Ref: 3982
Editorial Style and
Writing Guidelines
December 2007
Contents
Introduction
2
Use of dates
7
Why these guidelines?
2
Timeliness
8
Communication standards
2
Clutter
8
Editorial principles
2
Proofreading
8
Examples of plain English
8
Writing for the web
4
What makes a good web page?
4
NHS Connecting for Health house style10
What are you publishing?
4
Punctuation
What are you going to say?
4
Acronyms and abbreviations10
How will you present and structure information?
4
Capitals11
Paragraphs12
Bullet points12
Justification of text12
Dates12
Times13
Numbers, ages and decades13
Telephone numbers13
Names13
Addresses14
Email signature14
Captions15
References15
British English15
Formatting text16
- Text16
- Using figures17
- Online terms and procedures18
Writing for a printed publication
5
What makes a good publication?
5
What are you publising and why?
5
What are you going to say?
5
How will you present and structure the information?
5
Writing tips
6
Write for your audience
6
Key message
6
Telling the story
6
Language
6
Be explicit and clear
6
Be accurate
7
Be consistent
7
Structure
7
Break up the text
7
Make text easy to search
7
9
Introduction
This document forms part of a suite of communications guidance
and tools which also includes the Visual Identity, Case Study
Guidelines, Production Procedures, Informability Guidelines
(accessibility and translation) and downloadable logos. These
guides are available to download from
www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/resources/commsguides
For information about plain English training or obtaining a
Crystal Mark to indicate that your communications are written
in plain English, please contact corporate communications at:
nhscfh.corporatecomms@nhs.net
Why these guidelines?
It is important to have standards for communication because
NHS CFH wishes to be perceived as:
It is important that anyone communicating about NHS
Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) or the National Programme for
Information Technology in the NHS (NPfIT) is able to write clearly,
concisely and in a way which is suitable for the audience.
This simple guide sets out our house style and gives advice on
how to write content for printed or online publications.
Communication standards
•a modern, focused organisation with a clear direction
•objective and honest in the information we supply
•responsive to the needs of NHS staff, the public, patients and
other key stakeholders for information about NHS Connecting
for Health and the National Programme
As NHS Connecting for Health is an agency of the Department of
Health (DH), these guidelines are based on the DH editorial style
and writing guide.
•efficient and able to provide the latest information quickly
It is recommended that all staff who write for external audiences
read and apply these guidelines. Plain English training is also
recommended.
•able to explain complicated or technical information in a way
NHS Connecting for Health has corporate membership of the
Plain English Campaign (www.plainenglish.co.uk). We are keen
to ensure that all communications materials are written in plain
English. We aim to achieve the Plain English Campaign Crystal
Mark on all patient facing materials and top level corporate
documents. See page 8 for examples of plain English phrases.
•dedicated to providing accessible information
which is easy to understand.
Editorial principles
Our editorial principles help us to produce written material that
is consistent in language, style and presentation. We have an
editorial responsibility to:
•be clear, open and honest
•write in plain, straightforward English that is easy to
understand
•be up to date, accurate and consistent
•produce communications materials which meet the needs of
our target audience
•produce communications materials which are accessible to a
wide audience
•strive to be inclusive and not discriminate against any individual
or group of people
•strive to avoid promoting stereotypes or using language
commonly considered offensive
•conform to the NHS Connecting for Health house style.
Writing for the web
It takes much longer to read text on screen than on paper.
Readers tend to scan a web page, looking for key words
wherever they appear, rather than reading the page from start to
finish, left to right.
What makes a good web page?
•Short, sharp sentences
•main points and latest information first
•a clear, concise story
•about half the information of a paper publication
•consistent style and clear structure to guide the reader – not all
readers will enter through the homepage, so ensure there are
clear links to other parts of the site
•good images and meaningful titles, subheadings and links
•an accessible and comprehensive overview of a subject.
What are you going to say?
•Identify the essential information to include
•write a minimum of 150 words for each web page
•focus on your key facts and points
•explain how these affect your audience
•explain how the information fits into the priorities or work of
NHS Connecting for Health and/or the National Programme
•identify the page, link and subheading titles for your web page
and write the link summaries
•your words should set in context attached documents, images,
or links to other website pages.
How will you present and structure the
information?
•Think about how you will highlight key information
What are you publishing?
•Be clear about the purpose of your web pages
•identify who your target audience is and what you want to tell
them
•decide what information your readers will find most useful.
•simplify complex information or break it up using bullet points,
subheadings, images, attachments or links
•think about where your images, links and attachments will be
positioned on the page and how the page structure will help
your readers find information.
Writing for a printed publication
Our printed publications are a key way to share information
about our work and to support our colleagues in SHAs and trusts
to communicate about the National Programme for IT. All current
printed publications are also published on our website as PDFs
for download.
What makes a good publication?
•A clear introduction, executive summary and chapters or
sections with meaningful titles
•a structure that makes it easy for readers to find information
•clear, simple language that is easy to understand
•useful subheadings, quotes and references to other information
•clear branding and consistent style
•good use of images, charts, white space and colour as
appropriate
•clearly laid out pages.
What are you publishing and why?
•Be clear about the purpose of your publication
•identify who your target audience is and what you want to tell
them
•do you need them to take some action? If so, indicate how
they can take that action eg call this number, fill in this form,
contact…
•think about the expectations of your audience, eg a
professional audience may have different expectations to a
member of the public.
What are you going to say?
•Identify the essential information that must be included in the
document
•create meaningful chapter, section and story titles and identify
what they will be about
•focus on the key information that must be covered in each
chapter, section and story
•explain the key issues in simple language
•explain how the key issues might affect your audience.
How will you present and structure the
information?
•Think about how you will highlight key information
•simplify complex information by breaking it up using bullet
points, subheadings, images, charts, tables, white space and
colour as appropriate
•proofread and spell check the document
•apply the writing tips and house style throughout
•follow the NHS CFH visual identity guidelines
•if in doubt check with corporate communications
(nhscfh.corporatecomms@nhs.net).
Writing tips
Write for your audience
Where – is it happening?
Think about who you are writing for, what they need to know
and how you express that. What will be meaningful to them?
Provide, clear, useful information. A clinician is used to different
language than a patient.
Make sure you use correct names and check them.
Key message
Is there one key point that you wish to convey? If so, include it
as soon as possible in the piece. It may be useful to repeat this
key point during the piece and/or in the conclusion (but avoid
excessive repetition).
Telling the story
Who – is involved?
Make sure you explain the relationships, who is doing what and
why. Ensure you have the correct spellings of names and job
titles.
What – is happening?
Give a brief overview. Be succinct.
Why – is it happening?
Focus on the benefits as well as explaining the reasons.
When – is it happening?
Think about what you are writing. If it is newsy, use a precise
date. If it is likely to have a shelf life, use the month or year.
How – is it happening?
Again, be succinct and give a brief overview highlighting key
points of interest – things that have been done for the first time,
or differently to how they were done before.
Language
Use plain English. Less is more, so use short, sharp sentences and
simple language to get your message across. Can you use simpler,
more commonly used words? Avoid acronyms if possible, if not,
write them in full the first time. Do not use jargon or buzzwords
unless they are in common use by your audience.
Be explicit and clear
Would someone who had never read about the subject
before understand what you have written? Have you put the
information in context? If you are using a term like ‘we’ will the
reader know to whom you are referring?
Be accurate
Check all your facts:
•who, what, where, when, why, how?
•names of people, programmes, systems, trusts, job titles
•acronyms – if you must use them, use the correct ones (refer to
the NHS CFH Glossary of Terms).
Always spell check your writing.
Be consistent
Be consistent in the language you use, for example when
describing a particular programme or system. Use consistent
punctuation which follows house style.
Structure
Guide your reader by presenting information in a logical
structure which makes sense and is easy to follow.
Any short story or news item should have the main points of the
story in the first paragraph. Subsequent paragraphs then provide
more explanation. Imagine the story being cut by an editor from
the finish to the start – the most important information should
be at the beginning, the least important information should be
at the end.
For longer, feature articles or case studies it is particularly
important to engage the audience with an interesting opening
sentence and to introduce new ideas paragraph by paragraph.
For more information on writing case studies, download the case
study guidelines from:
www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/resources/commsguides.
Break up the text
Long sentences and large blocks of text are not good style. Use
short sentences and short paragraphs. Use bullet points to break
up what might have been a long sentence. Use subheadings if
appropriate.
Make text easy to search
Titles and subheadings make printed text easier to search. Online,
use key words (which will be identified by search engines) in the
first few lines of the page. Also make sure titles, subheadings and
links are descriptive and meaningful.
Use of dates
Readers should be clear about the timing of key activities or
deliverables. This is particularly important in news stories or
reports. Undated information is can be misleading so state
specific months and years. Do not use general terms such as ‘last
year’ or ‘latest’.
When producing articles or case studies which may have a long
shelf life, it is acceptable to use the more general term ‘recently’,
rather than using specific dates.
Timeliness
Information on websites should be kept up to date, particularly
sections with titles such as ‘Latest news’, ‘Recent news’, ‘Latest
information’. If you do not keep these sections up to date,
visitors will stop reading the pages and may miss key information
when it is added.
Clutter
Too much punctuation can clutter up text and make it difficult
for visually impaired people to read. Using short sentences
reduces clutter. Do not overuse brackets, dashes and semicolons.
Proofreading
All work should be proofread as well as spell checked.
Proofreaders should check grammar and be sure they can
understand what you have written.
When you are very familiar with a piece of written work, it can
be easy for your eyes to miss a mistake. Rely on a fresh set of
eyes when proofreading – preferably someone with no or little
knowledge of the subject.
As part of the proofreading process, read the information aloud.
This can help highlight unnecessary words and unclear sentence
structure.
Examples of plain English
Not plain English
Plain English
amend
change
commence
start or begin
comply
meet or follow
conduct
carry out
consequently
leading to or following on
financing
paying
funding
paying for
legislative or legislation
law making or law
mandatory
required or necessary
participants
members, users or those taking part
specified
given, particular or detailed
subsequently
afterwards or next
utilise
use
NHS Connecting for Health house style
Our house style helps us to present effective written
communications that are easy to read and consistent in style. Our
house style should be used for all written communications with
variations for printed or online content.
Punctuation
Full stops
Use one space after a full stop, both online and
for printed documents.
Commas
Use one space after a comma, except when
writing out numbers, eg 12,500.
Brackets
Use brackets for cross references, eg this topic
is explored in more detail later in this report
(see chapter 3). In the book Small Island (Levy,
A, 2004).
Quotation marks Only use double quotation marks when
quoting speech. Document titles do not need
quotation marks.
When writing several paragraphs of quoted
speech, an open quotation mark should appear
at the beginning of each paragraph. Only one
closed quotation mark should appear, at the
end of the quote after the full stop.
Hyphens (-)
Hyphens are used to link compound words, eg
walk-in, co-ordination. Only use hyphens online
when writing a short date range, eg 24-26
August.
Use brackets for acronyms or abbreviations
after they have been mentioned for the first
time, eg NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS).
Obliques (/)
Do not use obliques within text, eg ‘from/to’
should be written ‘from and to’.
Obliques should be used for dates within
tables, eg 16/09/2007.
Ampersands (&) Do not use ‘&’ except in abbreviations where
they are universally recognised, such as A&E or
R&D.
Ellipses ( …)
Do not use ellipses except in a very
conversational style.
10
Acronyms and abbreviations
NHS CFH names, acronyms and abbreviations
The full name must be spelled out first before the acronym or
abbreviation is used. The first time you use the name or term in
full, follow it with the acronym or abbreviation in brackets, eg
British Medical Association (BMA)
NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH)
Do not put full stops in acronyms or abbreviations, eg NHS not
N.H.S.
Universally accepted acronyms and abbreviations, such as NHS
and A&E, do not have to be written in full first.
Acronyms and abbreviations should only be used to refer to
organisations, areas of the health and social care system and
medical conditions. Never use an acronym or abbreviation to
refer to a job title, the title of a publication or the name of a
policy.
Do not use an apostrophe for pluralised acronyms or
abbreviations, eg PCTs not PCT’s. If in doubt, spell it out, eg
"trusts" has no apostrophe as it is a simple plural.
Possessive acronyms should have an apostrophe, eg NHS CFH’s
exhibition stand at the event.
Common abbreviations such as, ie, eg and etc should be written
without full stops. Use them correctly – eg (for example), ie (that
is), etc (and so on).
When giving examples, put a comma before eg.
•NHS Connecting for Health should not be referred to
as ‘Connecting for Health’ because there are two other
organisations with this name
•always ensure NHS is in front of Connecting for Health
•the correct abbreviation is NHS CFH (all capitals). Do not use
NHS CfH, CFH, C4H or CfH
•NHS Connecting for Health is an agency of the Department of
Health and so may also be referred to as ‘the agency’.
National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS
(NPfIT)
•The National Programme for Information Technology in the
NHS may be referred to as the National Programme, or the
Programme after the full name has been given
•the correct abbreviation is NPfIT, but it is preferable to use
National Programme or Programme rather than the acronym.
NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS)
•The NHS Care Records Service should not be referred to as the
National Care Records Service, the NHS Clinical Records Service,
11
the National Clinical Records Service, the NHS Care Record
Service or the Care Record Service
•the correct abbreviation is NHS CRS. Do not use NCRS or CRS.
Choose and Book
•the correct abbreviation for the National Network for the NHS
is N3.
NHSmail
•Choose and Book should always be written in full
•The NHS email and directory service is always referred to as
NHSmail, not NHS Mail.
•do not use any abbreviations or acronyms, such as Choose &
Book or CaB
Capitals
•Choose and Book should be described as the Electronic
Referral Service rather than the Electronic Booking Service. The
Electronic Referral Service may be abbreviated to ERS.
Keep capital letters to a minimum. Use them at the beginning of
a sentence, page title, page heading, initial letters of an official
document title, or the name of a place, person or organisation.
Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions (ETP)
Do not use capital letters to make something sound more official
or important - this does not work. Unnecessary overuse of capital
letters dilutes the value of capitals where they are needed.
•The Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions programme should
not be referred to as the Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions, or
be confused with the Electronic Prescription Service
•the correct abbreviation is ETP.
Electronic Prescription Service (EPS)
•The Electronic Prescription Service is being delivered by the
ETP programme. It should not be referred to as the Electronic
Prescriptions Service
National Network for the NHS (N3)
•The National Network for the NHS should not be referred to as
the New National Network
Specific job titles should be capitalised, eg Programme Manager
Fred Bloggs. Generic job titles should not be capitalised, eg the
programme managers.
Write general terms such as trust, primary care trust or strategic
health authority in lower case. Use capitals for a specific primary
care trust or health authority, eg South Central Strategic Health
Authority, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.
12
Use a capital when referring to the Government, eg the
Government announced yesterday. Lower case should be used
when pluralised, eg governments from around the world.
Legislation, bills and acts should be capitalised, eg the Mental
Capacity Act.
White papers and green papers should be written in lower case
unless referring to a specific white paper, when the first letter in
each word should be capitalised, eg The Choosing Health White
Paper.
Regions should be written in lower case, eg north west London,
southern England.
Online: capitals can seem LOUD and AGGRESSIVE. Do not use
them.
Paragraphs
Insert one line space between paragraphs.
Bullet points
Use standard round bullet points.
Points that follow a colon should start in lower case as should
each subsequent point. Put a full stop at the end of the last point.
The first point that follows a full stop at the end of a sentence
or paragraph should start with a capital letter. Subsequent points
should start in lower case with a full stop at the end of the last
point.
Start a point with a capital letter after a question mark.
Sub bullet points should be further indented.
Justification of text
Always left justify the text in your document. Never use full
justification as this makes documents hard to read.
Dates
Dates are structured 1 December 2007. Do not use th, st, rd or nd.
Do not use the form December 1 2007. Do not use 'the 1 (or 1st)
of December'.
Use ‘from’ and ‘to’ or ‘between’ to describe date ranges, eg from
July to November 2006 or between 1968 and 1988, except when
referring to short date ranges such as 24-26 August.
An oblique should be used for dates within tables, eg 16/09/2007.
13
Times
Write times using numbers. Put a full stop between the hour
and minutes and then either am or pm with a space after the
numbers, eg 12.30pm.
Do not use the 24 hour clock, eg 14.00 or write the time out in
Decades can be abbreviated, eg the 60s, the 90s but not ‘60s or
‘90s.
Telephone numbers
Telephone numbers are presented in the following way:
full, eg two o’clock.
0113 XXX XXXX
Use ‘from’, ‘to’ and ‘between’ when presenting time spans, eg
from 12.30 am to 1.45 pm.
020 7XXX XXXX
Numbers, ages and decades
07956 XXX XXX
Numbers one to nine should be written in full. From 10 onwards,
digits should be used, except at the beginning of a sentence
when the number should be written in full, eg Three hundred
people attended the event.
0800 XXX XXX
When stating someone’s age alongside their name it should be
written as: Seventy year old John Smith or John Smith, 70 years
old or John Smith, in his 70s.
Decades should be written in full, eg seventies, or in numerals
followed by an ‘s’, eg 1970s. Do not use an apostrophe between
the digits and the ‘s’ unless it is the possessive form of decades,
eg 70’s style.
020 8XXX XXXX
Names
A person’s name should be written in full with the forename first
and surname second, eg John Smith, not Smith, J. Bibliographic
references are an exception to this.
A person’s job title may be written before their name, eg
Programme Manager Fred Bloggs explained to the team.
14
Addresses
Email signature
Use the following as an example of how to present a full address
with contact details:
Use the following as an example of how to present an email
signature:
Fred Bloggs
Programme Manager
Electronic Prescription Service
NHS Connecting for Health
Vantage
40 Aire Street
Leeds LS1 4HT
Fred Bloggs
Programme Manager
Tel 0113 XXX XXXX
Mob 07956 XXX XXX
Email fred.bloggs@nhs.net
Electronic Prescription Service
NHS Connecting for Health
Tel 0113 XXX XXXX
Mob 07956 XXX XXX
Email fred.bloggs@nhs.net
Web www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk
15
Captions
Departmental circulars
Photographs, graphics or images should have a caption which
explains their purpose or what they illustrate.
Department. Title. Place of publication. Year. Type of circular:
reference code and edition number.
References
eg Department of Health. Screening breast cancer. London.
2006. Health service circular:HSC 98
We follow DH guidance (the Vancouver system) for
referencing publications and circulars.
Referencing within a sentence
The Vancouver system has a set order for referencing different
kinds of publications. The same order applies to footnotes:
Use brackets in a sentence when referencing a chapter or
pages in the same publication, eg as mentioned earlier in this
chapter (p24-26) NHS CFH will be introducing…
Publications with a personal author
Use brackets when referring to a specific website in
a sentence, eg for the latest news about the National
Programme visit the NHS CFH website
(www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk).
Author(s) name. Publication title. Publisher. Year of
publication. Edition number. Page numbers.
eg Smith.J, Bloggs.F. The NHS in the 21st Century. Healthcare
Publishing Ltd. 2002. 1. P89-95
Corporate publications
Web links should be 'clickable' and the actual link text should
comprise a meaningful phrase which clearly indicates the
destination of the link, as illustrated above.
Directorate of organisation, publication title, publisher. Year
of publication. Edition number. Page numbers.
British English
eg Content Delivery Team. Writing for the DH website.
Department of Health. 2006. 2. P22-23
Always use British English rather than American English.
Examples of this include:
Spell words such as generalise, emphasise, organisation and
visualisation with an ‘s’ not a ‘z’. Write ‘programme’ not
‘program’, ‘centre’ not ‘center’ and ‘colour’ not ‘color’.
16
Formatting text
Text
Font
Frutiger 12 point is NHS CFH’s standard font
and size for print publications.
If this is not available, Arial 12 point may be
used.
Bold
Print: bold may be used for headlines and
subheadings.
Online: creates visual clutter and lessens the
impact of other information.
Underlining
Print: underlining may be used for titles and
subheadings.
Online: do not underline content as it makes
text look like a link.
Italics
Print: italics should be used when referring
to publication titles. Do not use italics to
emphasise a point.
Online: never use italics. They are hard to
read on screen, especially for those with visual
impairments.
17
Using figures
Numbers
Numbers from one to nine should be written in
full. Numbers from 10 upwards should be written
in numerals. An exception should be made when
using a mixture of numbers lower and higher
than 10 when each number should be written
as a numeral, eg between 8 and 12 people were
involved in the incident.
Any number at the beginning of a sentence
should be written in full, eg Two thousand people
attended the opening ceremony.
Commas should be inserted into figures over 999,
eg 1,500.
Millions and billions above 10 should be presented
as follows: 14 million, 10 billion. Millions and
billions below 10 should be written as follows:
three million, six billion. Millions and billions
should not be presented as figures, eg 1,000,000
or abbreviated to ‘m’ or ‘bn’.
Fractions
and
decimals
Decimals should be used instead of fractions,
except when the fraction is spelt out, eg three
quarters, one half. Decimals and numbers written
as fractions should not be mixed together.
Money
Always use figures when writing about currency,
eg £5 not five pounds. Money less than £1 should
be written in pence, eg 50 pence not 50p. Always
use a figure without a space after the pound sign,
eg £14,000.
Per cent
Always use per cent rather than percent or the %
symbol, except in tables or graphs when the %
symbol can be used.
18
Online terms and procedures
Links
All links on the NHS CFH website must be active.
Tables and
boxes
For accessibility reasons, tables and boxes should
only contain numerical data and statistical
information. They should not be used to
highlight other information or key sections of
text, or to demonstrate flow charts, or to list the
names of individuals within committees, teams
or organisations.
File sizes
Megabytes should be abbreviated to Mb, not
MB, eg 200 Mb.
PDF
PDF is the abbreviation for portable document
format and should always be written in upper
case (no full stops).
The phrase ‘click here’ should never be used.
Disability software for screen readers will read
every ‘click here’ without telling the user what
it links to.
Be selective about links to other NHS CFH
web pages and to external websites. Creating
unnecessary links will confuse and irritate users.
Attachments
Only publish documents as PDFs as this format is
generally available to most users.
Alternative
image text
(alt tags)
All web images must have alt text as an
alternative to the image in case it cannot
be seen by the user. Explanations should be
clear and direct. Explanations should convey
the information shown in the image, eg:
radiologist using new Picture Archiving and
Communications System.
If an image contains text, this must be
replicated in full.