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The UEA editorial style guide is designed to support clear, consistent and accessible communication across all written content at UEA.
The guide will enable content writers and editors to confidently produce material which conveys UEA’s values in our shared voice. As a public body, our web content and any mobile apps must also meet accessibility requirements.
Alongside the editorial style guide, we have guidance on incorporating accessibility into our content, a digital style guide, a UEA glossary, tone of voice, and detailed guidance on how to use Storyblok (these guides are for UEA employees only. External suppliers can request access by emailing brand@uea.ac.uk).
For any editorial style queries that are not answered in the list below, please refer to the BBC style guide.
Skip to: A – B – C – D – H – I – N – Q – S – T
Abbreviations
Many established abbreviations derive from Latin. These are becoming less relevant and less understood by both audiences and assistive technologies. Avoid in all copy except in parentheses. For example:
Avoid ‘eg’. Use ‘for example’
Avoid ‘etc’. Preferably use a bulleted list to expand. Alternatively, use ‘and so on/and the rest’
Avoid ‘ie’. Use ‘that is’ or ‘meaning’.
Acronyms and initialisms
Use acronyms and initialisms only when needed. If the acronym or initialism is not widely known, use the full form of the subject in its first mention on your page followed by the abbreviated form. For example: 'Climatic Research Unit (CRU)'. Thereafter, use the abbreviation.
If the acronym or initialism is widely known, such as AIDS and GCSE, you do not need to spell the words out.
Acronyms and initialisms should be written in block capitals, for example, NASA and NICE not Nasa and Nice.
For a list of UEA-specific acronyms and initialisms, see the UEA glossary.
Alumni
When talking to students, parents and carers, or teachers, use graduate and graduates.
When talking to professional, research, civic or alumni audiences, use alum (singular) or alumni (plural). Do not use the gendered terms alumnus and alumnae.
Ampersands
Never use ‘&’ as an abbreviation for 'and' unless it's part of a branded proper noun, for example, Marks & Spencer.
Bold text
Use bold text instead of italics for emphasis, as most people find it easier to read.
Never use bold text for whole sentences or paragraphs, as it is difficult for many users to read.
Bullet points
Using bullet points is a great way to make information easy to read online. Follow the BBC's guidance.
Capital letters
Capitalise the first letter of each word for proper nouns such as job titles (eg Pro-Vice-Chancellor) and team names (eg Learning Enhancement team) or specific school titles (eg School of Economics).
Don't use capital letters for generic terms such as undergraduates, postgraduates, and economics.
Capitalise ‘University’ when referring to UEA, for example, 'the University excels in climate research,' but not when discussing a university in general, for example, 'a university allows young people to flourish.'
Capitalise ‘Open Day’ and ‘Clearing’ unless using the terms generically.
Examples:
'Book your Open Day now'
'Attending an open day is a great way to get a flavour of the university and your subject'.
Courses and qualifications
Capitalise 'Master’s' and use an apostrophe before the second ‘s,’ for example, 'John Smith holds a Master’s degree in Engineering'. When discussing the specifics of a course, use the course’s official name and capitalise the field of study, for example, 'The MSc Economics is a 12-month course,' not 'The MSc in economics is a 12-month course".
Capitalise a course when referring to the qualification itself but not if simply referring to a field, for example, 'Jane Smith holds a Master’s in Physics' and 'Jane is an expert in physics.'
A levels and T levels do not require a hyphen, unless used as a compound adjective: 'A-level results day'. The A or T is capitalised, but ‘levels’ is lower case.
Contractions
Simple positive contractions such as ‘we’re’, ‘it’s’ and ‘you’re’ can be used, but avoid negative contractions such as ‘shouldn’t’ and ‘don’t’. These can be hard for readers to understand.
Avoid conditional contractions such as ‘should’ve, would’ve, could’ve’.
Dates
Keep the format minimal so it's easy to read, for example, 3 December 2024 or Friday 9 June 2024.
Begin with the day or number (with no 'th', 'st', or 'rd' added). Do not use a comma, or the word 'of'. We would not use 'Friday the 9th of June', for example.
For spans of years, use an en dash and an abbreviated end date: '2024–25'.
Dashes
We don’t use em dashes (—).
We use en dashes (–) where appropriate.
Headings and subheadings
Use sentence case for all headings and subheadings (even if they appear in block capitals due to the heading style applied on web articles).
Remember to apply heading styles to subheadings – never just use bold text.
For further information around headings, refer to the Digital Style Guide.
Hyphens
Avoid hyphens where you can. If a compound word is well known, write it as one word (standalone, database, cyberattack). Check the dictionary to confirm.
Use a hyphen in compound words with double vowels such as co-operate and micro-organism.
Refer to BBC News Style Guide for full guidance on hyphenation.
Italic text
Italic text can be difficult for many users to read, so we only use them for titles of creative works, such as films and publications. For example: ‘The debate followed a performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.’
Don't use it for emphasis (we use bold text for that).
Never use italics for whole sentences, paragraphs or large blocks of text — it makes them difficult to read, and many users will skip them or leave the page.
Names, titles and jobs
When discussing a professor use their full title on the first mention and the abbreviated version thereafter. For example: ‘Professor Colin Cooper’s work on prostate cancer has revolutionised the way we think about the disease. Prof Cooper has...’.
Doctor should always be written as ‘Dr’, with no full stop.
When referring to people without titles, use their full name on first mention and, on subsequent mentions:
Their first name if you’re writing for students
Their surname if you’re talking to corporate, civic or research audiences
Titles such as Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor should be hyphenated.
Numbers
Write one to nine as words and 10 and above as numerals, for example, 'eight delegates spoke to an audience of 1,000'. The only exception is at the start of a sentence when numbers should always be spelled out in full, for example, ‘Fourteen students attended the council meeting’.
Use numerals (and symbols) for measurements and percentages such as time and money (eg 5cm, £20, 6 hours), unless they appear at the start of a sentence (eg ‘Seven percent of students didn't respond’).
Use commas to show thousands, for example, 1,500.
For millions, use either £100 million or £100m (no space between the number and the 'm').
Quotations
We use single quotation marks for most quoted text, as it's easier for most users to read, for example in a headline such as: New results 'best ever' for UEA.
For direct quotes attributed to a named person, use double quotation marks preceded by a colon, for example, 'Joe Bloggs said: “This is good news for UEA.”'
To start a sentence with a direct quote, use a comma before the closing quotation mark: '“This is the only way to do it,” the editor said.' To end a sentence with a direct quote, the full stop goes before the closing quotation mark.
For full guidance on the placement of punctuation in relation to quotation marks, please consult the BBC style guide.
Sensitivity
Consider the connotations of your language carefully. If there is a question over whether to use a certain word, use an alternative. You can also refer to the Oxfam Inclusive Language Guide.
Spelling
Use the Cambridge English Dictionary for spelling. We use British English. A common difference is ‘ise’ versus ‘ize’, for example, we use ‘visualise’ not ‘visualize’ .
Tables
For accessibility reasons, we don’t use tables in most instances such as simple lists of contact details.
We only use tables for information that cannot be presented in a more easily accessible, linear format, such as numerical data.
Many people find it more difficult to read text that’s been laid out in tables. Text surrounded by white space is easier to read online.
Times
We use the 12-hour clock with full stops separating hours and minutes, and am or pm at the end, for example, 5.30pm instead of 17:30.
For spans of time, use an en dash to connect the start and finish times, for example, 2–3pm and 11am–3pm.