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Editorial Style and Writing Guidelines December 2007



Contents Introduction

2



Use of dates

7



Why these guidelines?

2



Timeliness

8



Communication standards

2



Clutter

8



Editorial principles

2



Proofreading

8



Examples of plain English

8

Writing for the web

4



What makes a good web page?

4

NHS Connecting for Health house style 10



What are you publishing?

4



Punctuation



What are you going to say?

4



Acronyms and abbreviations 10



How will you present and structure information?

4



Capitals 11



Paragraphs 12



Bullet points 12



Justification of text 12



Dates 12



Times 13



Numbers, ages and decades 13



Telephone numbers 13



Names 13



Addresses 14



Email signature 14



Captions 15



References 15



British English 15



Formatting text 16



- Text 16



- Using figures 17



- Online terms and procedures 18

Writing for a printed publication

5



What makes a good publication?

5



What are you publising and why?

5



What are you going to say?

5



How will you present and structure the information?

5

Writing tips

6



Write for your audience

6



Key message

6



Telling the story

6



Language

6



Be explicit and clear

6



Be accurate

7



Be consistent

7



Structure

7



Break up the text

7



Make text easy to search

7

9



Introduction This document forms part of a suite of communications guidance and tools which also includes the Visual Identity, Case Study Guidelines, Production Procedures, Informability Guidelines (accessibility and translation) and downloadable logos. These guides are available to download from www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/resources/commsguides

For information about plain English training or obtaining a Crystal Mark to indicate that your communications are written in plain English, please contact corporate communications at: [email protected]

Why these guidelines?

It is important to have standards for communication because NHS CFH wishes to be perceived as:

It is important that anyone communicating about NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH) or the National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS (NPfIT) is able to write clearly, concisely and in a way which is suitable for the audience. This simple guide sets out our house style and gives advice on how to write content for printed or online publications.

Communication standards

• a modern, focused organisation with a clear direction • objective and honest in the information we supply • responsive to the needs of NHS staff, the public, patients and other key stakeholders for information about NHS Connecting for Health and the National Programme

As NHS Connecting for Health is an agency of the Department of Health (DH), these guidelines are based on the DH editorial style and writing guide.

• efficient and able to provide the latest information quickly

It is recommended that all staff who write for external audiences read and apply these guidelines. Plain English training is also recommended.

• able to explain complicated or technical information in a way

NHS Connecting for Health has corporate membership of the Plain English Campaign (www.plainenglish.co.uk). We are keen to ensure that all communications materials are written in plain English. We aim to achieve the Plain English Campaign Crystal Mark on all patient facing materials and top level corporate documents. See page 8 for examples of plain English phrases.

• dedicated to providing accessible information

which is easy to understand.

Editorial principles Our editorial principles help us to produce written material that is consistent in language, style and presentation. We have an editorial responsibility to: • be clear, open and honest



• write in plain, straightforward English that is easy to understand • be up to date, accurate and consistent • produce communications materials which meet the needs of our target audience • produce communications materials which are accessible to a wide audience • strive to be inclusive and not discriminate against any individual or group of people • strive to avoid promoting stereotypes or using language commonly considered offensive • conform to the NHS Connecting for Health house style.



Writing for the web It takes much longer to read text on screen than on paper. Readers tend to scan a web page, looking for key words wherever they appear, rather than reading the page from start to finish, left to right.

What makes a good web page? • Short, sharp sentences • main points and latest information first • a clear, concise story • about half the information of a paper publication • consistent style and clear structure to guide the reader – not all readers will enter through the homepage, so ensure there are clear links to other parts of the site • good images and meaningful titles, subheadings and links • an accessible and comprehensive overview of a subject.

What are you going to say? • Identify the essential information to include • write a minimum of 150 words for each web page • focus on your key facts and points • explain how these affect your audience • explain how the information fits into the priorities or work of NHS Connecting for Health and/or the National Programme • identify the page, link and subheading titles for your web page and write the link summaries • your words should set in context attached documents, images, or links to other website pages.

How will you present and structure the information? • Think about how you will highlight key information

What are you publishing? • Be clear about the purpose of your web pages • identify who your target audience is and what you want to tell them • decide what information your readers will find most useful.

• simplify complex information or break it up using bullet points, subheadings, images, attachments or links • think about where your images, links and attachments will be positioned on the page and how the page structure will help your readers find information.



Writing for a printed publication Our printed publications are a key way to share information about our work and to support our colleagues in SHAs and trusts to communicate about the National Programme for IT. All current printed publications are also published on our website as PDFs for download.

What makes a good publication? • A clear introduction, executive summary and chapters or sections with meaningful titles • a structure that makes it easy for readers to find information • clear, simple language that is easy to understand • useful subheadings, quotes and references to other information • clear branding and consistent style • good use of images, charts, white space and colour as appropriate • clearly laid out pages.

What are you publishing and why? • Be clear about the purpose of your publication • identify who your target audience is and what you want to tell them • do you need them to take some action? If so, indicate how they can take that action eg call this number, fill in this form, contact… • think about the expectations of your audience, eg a

professional audience may have different expectations to a member of the public.

What are you going to say? • Identify the essential information that must be included in the document • create meaningful chapter, section and story titles and identify what they will be about • focus on the key information that must be covered in each chapter, section and story • explain the key issues in simple language • explain how the key issues might affect your audience.

How will you present and structure the information? • Think about how you will highlight key information • simplify complex information by breaking it up using bullet points, subheadings, images, charts, tables, white space and colour as appropriate • proofread and spell check the document • apply the writing tips and house style throughout • follow the NHS CFH visual identity guidelines • if in doubt check with corporate communications ([email protected]).



Writing tips Write for your audience

Where – is it happening?

Think about who you are writing for, what they need to know and how you express that. What will be meaningful to them? Provide, clear, useful information. A clinician is used to different language than a patient.

Make sure you use correct names and check them.

Key message Is there one key point that you wish to convey? If so, include it as soon as possible in the piece. It may be useful to repeat this key point during the piece and/or in the conclusion (but avoid excessive repetition).

Telling the story Who – is involved? Make sure you explain the relationships, who is doing what and why. Ensure you have the correct spellings of names and job titles. What – is happening? Give a brief overview. Be succinct. Why – is it happening? Focus on the benefits as well as explaining the reasons.

When – is it happening? Think about what you are writing. If it is newsy, use a precise date. If it is likely to have a shelf life, use the month or year. How – is it happening? Again, be succinct and give a brief overview highlighting key points of interest – things that have been done for the first time, or differently to how they were done before.

Language Use plain English. Less is more, so use short, sharp sentences and simple language to get your message across. Can you use simpler, more commonly used words? Avoid acronyms if possible, if not, write them in full the first time. Do not use jargon or buzzwords unless they are in common use by your audience.

Be explicit and clear Would someone who had never read about the subject before understand what you have written? Have you put the information in context? If you are using a term like ‘we’ will the reader know to whom you are referring?



Be accurate Check all your facts: • who, what, where, when, why, how? • names of people, programmes, systems, trusts, job titles • acronyms – if you must use them, use the correct ones (refer to the NHS CFH Glossary of Terms). Always spell check your writing.

Be consistent Be consistent in the language you use, for example when describing a particular programme or system. Use consistent punctuation which follows house style.

Structure Guide your reader by presenting information in a logical structure which makes sense and is easy to follow. Any short story or news item should have the main points of the story in the first paragraph. Subsequent paragraphs then provide more explanation. Imagine the story being cut by an editor from the finish to the start – the most important information should be at the beginning, the least important information should be at the end. For longer, feature articles or case studies it is particularly important to engage the audience with an interesting opening

sentence and to introduce new ideas paragraph by paragraph. For more information on writing case studies, download the case study guidelines from: www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk/resources/commsguides.

Break up the text Long sentences and large blocks of text are not good style. Use short sentences and short paragraphs. Use bullet points to break up what might have been a long sentence. Use subheadings if appropriate.

Make text easy to search Titles and subheadings make printed text easier to search. Online, use key words (which will be identified by search engines) in the first few lines of the page. Also make sure titles, subheadings and links are descriptive and meaningful.

Use of dates Readers should be clear about the timing of key activities or deliverables. This is particularly important in news stories or reports. Undated information is can be misleading so state specific months and years. Do not use general terms such as ‘last year’ or ‘latest’. When producing articles or case studies which may have a long shelf life, it is acceptable to use the more general term ‘recently’, rather than using specific dates.



Timeliness Information on websites should be kept up to date, particularly sections with titles such as ‘Latest news’, ‘Recent news’, ‘Latest information’. If you do not keep these sections up to date, visitors will stop reading the pages and may miss key information when it is added.

Clutter Too much punctuation can clutter up text and make it difficult for visually impaired people to read. Using short sentences reduces clutter. Do not overuse brackets, dashes and semicolons.

Proofreading All work should be proofread as well as spell checked. Proofreaders should check grammar and be sure they can understand what you have written. When you are very familiar with a piece of written work, it can be easy for your eyes to miss a mistake. Rely on a fresh set of eyes when proofreading – preferably someone with no or little knowledge of the subject. As part of the proofreading process, read the information aloud. This can help highlight unnecessary words and unclear sentence structure.

Examples of plain English Not plain English

Plain English

amend

change

commence

start or begin

comply

meet or follow

conduct

carry out

consequently

leading to or following on

financing

paying

funding

paying for

legislative or legislation

law making or law

mandatory

required or necessary

participants

members, users or those taking part

specified

given, particular or detailed

subsequently

afterwards or next

utilise

use



NHS Connecting for Health house style Our house style helps us to present effective written communications that are easy to read and consistent in style. Our house style should be used for all written communications with variations for printed or online content.

Punctuation Full stops

Use one space after a full stop, both online and for printed documents.

Commas

Use one space after a comma, except when writing out numbers, eg 12,500.

Brackets

Use brackets for cross references, eg this topic is explored in more detail later in this report (see chapter 3). In the book Small Island (Levy, A, 2004).

Quotation marks Only use double quotation marks when quoting speech. Document titles do not need quotation marks. When writing several paragraphs of quoted speech, an open quotation mark should appear at the beginning of each paragraph. Only one closed quotation mark should appear, at the end of the quote after the full stop. Hyphens (-)

Hyphens are used to link compound words, eg walk-in, co-ordination. Only use hyphens online when writing a short date range, eg 24-26 August.

Use brackets for acronyms or abbreviations after they have been mentioned for the first time, eg NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS).

Obliques (/)

Do not use obliques within text, eg ‘from/to’ should be written ‘from and to’. Obliques should be used for dates within tables, eg 16/09/2007.

Ampersands (&) Do not use ‘&’ except in abbreviations where they are universally recognised, such as A&E or R&D. Ellipses ( …)

Do not use ellipses except in a very conversational style.

10

Acronyms and abbreviations

NHS CFH names, acronyms and abbreviations

The full name must be spelled out first before the acronym or abbreviation is used. The first time you use the name or term in full, follow it with the acronym or abbreviation in brackets, eg British Medical Association (BMA)

NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CFH)

Do not put full stops in acronyms or abbreviations, eg NHS not N.H.S. Universally accepted acronyms and abbreviations, such as NHS and A&E, do not have to be written in full first. Acronyms and abbreviations should only be used to refer to organisations, areas of the health and social care system and medical conditions. Never use an acronym or abbreviation to refer to a job title, the title of a publication or the name of a policy. Do not use an apostrophe for pluralised acronyms or abbreviations, eg PCTs not PCT’s. If in doubt, spell it out, eg "trusts" has no apostrophe as it is a simple plural. Possessive acronyms should have an apostrophe, eg NHS CFH’s exhibition stand at the event. Common abbreviations such as, ie, eg and etc should be written without full stops. Use them correctly – eg (for example), ie (that is), etc (and so on). When giving examples, put a comma before eg.

• NHS Connecting for Health should not be referred to as ‘Connecting for Health’ because there are two other organisations with this name • always ensure NHS is in front of Connecting for Health • the correct abbreviation is NHS CFH (all capitals). Do not use NHS CfH, CFH, C4H or CfH • NHS Connecting for Health is an agency of the Department of Health and so may also be referred to as ‘the agency’. National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS (NPfIT) • The National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS may be referred to as the National Programme, or the Programme after the full name has been given • the correct abbreviation is NPfIT, but it is preferable to use National Programme or Programme rather than the acronym. NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS) • The NHS Care Records Service should not be referred to as the National Care Records Service, the NHS Clinical Records Service,

11

the National Clinical Records Service, the NHS Care Record Service or the Care Record Service • the correct abbreviation is NHS CRS. Do not use NCRS or CRS. Choose and Book

• the correct abbreviation for the National Network for the NHS is N3. NHSmail

• Choose and Book should always be written in full

• The NHS email and directory service is always referred to as NHSmail, not NHS Mail.

• do not use any abbreviations or acronyms, such as Choose & Book or CaB

Capitals

• Choose and Book should be described as the Electronic Referral Service rather than the Electronic Booking Service. The Electronic Referral Service may be abbreviated to ERS.

Keep capital letters to a minimum. Use them at the beginning of a sentence, page title, page heading, initial letters of an official document title, or the name of a place, person or organisation.

Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions (ETP)

Do not use capital letters to make something sound more official or important - this does not work. Unnecessary overuse of capital letters dilutes the value of capitals where they are needed.

• The Electronic Transmission of Prescriptions programme should not be referred to as the Electronic Transfer of Prescriptions, or be confused with the Electronic Prescription Service • the correct abbreviation is ETP. Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) • The Electronic Prescription Service is being delivered by the ETP programme. It should not be referred to as the Electronic Prescriptions Service National Network for the NHS (N3) • The National Network for the NHS should not be referred to as the New National Network

Specific job titles should be capitalised, eg Programme Manager Fred Bloggs. Generic job titles should not be capitalised, eg the programme managers. Write general terms such as trust, primary care trust or strategic health authority in lower case. Use capitals for a specific primary care trust or health authority, eg South Central Strategic Health Authority, Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust.

12

Use a capital when referring to the Government, eg the Government announced yesterday. Lower case should be used when pluralised, eg governments from around the world. Legislation, bills and acts should be capitalised, eg the Mental Capacity Act. White papers and green papers should be written in lower case unless referring to a specific white paper, when the first letter in each word should be capitalised, eg The Choosing Health White Paper. Regions should be written in lower case, eg north west London, southern England. Online: capitals can seem LOUD and AGGRESSIVE. Do not use them.

Paragraphs Insert one line space between paragraphs.

Bullet points Use standard round bullet points. Points that follow a colon should start in lower case as should each subsequent point. Put a full stop at the end of the last point.

The first point that follows a full stop at the end of a sentence or paragraph should start with a capital letter. Subsequent points should start in lower case with a full stop at the end of the last point. Start a point with a capital letter after a question mark. Sub bullet points should be further indented.

Justification of text Always left justify the text in your document. Never use full justification as this makes documents hard to read.

Dates Dates are structured 1 December 2007. Do not use th, st, rd or nd. Do not use the form December 1 2007. Do not use 'the 1 (or 1st) of December'. Use ‘from’ and ‘to’ or ‘between’ to describe date ranges, eg from July to November 2006 or between 1968 and 1988, except when referring to short date ranges such as 24-26 August. An oblique should be used for dates within tables, eg 16/09/2007.

13

Times Write times using numbers. Put a full stop between the hour and minutes and then either am or pm with a space after the numbers, eg 12.30pm. Do not use the 24 hour clock, eg 14.00 or write the time out in

Decades can be abbreviated, eg the 60s, the 90s but not ‘60s or ‘90s.

Telephone numbers Telephone numbers are presented in the following way:

full, eg two o’clock.

0113 XXX XXXX

Use ‘from’, ‘to’ and ‘between’ when presenting time spans, eg from 12.30 am to 1.45 pm.

020 7XXX XXXX

Numbers, ages and decades

07956 XXX XXX

Numbers one to nine should be written in full. From 10 onwards, digits should be used, except at the beginning of a sentence when the number should be written in full, eg Three hundred people attended the event.

0800 XXX XXX

When stating someone’s age alongside their name it should be written as: Seventy year old John Smith or John Smith, 70 years old or John Smith, in his 70s. Decades should be written in full, eg seventies, or in numerals followed by an ‘s’, eg 1970s. Do not use an apostrophe between the digits and the ‘s’ unless it is the possessive form of decades, eg 70’s style.

020 8XXX XXXX

Names A person’s name should be written in full with the forename first and surname second, eg John Smith, not Smith, J. Bibliographic references are an exception to this. A person’s job title may be written before their name, eg Programme Manager Fred Bloggs explained to the team.

14

Addresses

Email signature

Use the following as an example of how to present a full address with contact details:

Use the following as an example of how to present an email signature:

Fred Bloggs Programme Manager Electronic Prescription Service NHS Connecting for Health Vantage 40 Aire Street Leeds LS1 4HT

Fred Bloggs Programme Manager

Tel

0113 XXX XXXX

Mob 07956 XXX XXX Email [email protected]

Electronic Prescription Service NHS Connecting for Health Tel 0113 XXX XXXX Mob 07956 XXX XXX Email [email protected] Web www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk

15

Captions

Departmental circulars

Photographs, graphics or images should have a caption which explains their purpose or what they illustrate.

Department. Title. Place of publication. Year. Type of circular: reference code and edition number.

References

eg Department of Health. Screening breast cancer. London. 2006. Health service circular:HSC 98

We follow DH guidance (the Vancouver system) for referencing publications and circulars.

Referencing within a sentence

The Vancouver system has a set order for referencing different kinds of publications. The same order applies to footnotes:

Use brackets in a sentence when referencing a chapter or pages in the same publication, eg as mentioned earlier in this chapter (p24-26) NHS CFH will be introducing…

Publications with a personal author

Use brackets when referring to a specific website in a sentence, eg for the latest news about the National Programme visit the NHS CFH website (www.connectingforhealth.nhs.uk).

Author(s) name. Publication title. Publisher. Year of publication. Edition number. Page numbers. eg Smith.J, Bloggs.F. The NHS in the 21st Century. Healthcare Publishing Ltd. 2002. 1. P89-95 Corporate publications

Web links should be 'clickable' and the actual link text should comprise a meaningful phrase which clearly indicates the destination of the link, as illustrated above.

Directorate of organisation, publication title, publisher. Year of publication. Edition number. Page numbers.

British English

eg Content Delivery Team. Writing for the DH website. Department of Health. 2006. 2. P22-23

Always use British English rather than American English. Examples of this include: Spell words such as generalise, emphasise, organisation and visualisation with an ‘s’ not a ‘z’. Write ‘programme’ not ‘program’, ‘centre’ not ‘center’ and ‘colour’ not ‘color’.

16

Formatting text Text Font

Frutiger 12 point is NHS CFH’s standard font and size for print publications. If this is not available, Arial 12 point may be used.

Bold

Print: bold may be used for headlines and subheadings. Online: creates visual clutter and lessens the impact of other information.

Underlining

Print: underlining may be used for titles and subheadings. Online: do not underline content as it makes text look like a link.

Italics

Print: italics should be used when referring to publication titles. Do not use italics to emphasise a point. Online: never use italics. They are hard to read on screen, especially for those with visual impairments.

17

Using figures Numbers

Numbers from one to nine should be written in full. Numbers from 10 upwards should be written in numerals. An exception should be made when using a mixture of numbers lower and higher than 10 when each number should be written as a numeral, eg between 8 and 12 people were involved in the incident. Any number at the beginning of a sentence should be written in full, eg Two thousand people attended the opening ceremony. Commas should be inserted into figures over 999, eg 1,500. Millions and billions above 10 should be presented as follows: 14 million, 10 billion. Millions and billions below 10 should be written as follows: three million, six billion. Millions and billions should not be presented as figures, eg 1,000,000 or abbreviated to ‘m’ or ‘bn’.

Fractions and decimals

Decimals should be used instead of fractions, except when the fraction is spelt out, eg three quarters, one half. Decimals and numbers written as fractions should not be mixed together.

Money

Always use figures when writing about currency, eg £5 not five pounds. Money less than £1 should be written in pence, eg 50 pence not 50p. Always use a figure without a space after the pound sign, eg £14,000.

Per cent

Always use per cent rather than percent or the % symbol, except in tables or graphs when the % symbol can be used.

18

Online terms and procedures Links

All links on the NHS CFH website must be active.

Tables and boxes

For accessibility reasons, tables and boxes should only contain numerical data and statistical information. They should not be used to highlight other information or key sections of text, or to demonstrate flow charts, or to list the names of individuals within committees, teams or organisations.

File sizes

Megabytes should be abbreviated to Mb, not MB, eg 200 Mb.

PDF

PDF is the abbreviation for portable document format and should always be written in upper case (no full stops).

The phrase ‘click here’ should never be used. Disability software for screen readers will read every ‘click here’ without telling the user what it links to. Be selective about links to other NHS CFH web pages and to external websites. Creating unnecessary links will confuse and irritate users. Attachments

Only publish documents as PDFs as this format is generally available to most users.

Alternative image text (alt tags)

All web images must have alt text as an alternative to the image in case it cannot be seen by the user. Explanations should be clear and direct. Explanations should convey the information shown in the image, eg: radiologist using new Picture Archiving and Communications System. If an image contains text, this must be replicated in full.