North London Hospice
Style Guide “Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.” George Orwell
North London Hospice Style Guide
General notes We use plain English in our written communication and our tone of voice is casual and friendly. North London Hospice should always be capped up and should not be referred to as ‘the North London Hospice’. Can use the ‘hospice’ (using lower case) but never refer to it externally as NLH. As an organisation, refer to North London Hospice in the singular.
Quotes and quotation marks We use double quotation marks for speech and single quote marks within them. If you’re only using part of a quote, the full stop goes after the segment of the quote. e.g. Martins said he “hated the sport”. If you’re using the complete quote, the full stop goes inside the quote. Martins said: “I hate the sport.” If we are reporting someone’s speech, use the past tense even if the action would be in the present or future e.g. In the sentence ‘She spoke of what happened but said her father is still very unhappy’ – the ‘is’ should be ‘was’ as it is reported speech
Book/film/play titles etc Titles of books, films, plays, exhibitions and other works of art are italicised
Foreign words Foreign words or phrases are italicised Foreign organisation names – use English names for World Health Organisation, World Trade Centre etc
Job titles / other titles Avoid capping up job titles. So: Joe Bloggs, director of public affairs, said… We also cap up president and prime minister (and chancellor for Germany, taoiseach for Ireland, etc) when followed by the name of the person
filling the role. For example: We all had a ball with Pope Francis of Assisi, Let’s praise Chancellor Scholz. We don’t cap up the government or when we talk about the prime minister when they’re not named. Eg The prime minister said he would leave the Commons early but Home Secretary Suella Braverman attended the event. When referring to a Dame/Sir etc, use the title and first name after the first mention – e.g. Dame Louise Ellman/Sir Ian McKellen at first mention, Dame Louise/Sir Ian thereafter.
Acronyms If these are said as a word, eg Ofsted, Nato, Aids, Nasa, only cap up the first letter; if not, eg BBC, NUS, then cap up the whole word. Spell out acronyms in the first instance and then write the acronym (without full stops) in brackets straight afterwards. You then refer to the acronym the rest of the time. e.g. The World Health Organisation (WHO). Only use the acronym if the organisation is mentioned more than once.
Other notes Square brackets are used around words inserted into a quote to explain or clarify it Avoid Americanisms e.g. use “far too much” rather than “way too much” and “possibly” instead of “likely” and always check spelling to make sure it is British English – e.g. organisation rather than organization, etc Organisations are singular; the police and football clubs are plural.
NB: This guide will be regularly updated. If there’s anything you think should be here and isn’t, please let the communications team know – all feedback is welcome!
North London Hospice Style Guide
A
C
a capella adviser not advisor aeroplane – not airplane (which is American) aficionado/s ages – not always necessary to include and don’t include a woman’s age if you’re not going to also include a man’s. Also, we hyphenate e.g. The 12-year-old but not e.g. He was 12 years old. // Also, we write: A woman in her 20s not ‘in her twenties’ ageing aggravate – this means to make worse, not to annoy airspace (one word) A-level al – coming before an Arabic word, ‘al’ means the so you don’t need to then write, for example, ‘The al-Aqsa Mosque’ al fresco (two words) alternative – this is a choice between two courses of action; if there are more, use ‘option’ or ‘choice’ Alzheimer’s disease amongst – use among ampersands only use if they are used in the company name eg Marks & Spencer apostrophes – don’t use in plural abbreviations, eg MPs, VIPs, 70s.
carer lower case Carer’s Allowance centred on (not centred around) century (lower case, eg in the 12th century) champagne Chanukah (but chanukiah lower case) church (lower-case unless using in a title e.g. the Anglican Church or Golders Green Parish Church; refer to it as ‘church’ on the second mention) Citizens Advice commence use ‘start’ commit/committed suicide – do not use (suicide is no longer a crime in the UK). Instead, use ‘took his/her/their own life’ or ‘died by suicide’). See here for more info: www. ipso.co.uk/member-publishers/guidancefor-journalists-and-editors/guidance-onreporting-suicide communications and marketing team lower case community-based Community Specialist Palliative Care Service Compassionate Neighbours project complementary therapy cost of living crisis Covid-19 at first mention, then Covid, not coronavirus currency write £15, not £15.00
B Bafta award – British Academy Film Awards barbecue benefit agencies lower case benefited bid – for an auction house or other offer to buy; not a synonym for ‘attempt’ Big Fun Walk all words capped up billion use bn, eg £12bn – but don’t abbreviate for people, say 60 billion people bite-sized board of trustees lower case bric-a-brac
D dates use format 5 November 2021 (not 5th November, 2021 or the 5th November), Monday-Sunday died not passed away disease – Crohn’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease divine (lower case) dollars and other foreign currencies – add a sterling equivalent in brackets after the first amount only dreamt (not dreamed) drop-in session
North London Hospice Style Guide
E
H
earth – capped up only in reference to space Eastern Europe eBay email lower case, no hyphen en-suite enamoured of end-of-life care hyphenated enquiry – not to be used interchangeably with inquiry; enquiry is the act of ‘asking for information’, while inquiry is reserved for meaning a formal investigation ever – avoid using ‘the largest ever’ or ‘fastest ever’ etc exclamation marks – we try to avoid using them; if something is funny, it should stand up on its own executive team lower case
hands-on support hand sanitiser (not sanitizer) head-to-head headteacher Health and Wellbeing Service or Centre healthcare assistant
F face-to-face fallout father of three (c.f. the father of three) Feedback Group 3,000ft (no space) film-maker firefighter The First Contact Centre Service five-star resort flyer (not flier) focused fractions should be hyphenated eg ‘More than two-thirds of staff say they love working for the hospice’ fundraiser
G game changer (two words) general election (lower case) Gift Aid (two words and capped up) girlie (not girly) goodie bag (not goody) government (lower case) Grade II listed building (no hyphens) Great Britain (the official collective name of England, Scotland and Wales and their associated island – does not include Northern Ireland; not interchangeable with UK)
heartbreaking (one word) hearing aid help to – always include the ‘to’, e.g. ‘he helped her to pack her bags’ helpline lower case High Holy Day(s) (capped) high-tech hip-hop home-made honours – people are created or appointed CBE/OBE/MBE etc; don’t say they received them or ‘got’ them. We tend not to use them in general articles because people get offended if we don’t mention theirs, so we prefer not to use any unless it’s a story about them being appointed of course House of Commons (or Commons) HRH – avoid please
I ice cream iconic – meaning relating to or of the nature of an icon; this is extremely overused so try to avoid if possible imam (lower case unless giving their full title) infamous – like notorious, this is sometimes misused, and it means well-known for something bad, e.g. the infamous war criminal Inpatient Unit capitalised inquiry – not to be used interchangeably with enquiry; inquiry is reserved for meaning a formal investigation while enquiry is an act of asking for information’
North London Hospice Style Guide
J
N
job titles should be lower case if general (eg doctor, nurse, social worker, physiotherapist, spiritual care facilitator, chaplain, counsellor and complementary therapist) but capped if the person is named judgment if it’s in a legal context
nerve-racking new – often redundant, otherwise why are you writing about it? New Year Honours list New Year’s Eve but new year NGO – spell out at first mention, nongovernmental organisation No 10 Downing Street no one North London community North London Hospice always capped up and not ‘The North London Hospice’; never use NLH externally; if writing ‘hospice’, use lower case. As an organisation, refer to North London Hospice in the singular north-west London (no caps) nosy (not nosey) notorious – like infamous, this is sometimes misused, and it means well-known for something bad, e.g. ‘LA is notorious for its smog’ numbers – write out one to nine and use numerals for 10 and above; numbers in their thousands have a comma eg £2,000; 24-hour care; 8am-8pm; 8.5-mile walk, £1million
K Kaddish – the Jewish mourner’s prayer Kiddush kids – avoid if possible; use children the King or King Charles or Charles III or King Charles III. His wife is the Queen or Queen Camilla the King’s Birthday Honours list The King’s Speech
L
last – if using in the context of, e.g. ‘in the last year’, use ‘in the past year’ life-limiting illness Light Up A Life like – means similar(ly) to so check usage: if using in sentences as in ‘with countries like China and Russia…’ use ‘with countries such as [meaning in the same category as] China and Russia…’ local – try to avoid, as everywhere is local to somewhere/someone long-term
M Marks and Spencer meet-and-greet event mental health – please use the term poor mental health or mental illness if that’s what you mean, as everyone has mental health million – £1 million. Abbreviate to ‘m’ on second mention only for money, not for people minuscule MORI poll mosque lower case unless you’re giving its full name, eg North London Central Mosque Mother’s Day Motor neurone disease (MND) Mr/Ms/Mrs etc – for news reports, use first name and surname on first mention, then surname (no honorifics) – except for features, when first names are used multi-professional team
O OK (not okay) Ofsted on-site on-the-job one in a hundred (not one-in-a-hundred) Out of Hours capped and unhyphenated if referring to the service out-of-hours cover lower case and hyphenated over if referring to a number, use ‘more than’ eg The team raised more than £1 million
North London Hospice Style Guide
P
S
Palliative Care Support Service (PCSS) Parkinson’s disease passer-by Patient and Family Support Service I’ve seen this referred to on the website also as Patient and Family Support team – which is correct? per cent (two words, don’t use %) person-centred care personal protective equipment (PPE) prior to use ‘before’ probe – avoid, if possible; use investigate etc police officers rather than policeman/policewoman pre-loved programme unless it’s a computer program
sq m (square metres) / sq ft Second World War (never World War Two) see – as in “the fundraising drive saw £2 million donated…” – please don’t use this type of construction as inanimate objects can’t see; rephrase to something like: “During the fundraising drive, £2 million was donated…” set to avoid; try ‘likely to’, ‘scheduled to’ or ‘poised to’ instead short-term care shoulder to shoulder (no hyphens) sixth form students Sixties (capped up) social services lower case specialist palliative care services specially-trained x-star hotel e.g. a five-star hotel start-up – in the context of a start-up business state-of-the-art – please avoid, as everything built now is described this way Succot not Sukkot succah not sukkah ‘suffering from’ – eg ‘suffering from cancer’ avoid in preference to ‘was/is living with cancer’/‘has been diagnosed with cancer’ synagogue – doesn’t need to be capped up unless you’re using the word in the name, e.g. North Western Reform Synagogue
Q Q&A the Queen (referring to Camilla) Qur’an not Koran quote marks – Double quote marks for direct speech – eg“I write like this,” he said – but single quotes when quoting from a book or using a famous saying, etc.
R rabbi (lower case unless using someone’s full name and title e.g. Rabbi David Mason said…) register office (not registry office) Room of Quiet royal family
T task force targeted telephone numbers should be in this format: 020 8446 2288 or 0800 368 7848 tenth time – use the 12-hour clock, eg 9am, 12.30pm try – the construction is “to try to” do something not “to try and” do something T-shirt
North London Hospice Style Guide
U
W
UK the United Kingdom, made up of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland (not interchangeable with Great Britain) U-turn (capped ‘u’) utilise prefer ‘use’ instead
websites use the URL without the http:// eg www.northlondonhospice.org and www.justgiving.com wellbeing one word whilst prefer ‘while’ whisky – this is the Scottish and most usual spelling, but if you’re talking about the American/Japanese/Irish version, it’s whiskey WHSmith (one word) wifi work-life balance
V vice-president; vice-presidential candidates
X X-ray
Y Z
North London Hospice Style Guide
North London Hospice Serving the boroughs of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey 47 Woodside Avenue, London N12 8TT T 0800 368 7848 (Freephone) E nlh@northlondonhospice.co.uk www.northlondonhospice.org
Charity No. 285300. Registered Address: 47 Woodside Avenue, London, N12 8TT. Company Reg No: 01654807