Content style guide

Spell out abbreviations and acronyms the first time you use them on a page, unless they are commonly known like HMRC and DVLA.

List the address on one line when you are asking someone to do something.

For example: 'Send your completed form by writing to: Licensing Unit, Medway Council, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, Kent ME4 4TR'

If the address is to help people find a location, list it as it would be written on a letter.

Write in UK English and avoid American spellings. For example: use ‘organise’ instead of ‘organize’.

Use ‘and’ rather than '&', unless it’s part of a brand name such as ‘Marks & Spencer’.

Do not use ampersands in page titles and URLs as they cause accessibility issues.

Apostrophes are used for 2 main jobs, showing possession, and showing omission.

Possession

Apostrophes for possession show that a thing belongs to someone or something:

• the council's logo
• the students’ common room
• children’s shoes
• thomas’s fiancée
• the bus’s arrival.

There are 3 types of exception

A plural noun which already ends in ‘s’ takes only a following apostrophe.

The following are correct:

• my parents' wedding
• 2 weeks' work

We do not pronounce these words with 2 esses, and so we do not write 2 esses: nobody says ‘my parents’s wedding’.

Plurals that do not end in 's' take the ordinary form: see the case of ‘children's shoes’ above.

A name ending in ‘s’ takes only an apostrophe if the possessive form is not pronounced with an extra s

The following are correct::

• Socrates' philosophy
• Ulysses' companions

This is for the same reason: we do not say ‘Ulysses's companions’, and so we do not write the extra 's'.

Pronouns such as 'our' and 'it'

The following are correct:

• Which seats are ours?
• The bull lowered its head.

'Its', without an apostrophe, means 'belonging to it':

The bird spread its wings.

‘It's’ with an apostrophe means 'it is' or 'it has':

• ‘It’s a good idea’ works just like an ordinary contraction of ‘it is’.
• ‘It’s rained again’ works just like an ordinary contraction of ‘it has’.

Apostrophes for omission

Apostrophes for omission show where something, usually a letter, has been missed out.

For example, 'we’ll’ rather than ‘we will’.

On medway.gov.uk we avoid negative contractions such as can’t. See contractions below, for more on this.

Use (round brackets), not [square brackets]. Do not overuse brackets as they break the flow of a sentence.

If you need to use brackets try to:

• keep the bracketed phrase as short as possible
• put the brackets near to the end of your sentence.

You can use bullet points to make text easier to read. Use a bullet list when you have 3 or more items to list.

You should:

• use lower case at the start of each bullet
• use a numbered list for steps that are done in a specific order
• add a full stop to the last bullet point in the list
• not put ‘or’, and or a semi-colon after a bullet
• not use punctuation at the end of the bullet points
• not use more than two sentences in one bullet
• not use a full stop at the end of every bullet point.

If you have more than 10 items, you should split these out by starting a new list.

Lead-in lines and capitalisation

Ideally, you will start each list with a lead-in line, with a colon at the end.

However, there may be specific circumstances where this is not possible.

If you must use bullets without a lead-in line, then make sure the first letter of each bullet is capitalised. This is because you're making the bullets 'statement sentences'.

See our recycling centres page for an example of bullets without a lead-in line.

Call to action buttons for online services

You should write button text so that it works if the user says 'Would you like to?' or 'I would like to' in their head just before the button text. This is known as the 'WYLT-IWLT' test.

For example, this button text would work well as you can imagine a user saying 'I would like to' in their head:

Apply for an essential user parking permit

And this button text would not work so well:

Essential user parking permit

Consider the content

When putting a call to action button on a webpage, make sure essential information is also included to give the button context and set expectations.

Explain the service and who it’s for

You should identify:

• what the service does - this should align with the user goal
• why the service exists - for example, it’s a legislative requirement or a scheme or grant
• who the service is for and how it works – for example, residents or businesses
• any eligibility criteria if applicable.

Set expectations and explain what the user needs to provide

You should:

• indicate how long the ‘thing’ will take to complete
• identify what documentation or evidence is needed, so that the user can have them ready before starting. You should also be clear about what is mandatory
• tell the user if there is a cost and explain what it is, if it’s refundable and if there will be further charges in the process
• confirm the payment method.

What happens once they’ve done the ‘thing’

You should explain what happens after submission.

This could include:

• how, when and why we’ll contact them
• any further actions or steps, including what happens if the ‘thing’ is not done
• refund or appeal routes (if applicable)
• timescales.

We should explain where the user is in the process and what happens next including identification of any dependencies.

Give your call to action consideration

You should:

• make sure the button is available in the right location as it can be confusing to have business processes or services mixed in with services for residents
• check if and where the service and call to action button is appearing in a website search.

Call to action buttons for banners

When writing calls to action for promo banners, avoid 'read more'.

Do not use a capital letter unless it’s essential.

Capitalise proper nouns that relate to specific people, places or things.

This is less formal, and more friendly. Fewer capitals are also better for readability.

For example ‘Medway Council’ is capitalised but ‘the council’ is not.

Do not use block capitals to draw attention to words or text as it looks like you’re shouting at the user and makes it harder to read.

Capitalise the following:

• names of people, places and things, including buildings and brands: Medway Council, Wigmore Community Hub and A Better Medway
• titles of specific acts or bills: Licensing Act 2003 (but ‘the act’ or ‘the bill’ after this on the same web page)
• names of specific schemes or programmes: Right to Buy, Tell Us Once, Blue Badge, State Pension
• titles of exhibitions: ‘Explore and Draw - Art in Lockdown’
• header cells in tables: Yearly budget, Band H
• names of specific taxes or benefits: Council Tax, Housing Benefit, Winter Support Grant, Pension Credit, Council Tax Reduction
• brand names: iPad, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Teams
• book titles: cap up words that are in capitals in the book title, and cap down those that are not. For example: Romeo and Juliet
• art projects: cap up the names of art pieces and projects. For example, 'Medway Heroes' and 'A Reflection of Love'. However, do not cap up small words, such as 'of', 'the' and 'a' unless the title begins with such a word
• GOV.UK – all upper case.

Do not capitalise:

• council
• government
• policy themes like climate change
• coronavirus.

Use colons to introduce lists, explanations, quotations.

Try to avoid semi-colons.

Never use a colon followed by a dash ‘:-‘

You should:

• avoid asking for a title unless it’s legally required
• use ‘first name’ not ‘Christian name’ or ‘forename’
• use ‘last name’ not ‘family name’ or ‘surname’
• use ‘phone’ or ‘mobile’ not ‘telephone’, ‘home phone’ or ‘work phone’
• ensure 'email' is one word and does not have a space or a dash
• use a sentence to explain why an email address is needed and how it will be used so the reader knows it will not be shared and they will not be sent junk emails.

Use simple contractions such as ‘we’ll’ instead of ‘we will' to make the sentence flow better.

Avoid:

• complex contractions ending in ‘ve’ as these are hard to read
• negative contractions like ‘can’t’ or ‘don’t’ as many users misread them as the opposite of what they say

For example:

• use 'should have', not ‘should’ve’
• 'you've' could be OK depending on the context - read the sentence out loud to see if it sounds awkward
• 'you'll' could be OK, again check by reading out loud
• use 'are not', not 'aren't'

Use ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19)’ in the page heading or title.

Use ‘Coronavirus (COVID-19)’ in the text at first mention, then ‘COVID-19’ after that.

Do not use ‘Covid-19’ with only the first letter capitalised or ‘covid-19’ lowercase.

For more guidance see GOV.UK's style guide.

Dates should be written DD MONTH YYYY. For example, 25 December 2021.

Numbers should not end in ‘st’, ‘nd’, ‘rd’, ‘th’ unless they are referencing centuries, anniversaries or positions: 18th century.

Use upper case for months: January, February.

When space is an issue - in tables or publication titles, for example - you can use truncated months: Jan, Feb

Use ‘to’ in date ranges - not hyphens. For example:

• tax year 2011 to 2012
• academic year 2020 to 2021
• Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (put different days on a new line, do not separate with a comma)
• 10 November to 21 December 2021

Do not use quarter for dates, use the months. For example, ‘department expenses, January to March 2021’.

When referring to today (as in a news article) include the date: ‘The Leader announced today (14 June 2021) that…’

Write the email address out in full as hyperlinks without any other words.

For example, ‘Email webeditor@medway.gov.uk' instead of ‘Email webeditor’.

When talking about a legal requirement use ‘must’ instead of ‘obligated to’ or ‘shall’.

When talking about a legal requirement that's part of a process that will not have criminal consequences use ‘need to’.

For call to action buttons see the section on 'Calls to action and call to action buttons'.

Writing a link

When writing a link, make it descriptive and avoid generic terms like ‘click here’ or ‘read more’. These terms do not make sense if taken out of context.

They’re also not accessible for people using screen readers.

Avoid URLs as link text as they are not descriptive enough when read out of context.

Do not overuse links

Links cause distractions and make it harder to focus on the text the user is reading.

Only link to other pages on our website or to other sites if it's necessary for a user to complete their task.

Links on web pages must open in the same browser tab

See the NN Group website for a discussion of why we open links in the same browser tab.

You should:

• use the pound symbol
• only use decimal points if the fee includes pence: use ‘£5’ instead of ‘£5.00’
• spell out amounts above one million for example use ‘£10 million’ not ’10,000,000’.

Do not shorten the word ‘million’ to ‘m’.

To show a fee that does not include VAT use:

£100 (plus VAT)

However, the best solution is to quote a fee that includes VAT.

Use numerals instead of words for numbers

Write all numbers in numerals, including 2 to 9.

Following this guidance helps people with:

• time pressures: numerals and specific data are quicker to scan read
• visual impairments: with a limited field of visual focus, numerals may stand out more
• cognitive impairments: numerals carry less cognitive load.

Use ‘one’ for the number 1, unless you’re talking about a step, a point in a list or another situation where using the numeral makes more sense.

For example: ‘in point 1 of the road gritting policy’.

Another example:

‘You’ll be shown 14 clips that feature everyday road scenes.

There will be:

• 1 developing hazard in 13 clips
• 2 developing hazards in the other clip’.

In tables, use numerals throughout. This includes the number 1.

Exceptions

Where the number is part of a common expression like ‘one or two of them’ where numerals would look strange.

Spell out a number where it begins a sentence. For example: 'Ten new employees started on Monday, and 12 start next week'.

Sometimes it feels weird to use the numeral. If it's an expression that typically uses spelled-out numbers, leave them that way. For example:

• If you’re paying Council Tax to Medway for the first time, …
• Third-party applications are accessible.

If a number starts a sentence, write it out in full (Thirty-four, for example) except where it starts a title or subheading.

Use %

Use a percentage sign for percentages. For example, use 50%, not ‘per cent’.

Fractions

Spell out fractions. For example, ‘a half’ instead of ‘½‘.

Number ranges

Use ‘to’ for number and address ranges, not a hyphen:

• use ‘500 to 900’ and not ‘500-900’.
• use ‘49 to 53 Best Street', not '49-53 Best Street'. 

Big numbers

Numbers over 3 digits get commas:

• 999
• 1,000
• 150,000
• 999,999

Thereafter use million and billion. For example, £1 million not 1,000,000.

View research on how people read numbers on screens, on the Nielsen Norman Group site.

Use two spaces to separate numbers so they’re easier to read: use 01634 333 333 instead of 01634333333.

For direct speech use double quotation marks (“”).

Use single quotation marks (‘’) to indicate an unusual term.

For ambiguous quotations use square brackets ([...]) to show context. For example, rather than “They helped me...”, use “[My foster carer] helped me...”. Make sure to clarify this change first.

Normal content standards apply when writing quotations. For example, change contractions and amend any spelling errors where necessary.

You should not, however, change any of the original words in the quotation. This includes any non-plain English words.

We can create short URLs, also known as friendly URLs, for webpages on the Medway Council website.

We will not create short URLs for websites that redirect to:

• sites we do not own
• domains that are not public sector websites
• sites that advertise commercial products or services.

Text size must remain consistent across Medway.gov.uk and our online forms. Sizes include:

• H1 (title size)
• H2 (large sub-heading size)
• H3 and H4 (smaller sub-heading sizes)
• Normal (body text size).

Text styles must also remain consistent across the website and our online forms. This means that:

• bold should be avoided as using bold too much will cause it to lose its effect
• italics should be avoided as they make text difficult to read
• underlining should never be used as underlined text can be mistaken for a link
• coloured text should never be used as poor colour contrast can make the content inaccessible.

You should use:

• the 12-hour clock: 5:30pm (not 17:30)
• midnight (not 00:00 or 12am)
• midday (not 12 noon, noon or 12pm)

Do not use hyphens in time ranges. For example: use 10am to 11.30am, not 10am-11am.

People using www.medway.gov.uk and our online forms are often looking to complete a specific task.

They might use search engines, such as Google or Bing, or the website’s internal search or menu options to find the information they want. This means that titles and sub-headings need to be specific, clear and written in the same language as our audience.

If titles and sub-headings are unclear, then our audience will not be able to find what they need or complete a task.

When writing titles and sub-headings make sure:

• they work in isolation so people know what the content will cover
• they use the same vocabulary as your audience
• they are concise (ideally 65 characters or less)
• that keywords are front loaded
• they are active. For example: 'Apply for a licence' not 'how to apply for a licence' or 'Report an illegally parked vehicle' rather than 'Illegally parked vehicles'. Users will better understand the specific task they’re completing
• you do not use capitals for every word. For example: use 'Report an abandoned vehicle' not 'Report An Abandoned Vehicle'.

Use these preferred spellings:

• adviser, not advisor. But advisory
• day-to-day
• email, not e-mail
• one-to-one
• ongoing, not on-going
• racquet, not racket
• register office (generic - lower case) or Medway Register Office (proper noun), not registry office
• reapply
• re-open and re-opening
• wellbeing, not well-being

GOV.UK has inclusive language guidelines you should follow if you're writing about disability.

Our style guide covers common questions on style, spelling and grammar.

Cannot find what you’re looking for? Then check out GOV.UK's style guide next.

For health style guidance visit the NHS style guide.

For statistics style guidance visit the ONS (Office for National Statistics) style guide.