Guidelines
| Letter | Rule | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| A | Acronyms | Explain what all acronyms mean when you first use them. For example, NICE is an acronym for Neighbourhood Improvement and Community Engagement. |
| A | Apostrophes | Use apostrophes grammatically to show possession. Do not use after abbreviations, acronyms or numbers, unless you are showing possession. |
| A | Ampersands (&) | Use the word 'and', unless you are referring to a specific company name that includes an ampersand. |
| A | Americanisms | Do not use Americanisms. For example, use 'fill in' and not 'fill out'. |
| A | Ages | Write ages in numbers, and do not hyphenate. |
| A | Abbreviations | Explain what all abbreviations mean when you first use them. For example, LHA is an abbreviation for Local Housing Allowance. |
| A | Asterisks | Do not use asterisks. Explain content clearly, so there’s no need for an annotation. |
| A | Addresses | Write addresses without commas, with each line of the address on a new line. |
| A | Active voice | Use the active voice rather than the passive voice. |
| B | Bullet points | Use bullet points for lists and processes, and make sure that:
|
| B | Bold | Do not use bold, as it makes text more difficult to read. Add emphasis using a new paragraph or a subheading. |
| B | Brackets | Use (curved brackets) and not [square brackets]. |
| C | Contractions | Shorten certain words to make content more approachable. If you’re not sure, use the full words. Shorten ‘do not’ to ‘don’t’ and ‘cannot’ to ‘can’t’, but don’t shorten words like ‘could have’ to could’ve’ or ‘will not’ to ‘won’t’. |
| C | Change in service | Do not apologise for changes to a service. Take responsibly for the change, and inform customers of what is happening and when. Once the change is in place, update the page to remove the date of the change. |
| C | Capitalisation | Use lowercase, as block capitals are more difficult to read and also represent shouting. Use sentence case for titles, so begin the title with uppercase then use lowercase for any subsequent words. |
| D | Direct | Be direct and address the customer personally. |
| D | Dot dot dot (...) | Do not use ellipsis. Use a comma, or start a new sentence. |
| D | Dashes | Do not use dashes to link two sentences. Use a comma, or start a new sentence For customers using screen readers, dashes are read aloud as 'minus', so the sentence will not make sense. |
| D | Documents | If you have a document that can't be made into a web page or online form, upload it as a PDF designed for the web. |
| D | Dates | Write dates with the numerical date, month and year. For example, ‘31 December 2016’. |