House style for dates is day month year, e.g. 30 November 2005. (Do not use ‘st’ , ‘t h’ or ‘rd’)
Use the 24-hour clock with the hour and minutes separated by a full point, e.g. 12.00 not 12:00.
Abbreviations
No full point following abbreviations where the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the full word, e.g. St Mary’s.
Full point to follow abbreviation where the last letter of the abbreviation is not the same as the last letter of the full word, e.g. Hon. Secretary.
No full points in abbreviated postnominal qualifications, e.g. PHD
Kilometres, not km (where space permits), etc.
Italics
Foreign words and phrases, including Latin, where not normally part of the English language should be italicised e.g. en suite, in vitro, etc.
Titles of publications and news outlets (e.g. Reuters) to be italicised: include "The" where it is part of the title of the publication.
Names of projects and initiatives, websites, eating places and named sports facilties, e.g. Ethos, FEC.
Telephone numbers
House style is +44 (0)20 7594 XXXX or 020 7594 XXXX
Use the international dial code when appropriate, remember we have an international audience online.
Avoid use of extensions in internal communications, bear in mind audiences at other campuses or using mobile phones.
Disabilities
Avoid phrases such as “crippled by…”, “suffering from…”, “afflicted with…”: use “person who has…/person with…” in preference.
“Person with a disability” is preferable to “disabled person”, which implies that a person with a disability is no longer a person like everyone else.
Don’t label people by their medical condition, e.g. “the disabled” or “a diabetic”: use “people who are disabled or “person with diabetes” in preference.
Punctuation for typesetters
Hyphens and dashes
Use a simple hyphen to break words, to link numbers and words, e.g. 38-week.
Use an em dash (no space either side) to break clauses in sentence, e.g. “ he has been a member of staff – in the loosest sense of the word – for three years”.
Use an en dash between times, dates, etc., e.g. 2005–04
Apostrophes/quotation and other punctuation
Use ‘smart’ quotes when importing text into InDesign/Quark/MS Publisher DTP programs.
Use single quotation marks in text for unusual terminology.
Use double quotation marks for reported speech.
Use a single space after a full point. Double spacing after a full point is only for correspondence.
Don’t underline text in publications to be printed by suppliers, use italic or bold for emphasis.
Punctuation for web
When using Word to write web text: switch off ‘smart’ quotes in the AutoFormat/Options menu. (Reason: when text goes on web in the CMS, smart quotes are automatically removed and make us look illiterate.)
Use a single space after a full point. Double spacing after a full point is only for correspondence.
