• Use italic for romanization or terminology in other languages
• Include Hanja in parenthesis after a translation of the meaning to identify hanging plaques

Phrases

• presumed, believed
• according to (a) legend, according to historical sources, according to local folklore

Measurements

• It measures ?? m in height and ?? m in circumference
  • Trees: at the base, at chest height, at the crown
• Perimeter vs circumference
  • Circumference is only for circular objects
• Length vs width
  • Difference in English: length is always longer than width, regarless of whether it is vertical or horizontal
  • Depth...

Names

• Surname Given-name
• Follow official romanization rules:
  • Exceptions: Kim, Kang, Yi
  • Consider both syllables of the given name as separate when Romanizing them.

Dates of Birth/Death

• Include in parenthesis after name
  • Ex) Song Si-yeol (1607-1689)
• Use a hyphen, not a "~" mark
• Include only years, not months or days
• If one year is unknown, use a "?" in place of the unknown year.
  • Ex) Choe Chi-won (857-?)
• If both the birth and death year are unknown, do not include anything after the name.
• Only include the years of birth/death for key figures, or if it is helpful for the reader to give context

Pen Names

• Only include if the pen name is referenced somewhere else in the text, such as in the name of a building.
• Should not have a hyphen between syllables
  • (Yi Hwang) Toe-gye X, Toegye O
• Should be included in parenthesis after the birth/death years.
  • Ex) Song Si-yeol (1607-1689, pen name: Uam)
• If it ends in "공," exclude from the pen name.
  • Ex)
• "Pen name" should be written as two words (not penname X)

Dates and Lengths of Time

• Calculate age using international age if possible, even if different from the Korean age
• When counting years, such as funeral lengths, use international counting standards
• If an event (battle, person's birth/death) occurs at the end of the lunar year, check to see if the day falls into the following solar calendar year and use the solar calendar date/year if possible.

Historic Periods

• The words dynasty, kingdom, period, etc. should be lower case
• Should include the dates of the period the first time a period is mentioned, but exclude from later in the text

When to include periods for context

• in the mid-9th century during the Unified Silla period (668-935)

Sections of Periods

• the late period of the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910)
• the early period of the Goryeo dynasty (918-1392)
• the middle period of Unified Silla (668-935)
• at the turn of the Goryeo (918-1392) and Joseon (1392-1910) periods.

Centuries

• in the early/late 6th century
• in the mid-17th century

Other Countries

• China
  • so-and-so from Qing China, pottery from Ming China, Song China