Macmillan style guide Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). © Macmillan Cancer Support July 2009 Introduction Hello and welcome to Macmillan’s first style guide. We’ve developed it with love and care so anyone writing on behalf of the organisation can do so in a consistent and effective way. You see, whether we spell adviser with an E or an O may seem fairly trivial, but, in fact, if we really want our communications to be trusted and seen as authoritative, they need to be consistent at all times. So, please use this guide regularly when creating your communications. And if you have any questions or comments about any of its content, or you want a style point added to it, please get in touch by sending an email to styleguide@macmillan.org.uk PS We use ‘adviser’ not ‘advisor’, by the way. But I’m sure you knew that. The Copywriting team Macmillan style guide August 2009 2 Some things to remember Style points not covered – a lot of the style points we use in our style guide are based on the ones listed in The Guardian newspaper’s style guide. This means that if you can’t find a style point covered in this guide, your first port of call should be The Guardian’s online style guide at guardian.co.uk/styleguide. If they don’t cover the point, drop us a line at styleguide@macmillan.org.uk Points highlighted in yellow – these are key style points that you need to remember, you may have found confusing in the past or which have changed from what we previously listed in our editorial guidelines. Spellings – for the correct spelling of words, always use the Oxford English Dictionary. Different dictionaries do spell some words differently. References in this guide – you’ll see that there are sometimes references at the end of entries. Any references in italics, for example, see measurement, refer to other entries in the style guide. References within inverted commas, for example, see ‘Punctuation guide’, refer to sections in our editorial guidelines. References in blue, for example, Information and support fact sheet, refer to fact sheets on be.Macmillan that can provide further information about an entry. References in red, for example, see the green rooms, refer to other sources that can provide further information about an entry. Macmillan style guide August 2009 3 Contents £ and p ....................................................................................................................... 5 0808 808 00 00 .......................................................................................................... 5 1,2 3 …....................................................................................................................... 6 A ................................................................................................................................. 7 B ............................................................................................................................... 12 C............................................................................................................................... 17 D............................................................................................................................... 24 E ............................................................................................................................... 27 F ............................................................................................................................... 29 G .............................................................................................................................. 32 H............................................................................................................................... 33 I ................................................................................................................................ 35 J ............................................................................................................................... 37 K ............................................................................................................................... 38 L ............................................................................................................................... 39 M .............................................................................................................................. 40 N............................................................................................................................... 47 O .............................................................................................................................. 50 P ............................................................................................................................... 52 Q .............................................................................................................................. 57 R............................................................................................................................... 58 S ............................................................................................................................... 63 T ............................................................................................................................... 67 U............................................................................................................................... 70 V ............................................................................................................................... 71 W .............................................................................................................................. 71 X ............................................................................................................................... 74 Y ............................................................................................................................... 74 Z ............................................................................................................................... 75 Macmillan style guide August 2009 4 £ and p 1p, 2p, 50p, £1 (not £1.00), £6.50, £10, £100,000, £500,000 (not £0.5 million), £1 million, etc See currencies 0808 808 00 00 Macmillan’s main telephone number and the one people should call if they have questions about cancer, need support, or just want to talk to someone. No longer direct people to CancerLine, the Macmillan Benefits Helpline, the cancer information nurse helpline or YouthLine. When you mention the number in a communication, never refer to it as a helpline; use phone service instead. Also, always make sure that the double zeroes at the end of the number have a space between them, ie 00 00. Medium listing for 0808 808 00 00 is: If you have any questions about cancer, ask Macmillan. If you need support, ask Macmillan. Or if you just want someone to talk to, ask Macmillan. Our cancer support specialists are here for everyone affected by cancer, whatever you need. Call free on 0808 808 00 00, Monday to Friday, 9am to 8pm www.macmillan.org.uk We have an interpretation service in over 200 languages. Just state, in English, the language you wish to use when you call. If you are deaf or have a hearing impairment, you can use our textphone service on 0808 808 0121, or the Text Relay system. Macmillan style guide August 2009 5 Short listing is: Questions about living with cancer? Call free on 0808 808 00 00 (Mon–Fri, 9am– 8pm). Alternatively, visit macmillan.org.uk Have a hearing impairment? Use textphone 0808 808 0121, or Text Relay. Interpreters available. 1,2 3 … Also see numbers One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 30, 40, 67, 132, etc – spell out numbers from one to nine. Write 10 and above in figures. Also, try to avoid starting a sentence with a number; if you can’t, spell it out, eg One hundred and thirty-six spiders live in my garage For units of measurement that are abbreviated, use digits, eg 3mm. See measurement For time, spell out numbers under 10, eg three weeks, eight years. See time For percentages, always use digits, eg 3% of people, 69% of cats prefer Whiskers. See percentages When comparing numbers, use all digits, eg you may be treated for 7 to 10 days; this affects 1 in 10 people. See comparing numbers For ranges of numbers, use digits and an en dash (–) to separate, eg 10–12 weeks. Note the shortcut for an en dash on a PC is Ctrl + dash on the top right of your keyboard’s number pad. See ranges Give page number references in digits, see page 4. See page numbers 1,500, 100,000, millions – use a comma to separate multiples of thousands and hundreds of thousands. Millions should be written out up to nine: two million people Macmillan style guide August 2009 6 are living with cancer; use figures when talking about 10 million and above, eg 23 million, 67 million. Spell out million in copy; m is fine in tables, eg £10m, 45m doses of vaccine, etc. See millions 100 metres, 1500 metres, 10,000 metres – for sporting events, note no comma in 1500 metres. See sporting events 1800s – note no apostrophe. See centuries 1960s – note no apostrophe. See decades A a or an? – use ‘an’ before a silent H: an hour, an heir, an honourable man, an honest woman; a hero, a hotel, a historian. With abbreviations, guide yourself by pronunciation: eg, an LSE student A&E – use accident and emergency in the first instance and then shorten to A&E abbreviations and acronyms – do not use full points in abbreviations, or spaces between initials: eg, ie, 4am, Dr Jones, Mrs Royle, NB, PS, US, mph, WH Smith, etc. Use all capitals if an abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters: UKO, NHS, GP, CNS, BBC, VAT etc. If it is an acronym (pronounced as a word) but has not entered the language as an everyday word, eg LASER, EMNE, OSNI, NICE, CHAPS etc, still use all capitals. However, if the acronym is considered to have entered the language as an everyday word, use initial capital for organisations and lower case for common terms eg Nasa, Nato, awol and, more recently, asbo, pin number and sim card. When using an abbreviated term or acronym that a reader may not immediately recognise, spell it out for its first reference and put the abbreviation or acronym in brackets, eg the clinical nurse specialist (CNS), Mobile Macmillan Cancer Macmillan style guide August 2009 7 Information Centre (MMCIC). You can then use the abbreviated term or acronym thereafter. Use common sense, however: it is not necessary to spell out well-known ones, such as EU, UN, CIA, FBI, CD, Nasa, etc. Cap up single letters in such expressions as C-list, F-word, the word assassin contains four Ss, etc For more information on Macmillan acronyms, refer to our acronym buster on the green rooms accents – use on French, German, Spanish and Irish Gaelic words. People's names, in whatever language, should also be given appropriate accents, eg Ciarán Devane. Note that to access accents in Word, go to Insert and then Symbols accessible accommodate, accommodation achilles heel, achilles tendon acknowledgment not acknowledgement acquainted acronyms – see abbreviations and acronyms acts and bills – use initial caps when using the full name, eg the Mental Health Act, Criminal Just Act 1998, Autumn Bank Holiday Bill; but lower case on second reference, eg the act, and when speaking on more general terms, ‘we need a new health act’ acting – initial caps when in a job title and you name someone, eg Linda Smith, Acting Head of Marketing; lower case when talking more general, eg the acting health minister, the acting committee chair Macmillan style guide August 2009 8 addresses – when used in a sentence use commas to separate different parts of an address but not the postcode: Macmillan Cancer Support, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7UQ On an envelope, leaflet etc use: Macmillan Cancer Support 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7UQ adjectives – see ‘Grammar guide’ administration – the Clinton administration, etc admissible, inadmissible – not –able adverbs – see ‘Grammar guide’ advice – when talking about our services or professionals, never say that they offer advice. We provide information to help people make up their mind what is the best support for them. The only service that does offer advice are our benefits advisers adviser not advisor affect/effect – affect is a verb meaning to influence, eg the unsettled weather affected our plans for the day Effect is both a noun meaning result, eg the effect of the rain was that we moved our picnic into the kitchen, and a verb meaning to bring about, eg we hope to effect a change in policy African-Caribbean – preferable to Afro-Caribbean or West Indian ageing ages – when quoting people, there is no need to list their age unless it is particularly relevant. This is because a person’s cancer experience is relevant to us all, whatever their age, because cancer affects us all. Macmillan style guide August 2009 9 If you do list an age, spell it out for nine and under; see numbers. Gordon Brown, 56 (not ‘aged 56’); little Johnny, four; the woman was in her 20s (but twentysomething, thirtysomething, etc); the six-year-olds (note hyphens); the under 3s, the over 40s. However, use hyphen for under-16 football team and compound adjectives, eg 50th-birthday party. When age is expressed in a fraction, use figures, eg 2½-week-old baby. Use 24 eleven-year-olds rather than 24 11-year-olds when speaking about ten or more people of the same age. aggravate, to make worse, not to annoy AGM not agm. Spell it out annual general meeting for first reference and put AGM in brackets as many people don’t know its meaning Aids – acquired immune deficiency syndrome, but normally no need to spell out aka – also known as. Not AKA A-levels A-list celebrities alright – no need to spell out all right Alzheimer's disease AM (assembly member) – member of the Welsh assembly, eg Rhodri Morgan AM ambassador – lower case, eg the British ambassador to Brazil America, Americans – although like most people we use to mean the United States and its citizens, we should remember that America includes all of North and South America American English – in general, use British English spellings: secretary of defence, Labour Day, World Trade Centre, etc; exceptions are place names such as Pearl Harbor, titles of works such as The Color Purple Macmillan style guide August 2009 10 among not amongst among or between? – contrary to popular myth, between is not limited to two parties. It is appropriate when the relationship is essentially reciprocal: fighting between the many peoples of Yugoslavia, treaties between European countries. Among belongs to distributive relationships: shared among, etc ampersand – do not use as a substitute for ‘and’, eg doctors & nurses, Learning & Development team. Only use if part of an organisation’s name, eg Marks & Spencer, P&O anaesthetic analyse not analyze and – the idea that it’s wrong to start a sentence (or a paragraph) with a joining word like ‘and’ or ‘but’ is a myth. It can sound clumsy if you do this too much, but occasionally it can be very effective and help to break up long sentences any more – two words anyone – one word when used as a pronoun, eg can anyone help? Two words in contexts such as ‘You can pick any one you like’ anyway – one word as an adverb, eg I asked the lady to remain standing but she sat down anyway. Two words in contexts such as ‘I can’t see any way around the problem’ apostrophes – see ‘Punctuation guide’ appeals – use initial caps if an appeal has an official title, eg the East Cheshire Macmillan Appeal. Use lower case if talking about an appeal in general, eg Macmillan has a mobile phone recycling appeal to raise money April Fools’ Day Arial – preferred font to use in Word arguably – overused, try to avoid Macmillan style guide August 2009 11 army, the – the British army, the navy, but Royal Navy, Royal Air Force or RAF around – about or approximately are better, eg ‘about £1 million’ or ‘approximately 2,000 people’ articles – see chapters and articles Asian – term used to describe people from the continent of Asia, particularly those from the sub-continent of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It shouldn't be used for people of Asian origin who are British citizens; the correct term is British Asians aspirin Atlantic Ocean or just the Atlantic Attendance Allowance attention deficit hyperactivity disorder – ADHD after first mention attorney general – lower case, no hyphen autumn – note all seasons are lower case awards, prizes, medals – initial caps, eg Douglas Macmillan Award, Macmillan Cancer Champion, Bafta Award-winning drama awareness events – always use initials caps, Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, Prostate Cancer Awareness Week awol – absent without leave axing – not axeing, but cutting jobs is less clichéd than axing them B BAE Systems bank holiday – bank holiday Monday, etc Macmillan style guide August 2009 12 banknote Bank of England barbecue Barclays Bank barcode Barnado’s Bart’s – abbreviation for St Bartholomew’s hospital, London basically – an unnecessary word, basically BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 – note no spaces BBC Radio 1, 2, 3, 4, Radio 5 Live, 6 Music, BBC Radio 7 behaviour believable be.Macmillan – note full point and cap ‘M’. be.Macmillan is a website where people can learn more about Macmillan, create Macmillan materials and order Macmillan resources See be.macmillan.org.uk benefited benefits – initial caps for named benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance benefits helpline – do not refer to the Macmillan Benefits Helpline anymore. You should be directing people to our 0808 808 00 00 number for financial support. See 0808 808 00 00. However, if you do need to reference the helpline, for example, when talking about our old services, use initial caps when talking about the Macmillan Benefits Helpline Macmillan style guide August 2009 13 and lower case when talking about our benefits helpline in general. Also see helplines Information and support fact sheet benign – a benign tumour is not malignant, ie not cancerous between 15 and 20 – not ‘between 15 to 20’ or ‘between 15–20’ biannual – twice a year; biennial every two years; biannual is almost always misused, so to avoid confusion stick with the alternative twice-yearly bid – use only in a financial or sporting sense, eg Royal Bank of Scotland has made a bid for ABN Amro, Barcelona have put in a bid for Rooney, etc; or when writing about an auction. Say ‘in an effort to’ rather than ‘in a bid to’ big – usually preferable to major, massive, giant, mammoth, behemoth, etc, particularly in news copy biological terms – Latin terms for plants and animals has initial cap for first word (generic term), lower case for second (specific term), eg Limnea stagnolis (the great pond snail). Note italics for Latin term. black – this should not be used as a short-term for all non-white people. The correct term is black and minority ethnic (BME). See ethnicity BlackBerry – handheld wireless email device; plural BlackBerrys Black Country blog – (noun) collection of articles; (verb) action of publishing an article to the blog blond – adjective and male noun; blonde female noun: the woman is a blonde, because she has blond hair; the man has blond hair too and is, if you insist, a blond BME – spell out black and minority ethnic communities on first mention; note ‘minority ethnic’ not ‘ethnic minority’. See ethnicity board – use lower case in all contexts; it is outdated to capitalise ‘board’ in such documents as annual reports Macmillan style guide August 2009 14 bold font – use sparingly; mainly used for subheads and when listing websites and phone numbers at the end of articles. Note that we use bold in Arial and heavy in Futura, our main publishing font book and magazine titles – always italicised; use lower case for a, an, and, at, for, from, in, of, the, to (unless they are the first word of a title): A Tale of Two Cities, The Pride and the Passion. See italics Boots the chemists both – unnecessary in most sentences that contain ‘and’; ‘both men and women says no more than ‘men and women’ brackets – use sparingly; instead use commas or en dashes. Rounded brackets are used for a word or phrase inserted as an explanation of afterthought into a passage which is grammatically correct without it. Squared brackets are used only for editorial comment within a quote: Neil said, ‘Nowadays, I still have interferon injections [these stimulate the body’s immune system] twice a week’. See dashes and ‘Punctuation guide’ Braille – note cap ‘B’ brand – put simply, a brand is the perception people have of a company/organisation brand identity – is what you use to shape people’s perception of a company/organisation breeds – use lower case, eg the dog was a daschund. But in some cases capitals must be retained to avoid ambiguity: Old English sheepdog, Large White pig (specific breed), Large blue butterfly bric-a-brac Britain, UK – try to always use UK, although these terms are synonymous: Britain is the official short form of United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Used as adjectives, therefore, British and UK mean the same. Great Britain, however, refers only to England, Wales and Scotland. Macmillan style guide August 2009 15 Take care not to write Britain when you might mean only England or England and Wales, for example, when referring to the education system British Medical Association – BMA on second mention bss – note lower case. External service that provides information and handles calls for Macmillan. Calls to 0800 500 800 are handled by bss BST – British summer time budget, the – lower case noun and adjective, eg budget talks, budget measures, mini-budget, pre-budget report, etc bullet points – use bullets not numbers, unless you refer to specific bullet points later on. All bullet points should be round. Introduce a bulleted list with a colon. If the individual bulleted items are only parts of a sentence, do not start with a capital letter, and do not use semi-colons or full stops at the end of each item. The last item should end with a full stop. For example: The new treatment has been shown to: give longer disease-free survival reduce side effects lead to better quality of life. If bulleted items are complete sentences or paragraphs, or even if some of them are, start each with capitals and end with full stops. For example: The possible advantages of new drugs are: There will be a significant reduction in the number of side effects, or in the severity of side effects that patients experience. Macmillan style guide August 2009 16 More people will recover fully from the cancer. Patients will report an improved quality of life. Do not introduce or end items with an ‘and’ or an ‘or’. It should be clear in the introduction to the list if you are referring to an inclusive list or a number of options or possibilities. The most important thing is to be consistent throughout your document Bupa – note not upper case but – contradictory to what you may have been taught at school, ‘but’ can be used to begin a sentence. Also, the use of ‘but’ is sometimes confused. Use it to introduce a phrase or clause contrasting with what has already been mentioned, eg he stumbled but didn’t fall. Note no comma. Or use it to connect two complete sentences into a single sentence when it follows a comma, eg the manager was initially happy with his secretary, but now he is having second thoughts C café – note accent campaigns – use initial caps for Macmillan’s campaigns: Better Deal campaign, Working Through Cancer campaign, etc. Note that ‘campaign’ remains lower case Campaigning for change fact sheet cancer – see ‘Writing about cancer’ section cancer care – support provided to someone from the time they suspect they have cancer to when they decide they no longer need help cancer information nurse helpline – do not refer to the cancer information nurse helpline anymore. You should be directing people to our 0808 808 00 00 number if Macmillan style guide August 2009 17 they have questions about their cancer, treatment or what the future holds. See 0808 808 00 00. However, if you do need to reference the helpline, for example, when talking about our old services, always use lower case. Also, for information, people could ring the helpline to speak to cancer information nurse specialists who could provide advice about cancer types, treatment and what to expect over the phone and by email. Also see helplines Information and support fact sheet Cancer Matters – Macmillan newsletter for MPs, peers and their staff cancer networks – lower case if talking about cancer networks in general; upper case when naming a particular network, eg Somerset and Wiltshire Cancer Network Cancer Support Course – note initial caps. See Macmillan courses Cancer Voices – see Macmillan Cancer Voices Cancer Voices fact sheet Cancerbackup – specialist cancer information charity which merged with Macmillan in 2008. There is no longer any need to refer to services as former Cancerbackup services; they are now all Macmillan services CancerLine – do not refer to CancerLine anymore. You should be directing people to our 0808 808 00 00 number for financial support. See 0808 808 00 00. However, if you do need to reference the helpline, for example, when talking about our old services, always use upper case C and upper case L. Also, for information, CancerLine can be described as helpline that provided people with emotional and practical help, and put them in touch with other sources of support. Also see helplines Information and support fact sheet Cancertalk – Macmillan resource guide for teachers and youth group leaders. There is also a Cancertalk website Macmillan style guide August 2009 18 See cancertalk.org.uk Cancertalk Week – initial caps; Macmillan event that encourages schools to get talking about cancer and the issues that surround the illness capitals – the tendency is towards lower case, which reflects that Macmillan and society in general is less formal. Our main aim is for consistency. If you are unsure if a word should be capitalised, check for an individual entry. But here are the main principles: acts of parliament and bills – initial caps, eg Cancer Reform Strategy, Official Secrets Act, Autumn Bank Holiday Bill. airports, bridges – cap the name but lower case the generic part (if necessary at all), eg Heathrow, Gatwick (no need for ‘airport’), Liverpool John Lennon airport, Golden Gate bridge, Waterloo bridge etc. artistic and cultural – names of institutions etc get initial caps, eg British Museum, National Gallery, Royal Albert Hall, Tate Modern. benefits – initial caps for named benefits such as Disability Living Allowance, Attendance Allowance and Carer's Allowance books, films, music, works of art, etc have initial caps except a, an, and, at, for, from, in, of, the, to (except in initial positions or after a colon). British government departments of state – initial caps, eg Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice. Other countries: lower case, eg US state department, Russian foreign ministry. campaigns – initial caps, Macmillan’s Working Through Cancer campaign, Better Deal. definite article (the) – when part of personal titles or the names of groups, etc, do not capitalise: the Beatles, the Queen, the Oval cricket ground. geographical features – initial caps, River Thames, Lake Michigan, Sydney Harbour, Monterey Peninsula, Bondi Beach, Solsbury Hill, Mount Everest. government agencies, public bodies – initial caps, eg Commission for Equality and Human Rights, Crown Prosecution Service, Heritage Lottery Fund, HM Revenue & Customs. hospitals, churches and schools – cap up proper name or place name, lower case the rest, eg Great Ormond Street hospital, St Peter’s church, Cavendish primary school, Hull. job roles and job titles – all job roles are lower case, eg Macmillan nurse, Macmillan benefits adviser, prime minister, editor of Staff Stuff. But when referring to a person by name and job title, cap Macmillan style guide August 2009 19 up, eg Helen Jones, Macmillan Head and Neck Nurse Specialist; Ciarán Devane, Macmillan Chief Executive. See jobs roles and job titles. Macmillan publications – initial caps for newsletters: Mac News, Exchange, Teamtalk, Cancer Matters, Staff Stuff, Macmillan Voice. Booklets, guides and leaflets have cap on first word only, The cancer guide, Men and cancer, Help with the cost of cancer, etc. Always give other publications initial caps, eg The Times, New Scientist, Hull Daily Mail. This applies even if the title appears in lower case on the front of the publication. parliamentary committees, reports and inquiries – all lower case, eg survivorship working group, trade and industry select committee, Lawrence report. services – initial caps for named Macmillan services, eg Macmillan Benefits Helpline, Mobile Macmillan Cancer Information Centre. See ‘Macmillan services’ section titles – cap up titles, eg the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Very Rev Rowan Williams, at first mention, thereafter Williams or the archbishop; the Duke of Westminster (the duke at second mention); the Pope; the Queen universities and colleges of further and higher education – caps for institution, lower case for departments, eg Sheffield University department of medieval and modern history, Oregon State University, Free University of Queensland school of journalism, London College of Communication. words and phrases based on proper names – lower case those that are commonly used in the English language (alsatian, cardigan, champagne, cheddar cheese, cornish pasty, french windows, wellington boots, yorkshire pudding, parma ham, worcestershire sauce and numerous others). captions – no full stop at the end of captions. Try to give a message, not just a label carer – an unpaid family member, partner or friend who helps a disabled or frail person with the activities of daily living; not someone who works in a caring job or profession. The term is important because carers are entitled to a range of benefits and services that depend on them recognising themselves as carers Carer’s Allowance Carers Week – note no apostrophe Catholic church CD, CDs, CD-Rom – a CD is a disc, not a disk. See disc Macmillan style guide August 2009 20 celsius – without degree symbol and with fahrenheit equivalent in brackets: 23C (73F), -3C (27F) etc centre not center Centre Court – as in Wimbledon centuries – sixth century, 21st century, etc; but sixth-century remains, 21st-century boy, etc chair – acceptable in place of chairman or chairwoman challenge events – initial caps for Macmillan challenge events: China Cycling Challenge, Iceland Hiking Challenge Channel, the chapters and articles – use single quotation marks to reference a chapter or article in a publication, eg the British Medical Journal features an excellent article entitled ‘Supporting cancer patients after treatment; ‘You you you’ in Staff Stuff is a great read charity – use lower case in all contexts; it is outdated to capitalise ‘charity’ in such documents as annual reports Charity Commission charity details – our full name and registered details must appear on all communications: Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604). You may also need to feature our company details on a communication as well. Contact the Marketing team for further information. Welsh versions of these details are also available chief executive – only upper case when talking about the job title and not the role, eg ‘Ciarán Devane, Macmillan Chief Executive, attended a parliamentary meeting ...’ Never use CEO Christmas Day, Christmas Eve – never Xmas Macmillan style guide August 2009 21 chronic – means lasting for a long time or constantly recurring, too often misused when acute (short but severe) is meant church – lower case for the established church, eg ‘the church is no longer relevant today’; Catholic church, Anglican church, etc, but Church of England. Initial caps for name of churches but lower case for the word ‘church’, eg St Peter’s church, Wigan Citizens Advice – what the organisation likes to be called, though it still runs bureaux, which can be referred to as Citizens Advice Bureaux civilisation civil servant, civil service – note lower case co- – try to avoid hyphenation, although it is sometimes necessary: co-pilot, co-star, co-worker Coca-Cola, Coke – the generic term is cola Coffee Morning/coffee morning – see World’s Biggest Coffee Morning collective nouns – nouns such as committee, family and government take a singular verb or pronoun when thought of as a single unit, but a plural verb or pronoun when thought of as a collection of individuals: the committee gave its unanimous approval to the plans; the committee enjoyed biscuits with their tea the family can trace its history back to the middle ages; the family were sitting down, scratching their heads. See ‘Grammar guide’ colon – see ‘Punctuation guide’ commas – see Oxford comma and ‘Punctuation guide’ committed giver – a person who donates regularly to Macmillan committees – lower case apart from place name: Macmillan’s South Essex committee; our Norwich committee Macmillan style guide August 2009 22 Commons, House of Commons community – see macmillan.org.uk for the latest details about our online community, including its name company names – generally use the names that companies use themselves, eg easyJet, eBay, etc. Exceptions include Adidas (not adidas), BAE Systems (not BAE SYSTEMS) comparing numbers – use all digits, even for numbers under 10, eg you may be treated for 7 to 10 days; this affects 1 in 10 people. One should be treated as plural, ie ‘1 in 3 people are likely to need surgery in their lifetime’; not ‘1 in 3 people is likely to need surgery in their lifetime’ compass points – use initial caps for specific geographical places, regions and countries, eg South Shields, North America, South Africa. Points of the compass take caps only when they indicate recognised political or geographical areas: the West Country, the Midlands, the North West, West Wales, South East England, South East Asia. Less well-defined areas take lower case: west London, north Devon, southern Africa. Simple adjectives normally have lower case: northern hospitality, cold east winds. Adjectives that use place names usually keep caps, eg West Country cooking, North East cultural life Competition Commission complement/compliment/complimentary – to ‘complement’ is to make complete: the two strikers complemented each other; to ‘compliment’ is to praise; a ‘complimentary’ copy is free complementary therapy compound adjectives – see ‘Grammar guide’ congestion charge – use lower case, eg Boris Johnson is thinking of scrapping the London congestion charge Conservative Party Macmillan style guide August 2009 23 contractions – the likes of aren't, can't, couldn't, hasn't, don't, I'm, it's, there's are fine to use, but do not overuse them, especially in more formal communications cooperate, cooperation, cooperative – no hyphen coordinate coordinator not co-ordinator copyright copywriter councils – lower case apart from place name: Lancaster city council, London borough of Southwark, Kent county council; it is normally sufficient to say Lancaster council, Southwark council, etc courses for people affected by cancer – see Macmillan courses courts – all lower case, eg court of appeal, court of session, high court, magistrates court (no apostrophe), supreme court, European court of human rights, international criminal court CSWE&W – Central and South West England and Wales. See regions currencies – when the whole word is used it is lower case: euro, pound, sterling, dong, etc. Abbreviate dollars like this: $50 (US dollars); A$50 (Australian dollars); HK$50 (Hong Kong dollars) D dad – lower case when talking generally, eg ‘my dad is a brilliant footballer’; upper case when using it as a name, ‘I’ll have to ask Dad, then you can check with your dad’ Macmillan style guide August 2009 24 dashes – use en dashes for ranges of time and when making an additional comment in a sentence, eg ‘Juliet began to look for her friends – I think they were hiding – but she gave up after 10 minutes.’ See brackets and ‘Punctuation guide’ dates – our style is 27 April 2008; we do not use ‘st’, ‘nd’ or ‘th’. Acceptable but not preferable is 27.04.08 Use ‘in the 21st century’ and ‘a 21st-century boy’. Note that we use lower case (21st, 22nd and 23rd) rather than the automated superscript 21st, 22nd and 23rd days and months – try to spell out days and months; but if you are tight for space, use three-letter abbreviations, eg Mon, Tue, Fri, Jan, Feb, Apr, Nov DCISS – Direct Cancer Information and Support Service death – although Macmillan supports people so they can live with cancer, it does not mean that we have to avoid the word death or the issues surrounding end of life decades – use figures: the swinging 60s or 1960s. Note no apostrophes decimals – use full point after whole number, eg 4.56cm. Use decimals for millions that are not a whole number, eg 3.41 million people live in Wales definite article (the) – when part of personal titles or the names of groups, etc, do not capitalise: the Beatles, the Queen, the Oval cricket ground departments (Macmillan) – use initial caps for the name of the department, but use lower case for ‘department’ itself, eg ‘the Campaigns, Policy and Public Affairs department believe…’ departments of state – initial caps, eg Cabinet Office, Treasury, Home Office, Foreign Office, Ministry of Justice dietitian not dietician directorates (Macmillan) – there’s no need to use the word ‘directorate’ after naming one, eg just say ‘External Affairs had an away day at …’ Disability Living Allowance Macmillan style guide August 2009 25 disabilities – use positive language about people with a disability, avoiding outdated terms that stereotype or stigmatise. Terms to use, with unacceptable alternatives in brackets, include: person who has, person with (victim of, suffering from, afflicted by, crippled by) person with a disability is preferable to disabled person (do not use invalid, the disabled, the handicapped). Note, do not use the plural form ‘people with learning disabilities’, as most people will have a learning disability rather than a number of them. person with a learning disability (mentally handicapped, backward, retarded, slow). person with sight loss or visual impairment is preferable to blind person (do not use the blind). person who is deaf or has a hearing impairment is preferable to deaf people. person who is deaf and speech-impaired (not deaf and dumb). person with mental health difficulties (not mentally ill). people without a disability can be described as ‘not disabled’ or ‘non-disabled’, rather than normal or able–bodied. uses a wheelchair, wheelchair-user (wheelchair-bound, in a wheelchair) disc not disk, unless you are talking about computing, eg floppy disk dos and don’ts – just one apostrophe Down's syndrome – say (if relevant) a baby with Down's syndrome, not ‘a Down's syndrome baby’. The diagnosis is not the person Dr – do not use full stop, eg Dr John Hastings drug names – use generic (chemical) name first (all lower case), then brand name(s) in brackets (initial cap) along with any relevant ® or © (make sure you check if any of these apply as pharmaceutical companies, and their lawyers, can be Macmillan style guide August 2009 26 very fussy). List all relevant brand names or refer to the fact if there are more than one – paclitaxel (Taxol®), morphine (eg MST Continus®, Oramorph®). In the body use the most commonly used name, after introducing: ‘this factsheet is about trastuzumab, commonly called Herceptin®. We hope you will…’ due to should not be confused with ‘because of’. Due is an adjective and needs a noun to refer to: ‘play was stopped (verb) because of rain’, ‘the stoppage (noun) in play was due to rain’ DVD – upper case E earlier – often redundant; ‘they met this week’ is preferable to ‘they met earlier this week’ and will save space EastEnders effect/affect – see affect/effect eg means ‘for example’; ie means ‘that is to say’; note no full points either/or – try to construct a sentence so it uses either/or rather than the more archaic sounding neither/nor e-learning – note hyphen elderly – do not use to describe anyone under 70, and say elderly people, or even better, older people, never ‘the elderly’ ellipsis – note there is a space before and after … See ‘Punctuation guide’ email email addresses – do not use a full stop when an email or website address ends a paragraph. Always use lower case for Macmillan email addresses, eg mharland@macmillan.org.uk, not MHarland@macmillan.org.uk. There is also no Macmillan style guide August 2009 27 need to use a colon to introduce an email address, eg in the contact details section of a leaflet embassy – use lower case, eg the British embassy EMNE – East Midlands and Northern England. See regions en dash – see dashes and ‘Punctuation guide’ endocrine – endocrine glands produce and release hormones that circulate around the body England, English – take care not to offend readers from other parts of the UK by saying England or English when you mean Britain or British enquiry – use inquiry etc – try to avoid using as it can look like lazy shorthand. Note that it should always be preceded by a comma ethnicity – this is a sensitive issue. When talking about ethnicity and race, handle it with care. First of all, the word ‘race’ can be emotive: it may be better replaced by people, nation, group. Secondly, a person’s race should not be ignored when relevant to a subject or mentioned when merely incidental. African-Caribbean – this is preferable to Afro-Caribbean and West Indian. Asian – use Asian people rather than Asians. The term is used to describe people from the continent of Asia, particularly those from the sub-continent of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. It shouldn't be used for people of Asian origin who are British citizens; the correct term is British Asians. black – this should not be used as a short term for all non-white people. The preferred term is black and minority ethnic (BME). ethnic – on its own ‘ethnic’ is often used as shorthand for 'non-white people'. It shouldn't be – all people are equally ethnic. BME (black and minority ethnic) is the catch-all term we use in this situation. half-caste – an outdated term. 'People of mixed heritage' is better. Macmillan style guide August 2009 28 immigrants – people who migrate from one country to another. The term should not be used to describe their descendants who are born in the new country, or as a shorthand for non-white people. British Asians or African-Caribbean British people are better alternatives. Note that an emigrant is a person who leaves their own country to settle permanently in another minorities – an acceptable term. See Tone of voice guide every day – noun and adverb: it happens every day everyday – adjective: an everyday mistake events – initial caps when talking about named events, eg World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, China Cycling Challenge, Hamleys Exclusive Shopping Morning; lower case when talking about general events, eg ‘the committee held a big cake sale’ Exchange – Macmillan’s newsletter for Cancer Voices and self-help and support groups. Remember to use initial cap, even though Exchange’s masthead is in lower case. Also, when talking to an external audience about Exchange, you need to explain what Macmillan Cancer Voices and self-help and support groups are exclamation marks – do not use! See ‘Punctuation guide’ F fact sheet – two separate words fahrenheit – use in brackets, without degree symbol, after celsius figure, eg 37C (98.6F) FAQs – ‘commonly questions’ is friendlier father of two, mother of two – note no hyphens Father’s Day Macmillan style guide August 2009 29 female – not ‘woman’ or ‘women’ in such phrases as female home secretary, female voters fewer or less? – fewer means smaller in number, eg fewer coins; less means smaller in quantity, eg less money figures – spell out from one to nine; numerals from 10 to 999,999; thereafter one to nine million, 10 million, 3.2 billion. Exception is when comparing numbers. See comparing numbers final – lower case for in titles such as Wimbledon men’s final, FA Cup final first, second, third – rather than firstly, secondly, thirdly, etc; spell out up to ninth, then 10th, 21st, millionth first aid first ever first-hand first minister – head of Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, Northern Ireland assembly; initial caps when referenced with a name, ‘Rhodri Morgan, First Minister of the Welsh assembly, is planning…’; lower case when spoke of in general, ‘Northern Ireland’s first minister is planning…’ See prime minister first name, forename, given name – not Christian name first person narrative – when it is clear that a full article comes from one person, there is no need to use quotation marks. See quotation marks First World War – not World War I flu not ’flu focus, focused, focusing foot, feet – try to use metric measurements at all times, although when describing a person’s height, feet and inches may be more appropriate. Also, note that in speech, Macmillan style guide August 2009 30 foot may often be used in a plural sense: ‘He stood six foot three’. See height and measurement footnotes – see references for example – when you use this phrase when giving an example, remember that a comma follows, eg ‘I like many flavours of ice cream, for example, cherry, pistachio and chocolate’. foreign accents – use accents on French, German, Spanish, and Irish Gaelic words, and, if at all possible, on people's names in any language, eg Sven-Göran Eriksson (Swedish), José Manuel Barroso (Portuguese) Foreign Office – if necessary, abbreviate to FCO rather than FO, as its official name is Foreign and Commonwealth Office foreign place names – generally use the English version if one exists, eg Milan not Milano foreign words – generally avoid unless the word has been thoroughly absorbed into English forever – continually: he is forever changing his mind for ever – for always: I will love you for ever fractions – two-thirds, three-quarters, etc, but two and a half; use ½, ¾, ⅓ in tables, recipes, etc fulfil, fulfilling, fulfilment full-time or full time – full-time staff were set to enjoy a bonus; at full time the scores were level; the team deserved their full-time applause Futura – our main publishing font Macmillan style guide August 2009 31 G gay – use as an adjective rather than a noun: a gay man, gay people, gay men and lesbians not ‘gays and lesbians’ gender – use ‘gender’ rather than ‘sex’ when referring to the state of being male or female, eg What gender are you? gender issues – use language that reflects Macmillan’s values, as well as changes in society; avoid terms such as businessmen, housewives, male nurse, woman pilot, woman doctor, etc, which reinforce outdated stereotypes. If you need to use an adjective, it is female and not ‘woman’ in such phrases as female MPs, female president. And male and not ‘man’ in such phrases as male nurse, male doctor general election geography – use initial caps for specific geographical places, regions and countries, eg South Shields, North America, South Africa. Points of the compass take caps only when they indicate recognised political or geographical areas: the West Country, the Midlands, the North West, West Wales, South East England, South East Asia. Less well-defined areas take lower case: west London, north Devon, southern Africa. geriatrics – branch of medicine dealing with older people, not an amusing way to describe them in an attempt to make yourself sound cool Gift Aid – initial caps. Gift Aid is an easy way for charities to increase the value of gifts of money from UK taxpayers by claiming back the basic rate tax paid by the donor. Contact Supporter Services for information about how to word statements about Gift Aid girl – female under 18, although try to avoid using this term God – initial cap for the Christian God (and the god of any faith that believes there is only one god); lower case when talking about the Greek gods, etc golf – for holes, use numbers: 1st, 2nd, 18th, etc. See Longest Day Golf Challenge and Silverspoons Macmillan style guide August 2009 32 goodbye – no hyphen government – lower case in all contexts and all countries, ‘the government is in the middle of another scandal’; the Scottish government, Welsh assembly government and Northern Ireland assembly government, although we often talk about the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly and Northern Ireland assembly making decisions as a whole, rather than the governments of these countries government departments – see departments of state gram not gramme; hence kilogram grammar – see ‘Grammar guide’ grants – lower case when talking about grants in general, ‘We gave a grant to Simon Jones’; always initial caps when talking about a Macmillan Grant. See Macmillan Grant Financial help fact sheet Great Britain – England, Wales and Scotland; if you want to include Northern Ireland, use Britain or UK green – a green activist, the green movement, but initial caps when referring to sonamed political parties, eg the Green Party green rooms, the – the name of Macmillan’s intranet. Note all lower case groundbreaking – no hyphen H haematology half – no hyphen when used adverbially: you look half dead; half wine, half water; his trousers were at half mast; the scores were level at half time. Hyphen when used Macmillan style guide August 2009 33 adjectivally: a half-eaten sandwich; a half-cut subeditor; hard-hearted Hannah; halftime oranges half a dozen, half past six Halloween – no apostrophe handicapped – do not use to refer to people with disabilities or learning difficulties hat-trick – note hyphen headteacher – one word; do not use headmaster, headmistress healthcare – one word; social care is two words health service – see NHS heaven – lower case heavy font – see bold font height – use metric except when talking about a person’s height, eg ‘the building was 300 metres tall before the hurricane’, but ‘Janine is 5ft 7in’; note it is acceptable to use digits and abbreviations when talking about a person’s height. See measurement helplines – we no longer have any helplines. Instead we direct people affected by cancer to our 0808 808 00 00 number if they have any questions or concerns. See 0808 808 00 00 Information and support fact sheet high court hi-tech HIV – a virus, not a disease, but do not call HIV ‘the Aids virus’ or an HIV test an ‘Aids test’; an HIV-positive man (hyphen) is HIV positive (no hyphen) Hodgkin lymphoma/non-Hodgkin lymphoma – note lower case on lymphoma and hyphen in non-Hodgkin Macmillan style guide August 2009 34 holidays – capitalise all named holidays apart from bank holidays, eg New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Easter Day, May Day Holiday, but spring bank holiday, bank holiday Monday Holyrood – home of Scotland’s parliament, in Edinburgh homemade Home Office honours, titles and decorations – observe Sir, Dame, Lord, Lady and the professional qualifications Dr and Professor; however, only use them if they enrich or inform the copy, for example, there is no need to talk about ‘Sir’ Cliff Richard when talking about his musical career. Omit letters after the name except MP, AM, MSP, MLA, QC, VC, MBE, OBE, CBE (which follow the name without a comma). Use these on the first reference only. hospitals – lower case, eg Derby District General hospital, Great Ormond Street Children’s hospital, etc HRH – note no full points hyphens – our style is to use one word wherever possible, as hyphens clutter copy. If you are unsure whether a word is hyphenated, look it up in the dictionary. If you can’t find it, use two words. Also, note that you don’t need to use hyphens with most compound adjectives, where the meaning is clear and unambiguous without: civil rights movement, financial services sector. See en dash and ‘Punctuation guide’ I ID cards ie – no full points or comma, ie means ‘that is to say’ in or on? – you are ‘in the team’ not the US version ‘on the team’; in Oxford Street, etc not ‘on Oxford Street’ Macmillan style guide August 2009 35 Incapacity Benefit incidence rate – the number of new cases (of cancer) reported per a fixed number of the population for a given time period. Also see prevalence Statistics fact sheet income support income tax index – plural indexes, except for scientific and economic indices infinite means without limit, not very large information and support centres – see Macmillan information and support centres Information and support fact sheet initials – no spaces or points, whether businesses or individuals, eg WH Smith, MJ Harland Inland Revenue inpatient, outpatient – no hyphens inquiry not enquiry install, instalment instil, instilling, instilled insure against risk; assure life; ensure make certain internet – always lower case into or in to? – one word if you go into a room, but two words in such sentences as ‘I called in to complain’, ‘I listened in to their conversation’ and ‘I went in to see my friend’; on to two words intranet – internal communications networks; Macmillan’s is called the green rooms Macmillan style guide August 2009 36 introducing people – never use the following construction to introduce a speaker or subject: ‘Macmillan Chief Executive Ciarán Devane said …’ If you’re talking about a post that only one person holds, use commas to separate the job from the name: ‘Ciarán Devane, Macmillan’s chief executive, said …’ You can also use the definite article and commas, eg ‘David Milliband, the foreign secretary, said …’ Commas are not used if the description is more general and could apply to more than one person: ‘Macmillan Clinical Nurse Specialist Angie Law said …’ invalid – means not valid or of no worth; do not use to refer to disabled or ill people iPod, iMac, iTunes -ise – not -ize at end of word, eg maximise, synthesise (exception: capsize) italics – use italics for titles of Macmillan publications, booklets, all books and films, TV programmes, albums and song titles, biological terms, and works of art, etc it's – shortened form of it is or it has: it's a big dog; it's been ages since I saw her its – possessive form of it: the dog is eating its bone ITV1, ITV2, ITV3, ITV4 J jail not gaol jargon – do not use it. Or if you do use any specialised vocabulary of a particular culture or profession, explain what it means, eg you may understand what the term ‘committed giver’ means, but people who don’t work in the charity sector may not jobcentres are run by Jobcentre Plus Jobseeker’s Allowance job roles and job titles – always use initial caps when referring to a person by name and job title, eg Helen Jones, Macmillan Head and Neck Nurse Specialist, is Macmillan style guide August 2009 37 based at Whittington Hospital; or you can also use ‘Macmillan Fundraising Manager Sally Wright has…’ when talking about a job title which more than one person holds. ‘Macmillan Chief Executive Ciarán Devane’ is not acceptable; instead use ‘Ciarán Devane, Macmillan Chief Executive, said…’ as only one person holds this role. See introducing people. Always use lower case when talking about a job in general or someone’s job role, eg ‘the role of a Macmillan development manager is to…’; ‘Macmillan’s chairman, Jamie Dundas’; ‘We have great belief that the prime minister will scrap…’ Also note that should you should refer to someone by the area of Macmillan’s work they cover, rather than the team they manage, eg ‘Sandra Thompson is the head of marketing’; not ‘Sandra Thompson is the head of the marketing team’. See teams junior – abbreviate to Jr, eg Sammy Davis Jr Justgiving – note one word K k or km – always use km for distances, except when talking about a sporting event, when 10k or 10km is acceptable. The main thing to remember is to be consistent in all communications for an event keyring – note one word key stage 1, 2 etc (education) kickoff noun; kick off verb kilogram/s, kilojoule/s, kilometre/s, kilowatt/s – abbreviate as kg, kJ, km, kW; the abbreviation for kilometres an hour is km/h King's Cross km/h – kilometres an hour (not kph) Macmillan style guide August 2009 38 knowhow knowledgeable – with the E L Labour Party Land’s End laptop laryngeal relating to the larynx laryngectomy LASER – London, Anglia and South East Region. See regions last – do not confuse ‘last’ with ‘most recent’. ‘The last issue of Exchange’ means there will never be another issue, rather than the most recent issue layout learned not learnt Learn Zone – two words. Macmillan website providing online learning and development opportunities to Macmillan professionals, staff, volunteers and people affected by cancer left-handed less/fewer – less means smaller in quantity, eg less money; fewer means smaller in number, eg fewer coins letters – no apostrophe is needed when talking about single letters, eg mind your Ps and Qs. Also, when referring to letters, use upper case leukaemia Macmillan style guide August 2009 39 Lib Dems – acceptable after first mention of the Liberal Democrats licence (noun); license (verb) – ‘you might enjoy your drinks in a licensed premises’ or ‘take them home from an off-licence’ lifelong like/such – like excludes; such as includes: ‘Cities like Manchester are wonderful’ suggests the writer has in mind, say, Sheffield or Birmingham; they actually mean ‘cities such as Manchester’ literally means literally. Use it only when it’s what you mean. You can’t be ‘literally at the end of your tether’. Living with Cancer Course is now called ‘New Perspectives – a course for people living with cancer, by people living with cancer’. Note italics; also you can refer to it just as New Perspectives after first mention. See Macmillan courses Lloyd’s are the insurance underwriters Lloyds TSB bank London areas – use lower case when talking about areas of London identified by compass points, eg south London, north-east London Longest Day Golf Challenge – annual Macmillan event that involves people playing four rounds of golf (72 holes) in one day lottery, national lottery – but Lotto and National Lottery Commission lymphoedema – illness which can be caused by cancer or its treatment. It results in the painful swelling of a body part M Mac or Mc? – take the time to get this right with people’s surnames Macmillan style guide August 2009 40 Mac News – Macmillan’s quarterly magazine for its supporters Macmillan Benefits Helpline – do not refer to the Macmillan Benefits Helpline anymore. You should be directing people to our 0808 808 00 00 number for financial support. See 0808 808 00 00. However, if you do need to reference the helpline, for example, when talking about our old services, use initial caps when talking about the Macmillan Benefits Helpline and lower case when talking about our benefits helpline in general. Also see helplines Information and support fact sheet Macmillan Cancer Support – use the charity’s full name when you initially refer to it; thereafter you can use Macmillan. Never use MCS in external communications. See talking about Macmillan Macmillan Cancer Voices is a UK-wide network of people affected by cancer. We help these people use their experiences to improve support for people affected by cancer on a local and a national scale. When talking about the network to external audiences, you should initially use Macmillan Cancer Voices and then Cancer Voices for any further mentions. The people who are part of the network should also be talked about as Cancer Voices, eg David Hunt became a Cancer Voice in 1992 Cancer Voices fact sheet Macmillan CancerLine – do not refer to CancerLine anymore. You should be directing people to our 0808 808 00 00 number for financial support. See 0808 808 00 00. However, if you do need to reference the helpline, for example, when talking about our old services, always use upper case C and upper case L. Also, for information, CancerLine can be described as helpline that provided people with emotional and practical help, and put them in touch with other sources of support. Also see helplines Macmillan style guide August 2009 41 Information and support fact sheet Macmillan courses – initial caps for Macmillan’s two main courses for people affected by cancer: Cancer Support Course and New Perspectives (formerly Living with Cancer Course). When talking about Macmillan workshops, use cap for first word and lower case for the rest, eg Be good to yourself, Listening and responding, Cancer and its treatments Macmillan Grant – always upper case when talking about a Macmillan Grant; lower case when talking about grants in general, ‘We gave a grant to Simon Jones’ Financial help fact sheet Macmillan Headline – the name of the unique typeface we use on our communications. Note capital H Macmillan nurse – lower case when referring to nurses in general or someone’s job role, eg ‘the Macmillan nurses were a great help’ or ‘Jean Forrest, a Macmillan nurse, said...’ Upper case if you talk about a job title, eg ‘Macmillan Nurse Jo Taylor works at…’ or ‘Jo Taylor, Macmillan Lymphoedema Nurse Specialist, is based at…’ Macmillan nurses fact sheet Macmillan professionals – do not say postholders; it is always professionals Macmillan health and social care professionals fact sheet Macmillan services – see ‘Macmillan services’ section in the editorial guidelines Macmillan website – when you talk about the website within a sentence, for example, ‘Visit us at macmillan.org.uk’, lose the www; it is not necessary. When the address of the website stands alone, possibly with a telephone number, use www.macmillan.org.uk Information and support fact sheet Macmillan YouthLine – currently do not refer to the Macmillan YouthLine. You should be directing young people to our 0808 808 00 00 number for support. See 0808 808 00 00. Macmillan style guide August 2009 42 However, if you do need to reference the helpline, for example, when talking about our old services, always use upper case Y and upper case L. Also, for information, YouthLine can be described as a helpline that provided support to young people affected by cancer aged between 12 and 21 Information and support fact sheet magazine and book titles – always italicised; use lower case for a, an, and, at, for, from, in, of, the, to (unless they are the first word of a title): The Economist, The Mail on Sunday manifesto; plural manifestos malignant – a malignant tumour is cancerous Marks & Spencer, M&S – use full name on first use; always use ampersand may or might? – may implies that the possibility remains open: ‘The Mies van der Rohe tower may have changed the face of British architecture forever’ (it has been built); might suggests that the possibility remains open no longer: ‘The Mies tower might have changed the face of architecture forever’ (if only they had built it). May Day mayor of London – cap up if the current mayor is named and you’re referring to his job title, eg ‘Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, believes…’ MB – megabytes (storage capacity) McDonald’s – note apostrophe measurement – always try to use metric, although the use of imperial measurements may be more appropriate in some circumstances. abbreviated measurements – when it makes sense to use abbreviated measurements, for example, in a recipe, use digits and lower case initials, without full points – 100rpm, 6mm, 4cm, 100m, 25km, 6in, 3ft, 90yd, 100g, 10kg, 12oz, 4lb, 2pt, 4tsp, 8tbsp. Note abbreviations are also closed up to preceding figure and serve for both singular and plural. Macmillan style guide August 2009 43 measurements in a sentence – when talking about a measurement in a sentence that is a full number and under 10, spell out the number and measurement, eg ‘he drank seven pints of lager’, ‘the journey was four kilometres long’. Over 10, use the following, ‘The bridge was 33 metres long.’ The only exception to this is when talking about a person’s height or weight; in these instances, use abbreviated imperial measurements if you think it’s more appropriate: ‘Bob now stood 5ft 6in tall’, ‘Leanne had lost two stones and three pounds, and now weighed 10st 6lb’. decimal measurements – if a measurement is a decimal, also use digits, although spell out the measurement if it features in a sentence, eg ‘the Cadillac measured 3.6 metres in length’; ‘the cycling challenge covered 450.87 kilometres’. If the measurement is simply listed, use the abbreviation, eg ‘4.5tbsp of flour’, ’10.6kg of cement’. measurement as adjective – spell out for numbers under 10, use digits for over 10, eg ‘he caught a four-metre long shark’ and ‘the 300km cycle left you sore’. plural or singular – measurements should take a singular verb if a single unit (money, area, etc) is meant: ‘three miles is a long way to walk’; ‘Is £20 enough?’ Also see height and weight Médecins sans Frontières – international medical aid charity (don't describe it as French) media is plural of medium media, the – when talking about ‘the media’, remember to think of it as a single unit that always takes a singular verb or pronoun. So, for example, use ‘the media say’ rather than ‘the media says’ medical terms – a simple glossary of medical terms can be found at the end of our editorial guidelines. You can also find an explanation of terms associated with cancer and its treatment at macmillan.org.uk/glossary. If you still can’t find the term you are looking for, use the search tool on Macmillan’s website or try the Oxford English Dictionary member – use lower case in all contexts; it is outdated to capitalise ‘member’ in such documents as annual reports menswear, womenswear Macmillan style guide August 2009 44 mental handicap, mentally handicapped, mentally retarded – do not use: say person with mental health difficulties mental health – take care using language about mental health issues. Avoid writing 'the mentally ill’; use ‘people with mental health difficulties’ or ‘mentally ill people’ metastasis – the development of a secondary cancer; only use when audience will fully understand this term metres – in a sentence write 50 metres out in full rather than 50m; this avoids confusion with millions. When using metre as an adjective, eg 100m race, it is acceptable to use abbreviation for numbers 10 and over metric system – try to use the metric system for measurements, although the use of imperial will be more appropriate in many circumstances. Main exceptions are the mile and pint mid-90s, mid-60s midday – use 12 noon. See noon and time middle-aged middle class Middlesbrough, Teesside – not Middlesborough, Teeside Midlands, East Midlands, West Midlands midnight – use 12 midnight. See time midweek might or may? – see may or might million – always spell out million in copy. Whole numbers under 10 are written, eg two million; over 10 million as numbers followed by million; others as decimals, eg 4.52 million rabbits. Use m in tables and when you’re tight for space, eg £10m, 45m germs. Macmillan style guide August 2009 45 ministers – only use initial caps if talking about a named minister and their job title, eg ‘Jacqui Smith, Home Secretary, said…’ Otherwise, ‘Jacqui Smith, the newly appointed home secretary, said…’ or ‘the home secretary said…’ ministries – see ‘British government departments of state’ in capitals minority ethnic – rather than ethnic minority. See ethnicity mixed race or person of mixed heritage is the correct term. See ethnicity MLA (member of the legislative assembly) – refers to member of the Northern Ireland assembly Mobile Macmillan Cancer Information Centre – please note the order and the capitalisation. Also, if you talk about our ‘mobile cancer information centres’ in general, eg ‘Macmillan has two mobile cancer information centres,’ please refer to them like this, using lower case. You should not shorten this description or describe them as ‘units’. Information and support fact sheet months – see days and months morbidity – take care: can mean the state of being morbid (taking an unusual interest in death or unpleasant events); but morbidity, also known as the morbidity rate, also means the relative incidence of a disease in a specific locality more than – generally preferable to over: there were more than 20,000 people at the game, it will cost more than £100 to get it fixed; but she is over 18 Mother’s Day motorbike, motorcar, motorcycle motorways – just M1, etc, not M1 motorway mph MP (member of parliament) – plural is MPs, without apostrophe Macmillan style guide August 2009 46 Mr, Ms, Mrs, Miss – there shouldn’t be any need to use titles in most communications MSP (member of the Scottish parliament) multicultural, multimedia, multimillion but multi-ethnic multidisciplinary – note no hyphen mum or Mum? – lower case when talking generally; upper case when using it as a name: How is your mum? I don't know, I've not spoken to Mum for two years museums – initial caps, eg British Museum, Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, etc music – italicise song titles Muslim not Moslem N names – prominent figures can just be named in stories, with their function at second mention: ‘Alistair Darling said last night ...’ (first mention); ‘the chancellor added ...’ (subsequent mentions) Where it is thought necessary to explain who someone is, write ‘Phil Brown, the Hull City manager, said’ or ‘the Hull City manager, Phil Brown, said…’ In such cases the commas around the name indicate there is only one person in the position, so write ‘Ciarán Devane, Macmillan Chief Executive, said…’ (only one person in the job), but ‘the former Macmillan chief executive Peter Cardy said’ (there have been many). Do not leave out the definite article in such constructions as ‘style guru David Marsh said…’ It should be ‘The style guru David Marsh’ (if there are other style gurus) or Macmillan style guide August 2009 47 ‘David Marsh, the style guru ...’ (if you feel only one person merits such a description). In Macmillan publications such as Mac News, Exchange and Staff Stuff refer to a person’s name in full in the first instance, eg ‘Macmillan Dietitian Malcolm Sergeant said …’ and then use their first name for subsequent mentions: ‘Malcolm added that …’ Note that in some instances it may be more appropriate to refer to people with their title in subsequent mentions, eg if the first mention is ‘Dr Liam Foster, Head of Palliative Care, said …’ you would then use ‘Dr Foster believes that …’ Be careful when using names that also describe a relationship with someone. ‘My Grandad is feeling unwell’ is wrong. It should be ‘My grandad is feeling unwell’ because you are speaking about the person as a subject. You would, however, say ‘I asked Grandad how he was feeling’; this is because you are referring to him by the name you have given him national – be careful when using this term. ‘National’ refers to the characteristics of a nation, so you should only apply it to England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales when you talk about them as separate nations. You should not say, ‘the national opinion in the UK is …’ because the UK is not a nation national curriculum national events – initial caps for all Macmillan national events, eg World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, The Big Sports Day, The Big Fish National Health Service but NHS or health service are normally sufficient national insurance – no caps national lottery national parks – lower case, eg Peak District national park nations – how Macmillan refers to England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Nations describe people united by language, culture and history so as to form a distinct group within a larger territory. See national and regions Macmillan style guide August 2009 48 nearby – one word, whether adjective or adverb: the pub nearby; the nearby pub neither/nor – try to construct a sentence so it uses either/or rather than the more archaic sounding neither/nor nevertheless new – often redundant, as in ‘a new report said yesterday’ New Perspectives – a course for people living with cancer, by people living with cancer – the new name for our Living with Cancer Course; New Perspectives after first mention newspapers – italicise: The Guardian, The Sunday Times new year – lower case; but New Year's Day, New Year's Eve New Year honours list NHS – National Health Service, but not necessary to spell out; the health service is also okay NICE – National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence; spell out for first mention. Note that NICE guidance applies to different things in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales No 1 in the charts, the world tennis No 1, etc No 10 (Downing Street) no campaign, yes campaign – not No campaign, ‘no’ campaign or any of the other variants noon – use 12 noon. See midday and time no one not no-one north – north London, North West England, the North West. See compass points Northern Ireland not Ulster Northern Ireland assembly – note lower case Macmillan style guide August 2009 49 notebook, notepaper noticeboard npower – all lower case numbers – spell out from one to nine; digits from 10 to 999,999; thereafter spell out million, billion or trillion, eg two million people, 11 billion stars, 56 trillion particles. m (million), bn (billion) and tn (trillion) can be used in tables or when space is tight. If you cannot avoid starting a sentence with a number, spell it out, eg Two million people are living with cancer For units of measurement, use digits, eg 3mm. See measurement For time, spell out numbers under 10, eg three weeks. See time For percentages, always use digits, eg 3% of people; 69% of cats prefer Whiskers. See percentages When comparing numbers, use all digits, eg you may be treated for 7 to 10 days; this affects 1 in 10 people. See comparing numbers For ranges of numbers, use digits, and an en dash to separate, eg 10–12 weeks. Note the shortcut for an en dash on a PC is ‘Ctrl + dash on the top right of your number pad on the far right of your keyboard’. See ranges nurse – see Macmillan nurse O OAPs, old age pensioners – do not use: they older people; do not use elderly to describe someone under 70 occurred Macmillan style guide August 2009 50 oceans, seas – capped up, eg Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea off – there’s no general rule for the use of ‘off’ as a prefix so check the Oxford English Dictionary for correct spellings Office of Fair Trading – OFT on second mention off-licence Ofsted – Office for Standards in Education, but normally no need to spell out Oh! not O! okay not OK O-levels Olympic Games or Olympics oncology – the study and treatment of tumours one-day, two-day, 15-day workshop ongoing – use continuing, in progress or developing instead online online community – see macmillan.org.uk for the latest details about our online community, including it’s name only – avoid ambiguity by placing ‘only’ immediately before the word it qualifies. Note the difference between ‘Only I invited him’ and ‘I invited only him’ on to not onto or – do not use to explain or amplify organisation not organization OSNI – Office of Scotland and Northern Ireland. See regions outpatient, inpatient – no hyphens Macmillan style guide August 2009 51 outside – not ‘outside of’ overestimate, overstate overreact, override, overrule Oxford comma – a comma before the final ‘and’ in lists: straightforward ones (he ate ham, eggs and chips) do not need one, but sometimes it can help the reader (he ate cereal, kippers, bacon, eggs, toast and marmalade, and tea). See ‘Punctuation guide’ P paediatric page numbers – preferable to spell out and use digits, eg see page 4; for spans use an en dash, eg from pages 13–56; you can also use p5 for one page and pp for more than one, eg pp15–23 palate – roof of the mouth; palette used by an artist; pallet hard wooden frame moved by forklift truck palliative care – is any form of medical care or treatment that concentrates on reducing the severity of disease symptoms, rather than striving to halt, delay, or reverse progression of the disease itself or provide a cure. The goal is to prevent and relieve suffering and to improve quality of life for people facing serious, complex illness P&O parentheses – see brackets Parkinson’s disease parliament – lower case in all contexts apart from in the Houses of Parliament part-time Macmillan style guide August 2009 52 party – upper case in name of organisation, eg Labour Party passive voice – strive for active sentences, compare ‘the patient was helped by the Macmillan nurse’ and ‘the Macmillan nurse helped the patient’ patients are discharged from hospital, not released payback, payday, payoff, payout PDF – use upper case as abbreviation is widely accepted; it means portable document format peers – use lower case pensioners – do not call them ‘old age pensioners’ or ‘OAPs’; older people is preferable to ‘elderly people’ people affected by cancer – this covers anyone who is affected by a person’s cancer diagnosis, eg the person with cancer, their partner, their children, etc people living with cancer – this refers to people who have been diagnosed with the disease and are currently receiving treatment people living with or beyond cancer – this refers to anyone who has been diagnosed with disease and is still alive; it does not matter whether they are receiving treatment or their treatment has ended. This means that ‘two million people living with or beyond cancer in the UK’ can also be stated as ‘two million people living in the UK today have had a cancer diagnosis’. See ‘Tone of voice guide’ per – try to avoid; ‘he earns £40,000 a year’ is better than ‘per year’ percentages – use % in headlines and copy. See fractions phone numbers – write area code then private number, eg 01483 657545. For London numbers the correct style is 020 8123 4567 not 0208 123 4567 photo captions – do not put full stops at the end photo-finish pill, the – contraceptive Macmillan style guide August 2009 53 pin or pin number – not Pin or PIN number place names – when referencing a place name, remember to state a county or country if it is unlikely that your audience knows where you are talking about. For example, you may know that Poole is in Dorset, but many of your readers will not planets – cap up planets of our solar system: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, etc. The sun and the Earth’s moon are lower case plaster of paris play-off plc not PLC pleaded not pled plurals – no apostrophe is needed when talking about single letters, eg mind your Ps and Qs postholder – avoid; always use Macmillan professionals when talking about our nurses, doctors, etc poetry – if a poem can’t be written out in full, separate lines with spaces and a slash; italics are acceptable: A noiseless patient spider / I marked where on a promontory it stood isolated / Marked how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, etc police forces – Metropolitan police (the Met after first mention); West Midlands police, etc police ranks – PC on all references to police constable (never WPC), other ranks full out and initial cap at first reference, eg Sergeant Bill Bixby; thereafter abbreviation plus surname: Sgt Campbell, DC, Insp, Ch Insp, Det Supt, Ch Supt, Cmdr, etc (or just Mr, Ms or Mrs) police units – lower case: anti-terrorist branch, flying squad, fraud squad, special branch, vice squad Macmillan style guide August 2009 54 political parties – upper case for word ‘party’; abbreviate if necessary after first reference, eg Liberal Democrats (Lib Dem), Scottish National Party (SNP), Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) Pope, the – normally no need to give his name in full possessives – add ’s to singular words and names, including those ending in ‘s’, eg James’s desk, Wales’s beaches. However, in some instances be guided by pronunciation and use the plural apostrophe where it helps. For example, Waters’ rather than Waters’s; Hedges’ rather than Hedges’s. For plural possessives, add ’s to those that do not end in ‘s’, eg women’s, men’s, children’s. Those that do end in ‘s’ only take the apostrophe, eg girls’ school, two weeks’ holiday. postal workers – not postmen postcode postgraduate postmodern postmortem Post Office – cap up the organisation, but you buy stamps in a post office or subpost office Powergen practice (noun); practise (verb) premiere – no accent Premier League in England; in Scotland it is the Scottish Premier League or more commonly the SPL president – lower case except for in title: President Obama, but Barack Obama the US president Macmillan style guide August 2009 55 press, the – singular: the British press is lauded all over the world pressured/pressurised – use put pressure on or pressed to mean apply pressure prevalence rate – the number of people with cancer at a given time, or the total number of cases in the population, divided by the number of individuals in the population. Also see incidence Statistics fact sheet preventive not preventative primary care trust – lower case, eg Southwark primary care trust; although can use PCT after first mention prime minister – write ‘Gordon Brown, the prime minister’ not ‘Prime Minister Gordon Brown’ Prince of Wales normally in first reference, then Prince Charles Prince’s Trust principal – first in importance; principle – standard of conduct principality – do not use to describe Wales prize – initial caps, Booker Prize, Nobel Prize, Whitbread Prize proactive – do not use program (computer), otherwise programme Proms (concerts) proofreader pros and cons protester not protestor province – avoid using this term for Northern Ireland Ps and Qs Macmillan style guide August 2009 56 PS – at the end of a letter, start with a capital after the PS, ie PS Please remember to… publications – always italicise for any publication. Initial caps for newsletters: Mac News, Exchange, Teamtalk, Cancer Matters, Staff Stuff, Macmillan Voice. Booklets, guides and leaflets have cap on first word only, The cancer guide, Men and cancer, Help with the cost of cancer, etc. Publications from outside of Macmillan also always take initial caps, eg Time Out, The Times, The Economist pullout quotes – see quotes purchase as a noun, but use buy as a verb putt (golf) pyjamas Q quotes – don’t make quotes too long. Focus in on what you want to get across to your reader. Always try to use quotes that paint a picture about an experience, eg use quotes that feature colours, smells, sounds, tastes, etc. Quotes should also not repeat what has been said in the main copy. They should add something different, a more personal perspective about what you’re talking about. Also see ‘Punctuation guide’. quotations marks – use single quotation marks for speech. Use double quotation marks for a quote within a quote. For example, ‘People often ask me, “How do I get a Macmillan nurse?” and I explain it to them.’ introducing a quote – always use a comma to introduce a quote unless the quote explains what has come before, then use a colon, eg The King said something shocking: ‘Off with his head.’ first-person articles – do not use quotation marks in an article if it is obvious that only one person is speaking in it. This usually happens in articles when the introductory paragraph reads something like, ‘Jan Nevis, a Macmillan nurse at Whittington hospital, tells us about her day.’ Macmillan style guide August 2009 57 pullout quotes – if you have a full sentence in a pullout quote then use the correct punctuation to end it, eg ‘It was a fantastic day for all of us.’ If you use an extract from a sentence, you do not need a full stop, eg ‘fantastic day for all of us’. Try to make your pullout quotes succinct and eye-catching punctuation at the end of quotes – if you are quoting a whole sentence, the full stop (or question or exclamation mark) at the end of the sentence goes inside the quotation marks (as above). But if the quote is only a fragment of the whole sentence, the full stop (or question or exclamation mark) goes outside of the quotation marks. For example, John told Macmillan News that the event was ‘one of the best days of his life’. says or said – try to use ‘says’ when introducing a quote as it makes it sound more up-to-date and fresh; you will need to use said, though, if the context used for the quote is in the past, eg Three years ago, Jamie Dundas said, ‘Macmillan will become one the most high-profile charities in the UK.’ quotations from published sources should always be referenced using the Vancouver system. See references quantitative not quantitive quarter-final – hyphenated Queen, the – if it is necessary to say so, she is Her Majesty or HM, never HRH Queen’s birthday honours list queue queueing not queuing R racial terminology – if you need to refer to a group of people who may be defined by common racial, cultural, religious or linguistic characteristics, please remember this is a sensitive issue. ‘Black and minority ethnic communities’ is currently the accepted term for minority groups. See ethnicity Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4, Five Live, 6 Music, BBC7 radiographer takes x-rays; radiologist reads them Macmillan style guide August 2009 58 radius plural radii railway station – train station is now acceptable ranges – use en dash to separate ranges of numbers, eg 10–12 weeks. The en dash stands for ‘to’ so you can write ‘treatment lasts from 3–5 weeks’ or ‘treatment lasts from 3 to 5 weeks’. Do not write ‘your treatment will take between 10–12 weeks’; instead write ‘your treatment will take between 10 and 12 weeks’, or even better ‘treatment will take 10–12 weeks’. You can also use an en dash to separate months, eg ‘the event runs from April–December’, although spelling out ‘to’ is preferable. Note the shortcut for an en dash on a PC is Ctrl + dash on the top right of your keyboard’s number pad. rateable re or re-? – use re- when followed by the vowels e and u, when u is not pronounced ‘yu’, eg re-energise, re-urge. Use re when followed by the vowels a, i, o, u or any consonant, eg reorder, reuse, rebuild. reach – we use this to describe any type of support we have been involved in providing to someone; this could be anything from face-to-face support provided by one of our professionals to someone using the Share section of our website. We currently say that ‘we reach half of the two million people living or beyond cancer in the UK’ recipes – use abbreviations of measurements, eg 4tbsp flour, 50g sugar; note decimal numbers are closed up to the measurement, eg 4.5tsp mustard, 6.5kg potatoes recognise not recognize recyclable references – in patient information, especially booklets and fact sheets, we include references at the end (more as a bibliography) and do not refer to articles or Macmillan style guide August 2009 59 publications in the body of the text. Use 'Vancouver style', as this is the one most commonly required by medical journals. The Vancouver system uses a number series to indicate references. Bibliographies list these in numerical order as they appear in the text. The main advantage of the Vancouver style is that the main text reads more easily. In reports, for example, there may be references in the text. If you do so, and are working in Word before typesetting, indicate with a number in brackets. Starting at 1 and continuing in numerical order through the text. If more than one reference is made together separate the number with a comma. When the text is typeset the reference should be converted to superscript by the typesetter/designer but retaining the comma (otherwise 2, 3 might be confused with 23). Example: Recent studies by Professor E Ernst have shown that this is not widespread (1); however, other studies contradict this. (2, 3) When set and printed it should appear as below: Recent studies by Professor E Ernst have shown that this is not widespread1; however, other studies contradict this.2, 3 In the bibliography itself, use the formats below: Journal article Last name of author followed by first name or initial, with no punctuation (If there are two authors, separate each with a comma; if there are more than two use the first author comma then et al) Full stop Title of article Full stop Name of journal, in italics Full stop Year of publication Full stop Volume number Colon Page range Full stop Example: Simpson M, et al. Doctor–patient Communication. BMJ. 1991. 303: 1385–7. Macmillan style guide August 2009 60 Book Last name of author followed by first name or initial, with no punctuation (If more than one author, separate each with a comma) Full stop Title of book, italics Full stop Year of publication Full stop Publisher Comma Place of publication Full stop Example: Peters T, Waterman RH. In Search of Excellence. 1982. Macmillan, London. Online Organisation producing the information Full stop Document/article title (if there is one) Full stop URL – try to include full address of page/website section used Date accessed in brackets Example: Department of Health. National service framework for coronary heart disease. www.doh.gov.uk/nsf/coronary.htm (accessed 6 Jun 2003). referendum plural referendums reflection not reflexion reform – to change for the better, re-form to form again refute – use this much-abused word only when an argument is disproved; otherwise contest, deny, rebut regime – no accent Macmillan style guide August 2009 61 regions – Macmillan’s work in the UK is done within the following regional departments: East Midlands and North England (EMNE); London, Anglia and South East Region (LASER), Office of Scotland and Northern Ireland (OSNI), Central and South West England and Wales (CSWE&W). In documents, write the name of the regional departments in full for the first reference and for all other references use the acronym Regions and nations fact sheet regional assemblies use lower case, eg East of England regional assembly register office not registry office registrar general regrettable reinstate reopen replaceable report – Lawrence report; use ‘report on’ or ‘inquiry into’ but not ‘a report into’, ie ‘a report into health problems’ republicans use lower case (except for US political party) resistible not resistable responsible not responsable resuscitate Rev, the at first mention, eg the Rev Joan Smith, never Reverend Smith or Rev Smith reversible not reversable rheumatoid arthritis ringfence, ringtone Macmillan style guide August 2009 62 RNIB – Royal National Institute of Blind People (no longer ‘the Blind’). Note ‘of’ not ‘for’ RNID – Royal National Institute for Deaf People. Note ‘for’ not ‘of’ rock’n’roll – one word ROI – return on investment rollercoaster roofs plural of roof, not roves Rotary Club – but there are many Rotary clubs around the UK roundup – (noun) one word Royal Air Force or RAF Royal Albert Hall royal family Royal London hospital Royal Mail Royal Navy or the navy royal parks RSPB, RSPCA do not normally need to be spelt out S sae stamped addressed envelope, lower case, no points, preceded by an (not a) Sainsbury’s Macmillan style guide August 2009 63 Saint – in running text should be spelt in full: Saint John is also known as John the Baptist; abbreviated for names of towns, churches, etc: St Mirren, St Peter’s church Samaritans – the organisation has dropped ‘the’ from its name schools – names of schools have capitals for the specific part of the title only, eg Grange Hill comprehensive school, Galfast high school schoolboy, schoolchildren, schoolgirl, schoolroom, schoolteacher scientific names – in italics, with the first name (denoting the genus) capped, the second (denoting the species) lower case, eg Escherichia coli. The name can be shortened by using the first initial, eg E coli; note no full point after the initial Scottish executive, parliament and government – note lower case Scouts – not Boy Scouts, the organisation is the Scout Association seas, oceans – all upper case, eg the Black Sea seasons – all lower case, ie spring, summer, autumn second hand on a watch; but he bought it secondhand secretary general seize not sieze self-help also self-esteem, self-respect, self-control, etc self-help and support groups – note hyphen semicolon – see ‘Punctuation guide’ sensible not sensable serviceable not servicable services – see ‘Macmillan services’ section in the editorial guidelines services, the (armed forces) Macmillan style guide August 2009 64 sex – use ‘gender’ rather than ‘sex’ when referring to the state of being male or female, eg What gender are you? Share – our online community that helps people affected by cancer to share their experiences and feelings, ask questions and get support from others. Note that this name will change following the launch of Macmillan’s new website. Visit macmillan.org.uk/community for the latest details side effects – not no hyphen sign offs – ‘yours sincerely’ for people you have named in the beginning of your letter: Dear Mr Rogers; ‘yours faithfully’ for people you have not named: Dear Sir/Madam. However, think about your audience and try to use less formal sign offs where appropriate, eg best wishes, kind regards, all the best. We are a friendly charity that uses conversational language Silverspoons – note that if you talk about the Silverspoons golf competition, only Silverpoons has initial cap size – family-size, fun-size skilful not skillful social care – note two words social security benefits – all lower case, income support, working tax credit, etc solar system – see planets some – do not use before a figure; say about or approximately instead, eg ‘about 13 people signed up for the event’ span of time – see ranges spelled/spelt she spelled it out for him: ‘the word is spelt like this’ spellings – use the Oxford English Dictionary for general words and the official websites of organisations, events, etc for words that are unlikely to appear in the dictionary Macmillan style guide August 2009 65 spicy not spicey split infinitives – this is a split infinitive, ‘To boldly go where no man has gone before!’ The infinitive is ‘to go’, and it has been split by the adverb ‘boldly’. Split infinitives have been the cause of much controversy among teachers and grammarians, but the notion that they are ungrammatical is simply a myth. See ‘Grammar guide’ sporting events – distances are as follows, 100 metres, 1500 metres, 10,000 metres; note no comma in 1500 metres. When sporting events have a sponsor in their name, use it for first reference in an article, eg Virgin London Marathon. All Macmillan sporting events and challenges should have initial caps, eg China Cycling Challenge, the Macmillan 10k Fun Run square brackets – use for words in a quotation that are added to make things clearer, eg John said, ‘Jamie [Dundas] quite fancies the marathon this year’. See brackets and ‘Punctuation guide’ staff are plural Staff Zone – area on the Learn Zone where staff can find learning resources Staff Stuff – Macmillan’s staff newsletter stakeholder – avoid in all external documents and try to avoid using in internal documents stationary not moving; stationery writing materials (there’s an ‘e’ in envelope) statistics can make complicated information a lot easier to digest for the reader; make sure the ones you use are accurate. Use digits for stats that compare numbers, eg ‘1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime’. Use % for stats that feature percentages Statistics fact sheet steadfast Macmillan style guide August 2009 66 stepfamily, stepfather, stepmother, etc but step-parents straightforward survivor and survivorship – try to avoid using these terms unless you are specifically talking about our survivorship work or quoting someone directly. See the ‘Tone of voice guide’ swap not swop swearwords – remember the reader and that we should not use words that are likely to offend T talking about Macmillan – when you talk about the organisation, use ‘we’ and ‘us’ (first person plural pronouns). For example, you’d say, ‘We hope you enjoyed the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning,’ ’We think it’s fantastic that you raised £1,200 for us,’ ‘If you have any questions, just ask us.’ We use ‘we’ and ‘us’ because they reflect that we are an inclusive organisation and that many different people make it possible for Macmillan to provide the support it does. Also see ‘Tone of voice guide’ takeover targeted, targeting teams (Macmillan) – always use upper case for the name of specific Macmillan teams, but use lower case for the word ‘team’, eg ‘the Creative Services team won another award’. Note that when you talk about someone heading up or managing a team, there is no need to use the word ‘team’, just name the area of Macmillan’s work they cover, eg ‘Mike Hobday is the head of campaigns, policy and public affairs’; don’t say ‘Mike Hobday is the head of the campaigns, policy and public team’. Also, ampersands should not appear in team names, eg use Learning and Macmillan style guide August 2009 67 Development team instead of Learning & Development team. See job roles and job titles team-mate telephone numbers – see phone numbers temazepam temperatures – write celsius without degree symbol and fahrenheit equivalent in brackets: 23C (73F), -3C (27F) etc tendinitis not tendonitis tenses – see ‘Grammar Guide’ Tesco not Tesco’s Test – (cricket) the third Test, etc textbook that or which? – that defines, which gives extra information (often in a clause enclosed by commas): This is the house that Jack built, but this house, which John built, is falling down. The Guardian, which I read every day, is the paper that I admire above all others. Note that in these examples, the sentence remains grammatical without ‘that’, but not without ‘which’ The Big Sports Day – Macmillan event for schools and youth groups. Not all initial caps, including ‘The’ the green rooms– the name of Macmillan’s intranet. Not all lower case theatre – lower case, eg Adelphi theatre, crucible theatre; initial cap ‘Theatre’ if it comes first, eg Theatre Royal theirs – no apostrophe Macmillan style guide August 2009 68 thinktank – one word this and that – this looks forward, that looks back: ‘one day all of this will be yours, but for the time being that car remains mine.’ thyroid time – 1am, 6.30pm, etc; not 10 o’clock last night but 10pm yesterday; use 12 noon, or 12 midnight rather than 12am, 12pm. Spell out numbers under 10 for weeks, months, years, eg, three weeks, five years titles of works – when referring to Macmillan publications, booklets, all books and films, albums and song titles, biological terms, and works of art, etc, use italics, with capitals where necessary, but do not put them in inverted apostrophes tonne not ton – the metric tonne is 1,000kg (2,204.62), the British ton is 2,240lb Topman, Topshop tracheostomy – an opening created in the lower part of the neck for you to breathe through trademarks – use a generic alternative unless there is a very good reason not to, eg sticky tape rather than Sellotape. If you do use a trademarked product, use the relevant symbol (™, ©, ®) on the product’s first mention and leave off for any subsequent mentions trustee – use lower case in all contexts; it is outdated to capitalise ‘trustee’ in such documents as annual reports try to – I will try to do something, not ‘try and’ T-shirt not tee-shirt tube, the – note lower case; the underground is also lower case (London Underground is the name of the company), as are individual lines: Jubilee line, Northern line, etc tumour not tumor Macmillan style guide August 2009 69 TV programme titles – always italicised; use lower case for a, an, and, at, for, from, in, of, the, to (unless they are the first word of a title): Last of the Summer Wine, The Big Bang Theory. See italics U UK, Britain – see Britain, UK unbiased underage, underdeveloped, underprivileged, underweight under 16s – note no hyphen, eg the under 16s football team won again under way, not underway underground, the – lower case; London Underground is the name of the company uninterested means displaying a lack of interest whereas disinterested means impartial union flag not union jack unique – one of a kind, so cannot be qualified as ‘absolutely unique’ or ‘very unique’ universities – use initial caps, eg Sheffield University, John Hopkins University, etc University College London no comma, UCL after first mention unmistakable until not ‘up until’ upbeat, upfront, upgrade up to date but in an up-to-date fashion url – see web Macmillan style guide August 2009 70 user involvement – note no hyphen; this term refers to the process in which people who receive and experience services use their voice to speak out and secure changes and improvements that reflect users’ rights and needs USA for United States of America, not US V v for versus not vs: England v Australia, state v private, etc vaccinate – note two Cs Valentine’s Day VAT – valued added tax; no need to spell out verruca not verucca verse – see poetry veterinary vice-chair, vice-chancellor, vice-president vice versa visible – not visable vocal cords not chords Volunteers’ Week – note apostrophe W Wales – avoid the word ‘principality’ Wales Office not Welsh Office Macmillan style guide August 2009 71 walking stick we statements – see talking about Macmillan web, webpage, website, world wide web – when you reference a website/url in running text, lose the http:// and www, eg ‘you can find news about the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning at macmillan.org.uk/coffee’. If a url is simply listed, usually with a phone number, keep the www: www.macmillan.org.uk 0808 808 00 00 Note that if a url/website ends a paragraph, do not use a full stop. See ‘Writing for the web’ weeks – spell out numbers under 10 when talking about an amount of weeks, eg the dog ran away for four weeks; hyphenate for three-week course, etc weight – try to use kilograms when referring to a person’s weight, although it is acceptable to use stones and pounds when it is felt it would be more appropriate, for example, when talking about a diet: ‘Leanne had lost two stone and three pounds in only six months’. See measurement and recipes well-being is hyphenated well-known Welsh assembly and Welsh assembly government – although note that the official name for the assembly, the National Assembly for Wales, has initial caps What Now? – no longer refer to this website. Visit macmillan.org.uk/community for the latest details on Macmillan’s online community wheelchair – someone uses a wheelchair, not ‘in a wheelchair’ or ‘wheelchairbound’ whereabouts which or that? – see that or which? Macmillan style guide August 2009 72 whizz – note two Zs who or whom? – a tricky one. The best way to work this out is to consider how the clause beginning who/whom would read in the form of a sentence using he, him, she, her, they or them instead: if the who/whom person turns into he/she/they, then ‘who’ is right; if it becomes him/her/them, then it should be ‘whom’. ‘Brown was criticised for attacking Cameron, whom he despised’ – ‘whom’ is correct because he despised ‘him’. ‘Brown attacked Cameron, who he thought was wrong’ – ‘who’ is correct, because it is ‘he’ not ‘him’ who is considered wrong. Note: if you are still in doubt – and you may well be – always use ‘who’ rather than ‘whom’. wide awake will – use lower case when talks about the gifts people leave to Macmillan in their wills; a capitalised Will is often used in legal documents, but this is now outdated windpipe wines – normally lower case, eg chardonnay, chablis, champagne winter withhold – two Hs woman, women are nouns, not adjectives, so say female MPs words – when referencing words in a sentence, enclose it in single speech marks, eg trying to spell ‘rhythm’ isn’t easy when you think there should be a vowel in the word somewhere. See ‘Punctuation guide’ World’s Biggest Coffee Morning – our flagship fundraising event. Spell out on first mention, avoid using WBCM, use Coffee Morning instead. When talking about people’s coffee mornings, use lower case. Also note that if you talk about the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, the ‘the’ should be lower case Macmillan style guide August 2009 73 Visit macmillan.org.uk/coffee for latest information world championship World Cup world-famous World Health Organisation – WHO on second mention worldwide but world wide web would-be X Xmas – avoid; always use Christmas x-ray Y year – say 2007, not ‘the year 2007’; for spans, use en dash, eg 2008–09 yoghurt Yorkshire – use East Yorkshire, North Yorkshire, etc your or you’re – ‘your’ is possessive, ‘you’re’ is abbreviation of ‘you are’: you’re going to need your umbrella yours – no apostrophe: yours sincerely. See sign offs YouthLine – currently do not refer to this helpline. See Macmillan YouthLine YouTube Macmillan style guide August 2009 74 Z -ze endings – use –se, eg maximise, realise zigzag zoos – lower case, eg London zoo, San Diego zoo zzz – it’s ze end of ze style guide Macmillan style guide August 2009 75