Despite the best efforts of UKMA to promote correct usage, the writing of metric symbols leaves much to be desired. Former UKMA Chair Robin Paice reflects on the impact of the UKMA’s Metric Style Guide since its publication, evaluates other style guides, comments on the teaching of measurement units in schools and makes suggestions for UKMA’s committee to improve the situation.
It is now more than 10 years since UKMA published its “Metric Style Guide”, of which I was the editor and principal author. It was aimed particularly at any writers (including professional writers) who occasionally need to use measurement units, but it was hoped that it might also influence the way measurement units are taught both at school and in post-16 education and training.
A possible further objective was that it might lead to an increase in metric usage, especially in the media. A copy of the Guide can be downloaded from this link.
https://ukmetric.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/ukma-style-guide-2021.pdf
So has it had any effect? Has there been any improvement in the way SI units are written – whether by novelists, English teachers, journalists, website editors, advertisers, tradesmen or the general public? Have metric units become more common?
As far as I know, there have been no published surveys that could answer these questions definitively, so all I can do is give my own personal observations. However, I should point out that, as a Guardian, Economist and FT reader and a Radio 4 listener, my experience is unlikely to be typical.
Newspaper and broadcaster style guides
First of all, I took a look at various newspaper and broadcasters’ style guides to see how they now deal with the issue of measurement units. Here are some examples.
The BBC is the subject of numerous complaints by UKMA members. Many of these complaints can be traced to the BBC’s style guide and/or its failure to monitor and enforce compliance with its guide. The BBC recommends using both metric and imperial units but unfortunately it recommends using imperial first in both US and UK stories (with a metric equivalent in brackets). The BBC guide fails to appreciate the distinction between an abbreviation and a symbol and contradicts the BIPM rule that there should be a gap between number and unit. Infuriatingly, it recommends the clumsy abbreviation sq m rather than the SI symbol m². As the BBC’s mission is to “inform, educate and entertain” it is especially disappointing that it sets such a bad example. Complaints to BBC editors are invariably met with a standard response defending the Corporation’s policy, which they claim (unconvincingly) is to use the measurement units best understood by their target audience. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsstyleguide/numbers/#weightsandmeasures
The Guardian newspaper’s style guide is (scroll down to “metric system”) is one of the best, but it is inconsistent about the gap between number and unit: https://www.theguardian.com/guardian-observer-style-guide-m#metricsystem
The official Government style guide can be found under Government Digital Service at this webpage: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide/a-to-z-of-gov-uk-style It is very brief but again it contradicts the BIPM rule on leaving a space between number and unit. Indeed, it appears to suggest that there should be two different rules – one for scientists and engineers, and another rule for the general reader. It also fails to appreciate the difference between an abbreviation and a symbol.
The Economist Style Guide https://cdn.static-economist.com/sites/default/files/store/Style_Guide_2015.pdf is probably the most authoritative and well respected, and the latest edition can be purchased as a printed book. It is well worth reading the introduction to Part 1 “The Essence of Style”, and I wish all writers followed it. However, its section on “Measures” in Part 3 (Useful Reference) has a number of flaws: https://ia903106.us.archive.org/33/items/EconomistBooksTheEconomistStyleGuideTheEconomistPublicAffairs2015/%28Economist%20Books%29%20The%20Economist-Style%20guide-The%20Economist_PublicAffairs%20%282015%29.pdf
In particular it consistently omits the gap between number and unit symbol, and under “Abbreviations” it advocates “kph” rather than the correct “km/h and “cu m” rather than “m³”.
So what effect has UKMA’s Style Guide had on the media and their own individual style guides? Sadly, I have to conclude that its effect has been negligible or nil. The basic problem is that journalists (both print and broadcasters) believe that they have a special skill in making stories readable for the general public. They do not respect the authority of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) and are unwilling to listen to criticism from non-journalists. They think they know best.
What I found particularly deplorable was the Government website that flatly contradicted the rule that there should be a space between the number and the unit symbol.
More generally, I can’t say that I have noticed very much – if any – change in the way measurement units are written in newspapers, websites, advertisements or product descriptions (but, as I said at the beginning, I have little knowledge of popular newspapers or television programmes).
The teaching of measurement units
It is well known that the teaching of SI units became mandatory in English state schools in 1974. In fact, although not compulsory, it had been taught in some schools for many years before that, and SI units featured in GCE O-level examination papers in the 1950s. SI units are now incorporated in the National Curriculum, as illustrated in the link to the 2021 version for 10–11 year-olds below (scroll down to “Measurement”): https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study/national-curriculum-in-england-mathematics-programmes-of-study#upper-key-stage-2—years-5-and-6
What is particularly noticeable is that there is still a requirement to convert to and from imperial units, and nothing is said about the correct writing of SI units.
In any case, the National Curriculum is only compulsory for Council-controlled schools, whereas state-funded academies as well as independent schools are exempt.
Suggestions for UKMA’s Committee
Although the above account is disappointing, I think there are some things that UKMA might be able to do to try to improve the situation.
Firstly, BIPM itself. BIPM was established under international treaty and is widely respected in the scientific community. However, its authority over the writing of measurement units is clearly not accepted by many media outlets (including the BBC and the UK government, as we have seen). I think BIPM needs to do more to promote itself and to persuade the authors of style guides to adopt the international standard. I would therefore suggest that UKMA should write to BIPM, quoting the examples above, and asking them to be more active in promoting the agreed rules.
Secondly, UKMA could repeat the exercise that was undertaken when its own style guide was published in 2021. That is, it could write to key media outlets and authorities (such as those quoted above and including the BBC and the Government Digital Service) commenting on the mistakes and inconsistencies in their own style guides and asking them to amend them and adopt the recommendations of UKMA’s Guide. (This would need to be phrased very diplomatically as journalists believe that they are the experts in making scientific or bureaucratic gobbledegook intelligible to the general reader – and they are likely to resent criticism and respond defensively).
Thirdly, it might be possible to tackle the problem at source – the way in which measurement units are taught (or not properly taught) at school, college and university. UKMA could approach relevant authorities, such as the examination boards, professional institutes, subject teaching associations etc requesting them to give greater emphasis to correct usage and writing of SI units.
© Robin Paice 2023
Metric Views 
Three things which I find annoying are:
(i) Some science, maths and and other subject teachers fail to correct students who write inkorrect symbols like ‘Kg’ ; Kgs’ ‘Km’; ‘Kms’; KW; and KJ.
(ii) Manufacturers of washing machines like HOTPOINT who continue to have inkorrect symbols on some (or all) of their products.
(iii) Major supermarkets like TESCO still sometimes are using the inkorrect symbol ‘Kg’ on their products, and/or shelf labels. I’m occasionally told by a store manager that ‘Kg’ is right and ‘kg’ is wrong!
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And yes, the space between the number and the unit symbol is important.
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I read Robin’s article with interest and checked my own copy of a revision guide that was used for A Level physics. The guide follows the rules in the SI Guide. Why do journalists not do the same? First of all the non-breaking space, the degree symbol and the Greek letters lower-case mu and upper case omega are not supported directly by Windows on a UK keyboard, but need to be entered indirectly via the numeric keypad, though one can write a macro which will add these characters to the keyboard.
The way forward for the keyboard would be to get agreement between the engineering and science faculties in the British universities to create a standard scientific/engineering keyboard configuration file for Windows. I don’t know enough about Apple-Mac computers to comment about them. Once this had been standardised and was widely used ny science and engineering students, one could get it passed as a British Standard. Whether or not the great British public would take to such a keyboard is another matter. For the record, I have installed the Greek keyboard to work alongside the UK keyboard on my PC. This give me the lower-case mu (μ), upper case omega (Ω) and degree (°) symbols though it is tedious switching between keyboards for a single character.
The use of kph is just sloppy journalism. This is embedded in our culture. I don’t know how the Irish handle the kph – km/h debate: if somebody was caught speeding and was given a ticket for driving at “100 kph in a 50 kph zone” would they get off on a technicality? I don’t know, but what I do know is that if they did and it was publicised, all Ireland would understand the difference between an abbreviation and a symbol. If the UK were to switch to km/h, then I am sure that this anomaly would make itself known very quickly.
The ignorance of the role of BIPM in specifying symbols but bring silent about abbreviations reared its ugly head in Wikipedia where some fool raised an RFC (“Request for Comments”) by alleging “The factual accuracy of part of this article is disputed. The dispute is about the implied role of the BIPM wrt to the regulation of the English language.” A long discussion followed with a good deal of what Wikipedia calls “Wikilawyering” with the fool who raised the RFC refusing to give way.
See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilometres_per_hour
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Here in the USA (backwards as we are with metric) we are stuck with “mcg” instead of the correct symbol (which I don’t know how to type with my Macbook) using the Greek letter mu.
On top of that we typically see over here labels on supplements bottles that say things like “1000 mg” instead of “1g”. Most folks here have no clue how metric actually works, sadly. 😦
On YouTube channels I have been adding comments asking presenters to use “micrometres” instead of “angstroms”. I have actually had good luck with convincing those folks to do that! Amazing. 😉
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The easiest way to get the correct symbols is to C&P them. I did a lot of work on this, my results are on the FB metric views site 2nd September 2018, and also on here. I think this is worth re-posting here (C&P).
Not all of them work on Windows. They may not work here either: –
“Here are some I have tested out, most come from LibraOffice Greek character map, checked with general internet usage. They C&P into text editors, word processors, spreadsheets and work over the internet into Facebook, but not so good with Windows, Microsoft tend to do their own thing. One that I cannot get to copy is the non-breaking space. These are in symbol, comma, space format
[°, ±, ², ³, µ, ϕ, φ Ψ, 𝈢, 𝉅, 𝈉, ᵝ, ᵠ, ᵦ, ᶿ, Ω, π] In SI usage we get °C, km², m³, µm, which seem to be the troublesome ones.
The easiest way to get these correct is to have a set C&P into various places. I hope others can add and refine this list.
Now looking at this using Windows XP & Win 10 with Firefox and MS edge, three do not work using Windows, SNAFU. [°, ±, ², ³, µ, ϕ, φ Ψ, ᵝ, ᵠ, ᵦ, ᶿ, Ω, π] are OK on Widows. 14/17 for Windows, could do better!”
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I’ve been saying this for years that SI is not taught correctly in any school in every country. Not only in newly metric countries but in those that have been metric for a centuries. These countries feel that since they already made the move to metric (cgs variant), they see no need to switch to SI. As a result you have a proliferation of deprecated units still in use as well as a reluctance to use prefixes past kilo and milli, making metric just a copy of FFU.
The BIPM is part of the problem. They need to get involved in the teaching of SI across the world. They need to work with every nation’s educational system by providing materials that can be used to teach every unit, every prefix and every proper symbol. But, they refuse.
I don’t understand why the BIPM refuses to involve itself with the proper teaching of SI as it would be to their advantage. What advantage is there of SI over other unit collections if it is allowed to be used in a muddled manner? How can SI be seen as consistent and coherent if its usage isn’t anywhere close to these ideals?
A style guide is fine, but there needs to be more involvement on the part of the BIPM. Otherwise the muddle will not only continue, but get worse.
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A query; has BIPM been formally asked to involve the organisation in the teaching of SI?
Has BIPM said they refuse to do this? If so, did they provide reason(s)?
To move forward we need evidence to PERHAPS show BIPM isn’t interested etc. etc. etc.
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The BIPM is an international organisation that liaises with member states via the country’s national measuring laboratories. In the case of the United Kingdom, BIPM liaises with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL). AS far as the BIPM is concerned, it would be up to the NPL rather than the BIPM to look after educational aspects of SI within the UK – they have a web page at https://www.npl.co.uk/skills-learning.
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When I was doing government work, I asked the authors of the official Government style guide to change guidance to permit a space between value and unit. They said they would not change it unless I could prove the absence of a space was harmful. It also forbids the 24 hour clock (see the section on ‘Times’) but the 24 hour clock is often the default in the UK (customs, immigration, police, military, healthcare, ships, trains, buses).
I may be telling some people things they already know but:
1. ISO 80000 is the international standard for SI. See: https://www.iso.org/standard/76921.html
2. ISO/IEC directives part 2 for the drafting of standards is at: https://www.iso.org/sites/directives/current/part2/index.xhtml
3. ISO House Style is at: https://www.iso.org/ISO-house-style.html
4. The British Standards Institution is the UK authority for standards. It has ‘Rules for the structure and drafting of UK standards’ which says : “The International System of units (SI) as set out in BS ISO 80000 and BS EN 80000 should be used.” https://www.bsigroup.com/Documents/standards/guide-to-standards/Rules-for-structure-and-drafting-of-UK-standards-2017.pdf
It doesn’t always work but some people (particularly engineers) are persuaded by quoting a standard.
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Referring to Terry’s comment:
I just wonder how many of our MP’s (especially those in the current Government), are aware that
‘ the official Government style guide ‘ needs bringing up to date etc. etc. and should follow all ISO and BS recommendations/directives. Perhaps individuals might choose to write to their own constituency MP about this specific issue.
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The point about engineers is understood, however we must stress that SI and Metric is for EVERYONE, not just for science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects.
I expect/(? guess) most of our MPs still only think the Metric System is really only mainly to do with STEM stuff! And in the House of Lords, do the majority of members there, have a similar view that the metric system is just ‘reserved’ for measurement in only some aspects of everyday life?
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Some of the YouTube videos on channels I subscribe to sometimes use “microns” instead of “micrometres”. When I point this out in a comment, someone always replies that “microns” are in common use in industry. I then reply that the NIST bulletin on proper SI usage explicitly calls for avoiding “micron”, which implies one should use “micrometre” instead. The usual reply to that is something along the lines of “who cares what NIST says”.
We sure have a long way to go in the USA when it comes to metric usage, that’s for sure. 😦
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