Page History

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(UKHSA) Spell out scientific units on first appearance. Spell

Scientific abbreviations we apply 2 rules. In public-facing documents such as guidance, always spell out:

• > – greater than
• < – less than

• ≤ equal to or less than 

• ≥ equal to or greater than  

• ~ – approximately or about
• v or vs – versus
• CI – confidence interval

act, act of Parliament

Lower case. Only use upper case when using the full title: Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

Active voice

Use the active rather than passive voice. This will help us write concise, clear content.

Addresses in the UK

Start each part of the address on a new line. You should:

• write the town and postcode on separate lines
• not use commas at the end of each line
• write the country on the line after the postcode, not before
• only include a country if there is a reasonable chance that the user will be writing to the address from a different country

For example:

HM Revenue and Customs - Child Benefit Office
PO Box 1
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE88 1AA
United Kingdom

Addressing the user

Address the user as ‘you’ where possible and avoid using gendered pronouns like ‘he’ and ‘she’.

Content on the site often makes a direct appeal to citizens and businesses to get involved or take action: ‘You can contact HMRC by phone and email’ or ‘Pay your car tax’.

(UKHSA) Do not use 'please' in instructions.

ages

Do not use hyphens in ages, so '14 year old' not 14-year-old

Unless to avoid confusion, for example, ‘a class of 15 16-year-old students took the A level course’ can be written as ‘15 students aged 16 took the A level course’. 

Use ‘aged 4 to 16 years’, not ‘4-16 years’.

Avoid using ‘the over 50s’ or ‘under-18s’. Instead, make it clear who’s included: ‘aged 50 years and over’ and ‘aged 17 and under’.

American and UK English

Use UK English spelling and grammar. For example, ‘organise’ not ‘organize’, ‘modelling’ not ‘modeling’, and ‘fill in a form’, not ‘fill out a form’.

American proper nouns, like 4th Mechanized Brigade or Pearl Harbor, take American English spelling.

Ampersand

Use 'and' rather than &, unless it’s a department’s logo image or a company’s name as it appears on the Companies House register.

antisocial

No hyphen.

armed forces

Lower case.

arm’s length body

Apostrophe, no hyphen.

assembly ministers

Lower case.

artificial intelligence

Write first as artificial intelligence (AI) then AI throughout.

B

Banned words

Avoid using these words:

agenda – (unless it’s for a meeting), use ‘plan’ instead

advance – use ‘improve’ or something more specific

collaborate – use ‘work with’

combat (unless military) – use ‘solve’, ‘fix’ or something more specific

commit/pledge – use ‘plan to x’, or ‘we’re going to x’ where ‘x’ is a specific verb

counter – use ‘prevent’ or try to rephrase a solution to a problem

deliver – use ‘make’, ‘create’, ‘provide’ or a more specific term (pizzas, post and services are delivered - not abstract concepts like improvements)

deploy (unless it’s military or software) – use ‘use’ or if putting something somewhere use ‘build’, ‘create’ or ‘put into place’

dialogue – use ‘spoke to’ or ‘discussion’

disincentivise – use ‘discourage’ or ‘deter’

empower – use ‘allow’ or ‘give permission’

facilitate – say something specific about how you’re helping - for example, use ‘run’ if talking about a workshop

focus – use ‘work on’ or ‘concentrate on’

foster (unless it’s children) – use ‘encourage’ or ‘help’

impact (unless talking about a collision) – use ‘have an effect on’ or ‘influence’

incentivise – use ‘encourage’ or ‘motivate’

initiate – use ‘start’ or ‘begin’

key (unless it unlocks something) – usually not needed but can use ‘important’ or ‘significant’

land (unless you’re talking about aircraft) – depending on context, use ‘get’ or ‘achieve’

leverage (unless in the financial sense) – use ‘influence’ or ‘use’

liaise – use ‘work with’ or ‘work alongside’

overarching – usually superfluous but can use ‘encompassing’

progress – use ‘work on’ or ‘develop’ or ‘make progress’

promote (unless talking about an ad campaign or career advancement) – use ‘recommend’ or ‘support’

robust (unless talking about a sturdy object) – depending on context, use ‘well thought out’ or ‘comprehensive’

slim down (unless talking about one’s waistline) – use ‘make smaller’ or ‘reduce the size’

streamline – use ‘simplify’ or ‘remove unnecessary administration’

strengthening (unless it’s strengthening bridges or other structures) – depending on context, use ‘increasing funding’ or ‘concentrating on’ or ‘adding more staff’

tackle (unless talking about fishing tackle or a physical tackle, like in rugby) – use ‘stop’, ‘solve’ or ‘deal with’

transform – describe what you’re doing to change the thing

utilise – use ‘use’

(See Words to avoid)

baseline

One word, lower case.

blog post

Use 2 words when referring to an article published on a blog. A ‘blog’ is the site on which a blog post is published.

board

Always lower case unless it’s part of a proper title: so upper case for the Judicial Executive Board, but lower case for the DFT’s management board.

bold

Only use bold to indicate interface elements in text that are explicitly telling the user what to do, for example:

1. Select Start.
2. Enter your information then select Done.

Use inverted commas when referring to interface elements in non-instructional contexts, for example: “The ‘Done’ button will always be at the bottom of the page.”

In public-facing guidance prefer Plain English: ‘over’ or ‘under’ (over 40, under 5), if it’s units, ‘more than 2 litres’ and ‘less than 3 visits’.  

If used widely in scientific documents, err on the side as leaving as they are. 1) Scientists understand them 2) the symbols are often used to save space 3) or occur frequently in one sentence or paragraph and are easier to read.

~  Always write out as either ‘approximately’ (for a scientific audience) or ‘about’ (for a popular audience). 

V, vs. Spell out vs or v as ‘versus’ with brackets and no full stop (vs) on its first appearance, then use the abbreviation vs with no full stop.

Spell out confidence interval on first appearance and then the abbreviation (CI). Use CI thereafter. 

CIs usually come to us with dashes indicating range. Replace these with ‘to’.  

HTML Markdown for abbreviations

Use HTML markdown for all these abbreviations (and units of measurement) so that >, <, vs, g, cm, kg and so on will have explanatory hovertext.  

act, act of Parliament

Lower case. Only use upper case when using the full title: Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004.

Active voice

Use the active rather than passive voice. This will help us write concise, clear content.

Addresses in the UK

Start each part of the address on a new line. You should:

• write the town and postcode on separate lines
• not use commas at the end of each line
• write the country on the line after the postcode, not before
• only include a country if there is a reasonable chance that the user will be writing to the address from a different country

For example:

HM Revenue and Customs - Child Benefit Office
PO Box 1
Newcastle Upon Tyne
NE88 1AA
United Kingdom

Addressing the user

Address the user as ‘you’ where possible and avoid using gendered pronouns like ‘he’ and ‘she’.

Content on the site often makes a direct appeal to citizens and businesses to get involved or take action: ‘You can contact HMRC by phone and email’ or ‘Pay your car tax’.

(UKHSA) Do not use 'please' in instructions.

aerobic colony counts (ACCs)  

(UKHSA) cap down.

ages

Do not use hyphens in ages, so '14 year old' not 14-year-old

Unless to avoid confusion, for example, ‘a class of 15 16-year-old students took the A level course’ can be written as ‘15 students aged 16 took the A level course’. 

Use ‘aged 4 to 16 years’, not ‘4-16 years’.

Avoid using ‘the over 50s’ or ‘under-18s’. Instead, make it clear who’s included: ‘aged 50 years and over’ and ‘aged 17 and under’.

American and UK English

Use UK English spelling and grammar. For example, ‘organise’ not ‘organize’, ‘modelling’ not ‘modeling’, and ‘fill in a form’, not ‘fill out a form’.

American proper nouns, like 4th Mechanized Brigade or Pearl Harbor, take American English spelling.

Ampersand

Use 'and' rather than &, unless it’s a department’s logo image or a company’s name as it appears on the Companies House register.

antisocial

No hyphen.

armed forces

Lower case.

arm’s length body

Apostrophe, no hyphen.

assembly ministers

Lower case.

artificial intelligence

Write first as artificial intelligence (AI) then AI throughout.

B

Banned words

Avoid using these words:

agenda – (unless it’s for a meeting), use ‘plan’ instead

advance – use ‘improve’ or something more specific

collaborate – use ‘work with’

combat (unless military) – use ‘solve’, ‘fix’ or something more specific

commit/pledge – use ‘plan to x’, or ‘we’re going to x’ where ‘x’ is a specific verb

counter – use ‘prevent’ or try to rephrase a solution to a problem

deliver – use ‘make’, ‘create’, ‘provide’ or a more specific term (pizzas, post and services are delivered - not abstract concepts like improvements)

deploy (unless it’s military or software) – use ‘use’ or if putting something somewhere use ‘build’, ‘create’ or ‘put into place’

dialogue – use ‘spoke to’ or ‘discussion’

disincentivise – use ‘discourage’ or ‘deter’

empower – use ‘allow’ or ‘give permission’

facilitate – say something specific about how you’re helping - for example, use ‘run’ if talking about a workshop

focus – use ‘work on’ or ‘concentrate on’

foster (unless it’s children) – use ‘encourage’ or ‘help’

impact (unless talking about a collision) – use ‘have an effect on’ or ‘influence’

incentivise – use ‘encourage’ or ‘motivate’

initiate – use ‘start’ or ‘begin’

key (unless it unlocks something) – usually not needed but can use ‘important’ or ‘significant’

land (unless you’re talking about aircraft) – depending on context, use ‘get’ or ‘achieve’

leverage (unless in the financial sense) – use ‘influence’ or ‘use’

liaise – use ‘work with’ or ‘work alongside’

overarching – usually superfluous but can use ‘encompassing’

progress – use ‘work on’ or ‘develop’ or ‘make progress’

promote (unless talking about an ad campaign or career advancement) – use ‘recommend’ or ‘support’

robust (unless talking about a sturdy object) – depending on context, use ‘well thought out’ or ‘comprehensive’

slim down (unless talking about one’s waistline) – use ‘make smaller’ or ‘reduce the size’

streamline – use ‘simplify’ or ‘remove unnecessary administration’

strengthening (unless it’s strengthening bridges or other structures) – depending on context, use ‘increasing funding’ or ‘concentrating on’ or ‘adding more staff’

tackle (unless talking about fishing tackle or a physical tackle, like in rugby) – use ‘stop’, ‘solve’ or ‘deal with’

transform – describe what you’re doing to change the thing

utilise – use ‘use’

(See Words to avoid)

baseline

One word, lower case.

blog post

Use 2 words when referring to an article published on a blog. A ‘blog’ is the site on which a blog post is published.

board

Always lower case unless it’s part of a proper title: so upper case for the Judicial Executive Board, but lower case for the DFT’s management board.

bold

Only use bold to indicate interface elements in text that are explicitly telling the user what to do, for example:

1. Select Start.
2. Enter your information then select Done.

Use inverted commas when referring to interface elements in non-instructional contexts, for example: “The ‘Done’ button will always be at the bottom of the page.”

Use bold sparingly – using too much will make it difficult for users to know which parts of your content they need to pay the most attention to.

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code of practice

Lower case.

Confidence interval

(UKHSA) Spell out confidence interval on first appearance and then the abbreviation (CI). Use CI thereafter. 

CIs usually come to us with dashes indicating range. Replace these with ‘to’.  

(UKHSA) Confidence interval

Spell out on first appearance then use CI. 

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(UKHSA) See UKHSA regions.

government

good hygienic practice (GHP)  

(UKHSA) cap down.

government

Lower case unless it’s a full title. For example: ‘UK government’, but ‘His Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’.

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Use UK and United Kingdom in preference to Britain and British (UK business, UK foreign policy, ambassador and high commissioner). But British embassy, not UK embassy.

Green Book

(UKHSA) Green Book or green book?

Leave capped down in page and attachment titles., as per existing practice.

Cap up within text to avoid ambiguity / because it’s a working title.

Group

Upper case for names of groups, directorates and organisations: Knowledge and Innovation Group.

...

Upper case because Gypsies are legally recognised as an ethnic group.

H

Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP)

John Manos says must be kept capped up.

hazardous waste registration

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(UKHSA) In PDFs we continue to italicise species names, such as bacteria, Clostridium difficile and so on.

J

Job titles

Italics can be used for species names in headings in PDF (obviously not in HTML). 

J

Job titles

Specific job titles and ministers’ role titles are upper case: Minister for Housing, Home Secretary.

Generic job titles and ministers’ role titles are lower case: director, minister.

(UKHSA) All job descriptions are capped down. Jobs are only capped up if it’s a) someone’s actual title b) if it’s a legal concept, such as Competent Officer, as defined in legislation or regulations. Check with the author if this is the case. 

K

key stage

Lower case and numeral: key stage 4. 

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Use Celsius for temperature: 37°C

metadata

Not 'meta data'.

Measurements gap

(UKHSA) GDS style guide states that units should be flush up against numbers, 2cm.  

But when units are long - over 4 characters - you can add a space to make it easier to read: 20,000cfu/ml 

But these are exceptions. Shorter units remain as per GDS such as 2g, 3cm, 5kg.

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 

(UKHSA) Small p.

metadata

Not 'meta data'.

Midlands

Upper case.

military

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Addresses: use ‘to’ in address ranges: 49 to 53 Cherry Street.

Number ranges

(UKHSA) Dashes indicating range should be written out as ‘to’.  

No need to repeat the unit if it’s common terms like days, hours, minutes (3 to 4 days, 5 to 10 hours). 

If it’s scientific units, consider repeating the unit name: 1°C to 5°C. But use with discretion i.e.don’t clutter up sentences unnecessarily.  

Ordinal numbers

Spell out first to ninth. After that use 10th, 11th and so on.

...

Do not use slashes instead of 'or'. For example, 'Do this 3/4 times'.

Organisations

(UKHSA) Sometimes guidance text lists a set of steps or bullets applying to a situation and then simply has 'or:' and another set of steps or bullets. In this case, to avoid ambiguity and make clearer, consider amplifying the introductory sentence to flag this, something like 'There are two options for treatment'. And as to the small 'or' it can be easy to miss this so expand it to something like 'Or alternatively:'

Organisations

Use the Use the singular verb form when referring to organisations by name. Use ‘they’ when replacing an organisation name with a pronoun.

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• in headlines
• for unusual terms - only for the first mention
• when referring to words
• when referring to publications
• when referring to notifications such as emails or alerts

For example: Download the publication ‘Understanding Capital Gains Tax’ (PDF, 360KB).

Double quotes

Use double quotes in body text for direct quotations.

Block quotes

Use the block quote Markdown for quotes longer than a few sentences.

R

References

References should be easy to understand by anyone, not just specialists.

They should follow the style guide. When writing a reference:

• do not use italics
• use single quote marks around titles
• write out abbreviations in full: page not p, Nutrition Journal not Nutr J.
• use plain English, for example use ‘and others’ not ‘et al’
• do not use full stops after initials or at the end of the reference

If the reference is available online, make the title a link and include the date you accessed the online version:

Corallo AN and others. ‘A systematic review of medical practice variation in OECD countries’ Health Policy 2014: volume 114, pages 5-14 (viewed on 18 November 2014)

Download the publication ‘Understanding Capital Gains Tax’ (PDF, 360KB).

Double quotes

Use double quotes in body text for direct quotations.

Block quotes

Use the block quote Markdown for quotes longer than a few sentences.

R

References

References should be easy to understand by anyone, not just specialists.

They should follow the style guide. When writing a reference:

• do not use italics
• use single quote marks around titles
• write out abbreviations in full: page not p, Nutrition Journal not Nutr J.
• use plain English, for example use ‘and others’ not ‘et al’
• do not use full stops after initials or at the end of the reference

If the reference is available online, make the title a link and include the date you accessed the online version:

Corallo AN and others. ‘A systematic review of medical practice variation in OECD countries’ Health Policy 2014: volume 114, pages 5-14 (viewed on 18 November 2014)

(UKHSA) Use 'to' rather than a hyphen in the page range. We number references and use numbered citations in round brackets in the main text to refer to them.

If many text-format citations are written out in full (Smith and Jones, 2012)  and cluttering up the text, convert them to a numbered reference list at the end of the doc and replace the offending citations with numbers in round brackets. 

Always use ‘and others’ to replace ‘et al’,i.e not ‘and colleagues’.  

doi numbers - delete.

Cities of publication at end of references - delete.

When a paper is included in a volume of essays. put a full stop after the paper title, then In: (capital I and a colon) then the title of the book with single speech marks:

Michie S, Atkins L and West R (2014). ‘The behaviour change wheel: a guide to designing interventions’.In: ‘Antibiotics’ (second edition) Smith and Jones (editors) 

Numbers of editions should be spelt out so second edition instead of 2nd edition. To declutter and cap down and avoid ambiguity, put this in brackets, as in the example above.

Year of publication: if a standard reference put the year of publication after the journal name towards the end. However, sometimes you get a set of references by the same author or organisation where the date is important for distinguishing between them:

WHO (2012)
WHO (2013)
WHO (2014)

Or which distinguishes between different papers published in the same year:

Smith and Jones (2012a)
Smith and Jones (2012b)

In these cases, leave the year at the start (immediately after the authors) and change the position of all the other years to immediately after the authors in order to be consistent.

Regulations

(UKHSA) Delete ‘No.’ so that ‘EU Regulation No. 2073/2005’ becomes ‘EU Regulation 2073/2005’.  (UKHSA) Use 'to' rather than a hyphen in the page range. We number references and use numbered citations in round brackets in the main text to refer to them.

(UKHSA) UKHSA regions

(UKHSA) The UKHSA regions are:

• North East
• North West
• Yorkshire and Humber
• East Midlands
• West Midlands
• East of England
• South West
• South East
• London

Resistant

(UKHSA) Avoid hyphens, even in compound adjectives, unless absolutely necessary. So:

rifampicin resistant

multidrug resistant

antibiotic resistant

S

Scientific names

Capitalise the first letter of the first part of the scientific name. Do not use italics.

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