Writing style guide

We want to make sure that all the content on our sites is clear, easy to understand and consistent. We recognise however that not everyone writes in the same way or uses the same terminology. That's why we've come up with a summary of some of the most common terms and how we refer to them online. All content added to the website should adhere to this style guide. 

You can also refer to the Government Digital Service style guide or The Guardian and Observer style guide for best practice on digital communications. 

Abbreviations and acronyms 

Acronyms that shorten company, institution or initiative names are useful in longer texts but can be confusing for users unfamiliar with service-specific terminology without proper explanation.  

If you intend to use an abbreviation within a text, you must give the full title at first use, with the abbreviation in brackets directly after it, in capital letters with no stops. For example, 'membership of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS)' 

There are many common acronyms that are familiar enough to a general audience not to require the full title, including BBC, EU, ITV, MP, NHS, UK. If you are unsure, then use the full title. 

Do not use GC or GMBC for Gateshead Council / Gateshead Metropolitan Borough Council. 

There are some abbreviations that we never use. This is because they do not make sense when read by a screen reader. Instead we should always write these in full: 

• for example instead of e.g. 
• that is instead of i.e. 
• and so on instead of etc. 

Addresses 

If adding the whole of an address to a field, do so without punctuation, for example: 

Gateshead Council 
Regent Street 
Gateshead  
NE8 1HH 

Ampersand (&)  

Avoid using ampersands. Use 'and' instead. Restrict '&' to brand names that include an ampersand in their official title, such as Marks & Spencer or, Holland & Barrett.  

@ symbol 

The symbol @ should never be substituted for the word 'at' except in email addresses. 

Bold

We use a structured sequence of header sizes to distinguish sections and subsections on our webpages. Bold text that is not a header can confuse this structure. Do not use bold to emphasise areas of text. 

To emphasise words or phrases, you can: 

• front-load sentences 
• use headers
• use lists

Brackets

If the sentence is logically and grammatically complete without the information contained within the parentheses (round brackets), the punctuation stays outside the brackets. (A complete sentence that stands alone in parentheses starts with a capital letter and ends with a stop.)

Do not use round brackets to refer to something that could either be singular or plural, like 'Check which document(s) you need to send in with your application.'

Always use the plural instead, as this will cover each possibility: 'Check which documents you need to send in with your application.'

Bulleted lists 

Bulleted lists are great to help break up content and make it more readable. If you're using lists, make sure that they:  

• use an introductory line 
• use lower case at the start of each point 
• have only one sentence per bullet point — they should not be paragraphs pretending to be lists 
• don't have a full stop at the end of any bullet point - even the last one 
• make sense running on from the lead-in line. This includes using consistent tenses and verb forms throughout. For example

The electoral register can be used for limited purposes specified in law such as:

• detecting crime (for example, fraud)
• calling people for jury service
• checking credit applications

Capital letters  

Capital letters can confuse people, so avoid overusing them. When writing online, block capitals indicate shouting and are difficult to read. We avoid using them at all costs. Never use capital letters for emphasis. 

Capital letters should also be used sparingly in page titles. 

Use sentence case: Gateshead man gets prison sentence for illegal waste business  

Do not capitalise all words in the title:  Gateshead Man Gets Prison Sentence for Illegal Waste Business. 

Use capital letters for: 

• proper nouns (people and places) - Robert Smith; Gateshead Civic Centre 
• directorate names in full - Housing, Environment and Healthy Communities; Resources and Digital 
• full job titles - Digital Content Producer; Customer Services Adviser 
• days, months, festivals - Friday; January; Diwali 
• brand names (but match styling to brand if it goes against capitalisation) - Boots; easyJet; Tesco 
• 'the Government', when specifically discussing the UK Government - see Government
• titles of specific acts or bills - The Licensing Act 2003; The Care Act 2014 
• faculties, departments, institutes and schools - School of Tropical Medicine; British Institute of Cleaning Science; Faculty of Social Sciences 
• titles of books (place within single quotes) - 'Borderlands'; 'Jane Eyre' 
• World War 1 and World War 2 (use numbers 1 and 2, not numerals I or II) 
• formal groups and committees - Strategic Housing Board 

If you're unsure, you can always refer to the Government Digital Service style guide.  

Do not use capitals for: 

the council, unless giving the full name Gateshead Council - see Gateshead Council

• general discussion of jobs - for example 'many teachers have contacted us' 
• seasons - spring; summer; autumn; winter 
• map directions - north; south; east; west; south-east Gateshead; north of Birtley 
• councillor(s), unless referring to a specific councillor - 'There were six councillors on the committee'; Councillor Joanne Backbencher; see Councillor

Contractions 

Using contractions can make reading easier and adjust the tone of our writing. For example, use positive contractions such as you'll and we'll. 

However, avoid negative contractions like shouldn't and can't as many people find these harder to read and misread them as the opposite. 

Contact details     

Where possible, include contact details at the very end of your web page. These should be written as: 

Section name 
Gateshead Council 
Civic Centre 
Gateshead 
Postcode 
 
0191 433 7000 
email@gateshead.gov.uk 
 
There is no need to use 'Phone' or 'email' prefixes, unless there is a fax number then use the word (fax) in brackets after the number. 

Always use a group or service email rather than a particular individual's email address. We must ensure contact information remains current even if staff members change roles or move on. 

Councillor      

Only use an initial capital letter when you are referring to a specific councillor. At all other times use the lowercase. 

For example: 

Councillor Joanna Backbencher put forward the suggestion 

'There were six councillors on the committee' not 'there were six Councillors on the Committee'.  

The first time you mention a councillor, use title and name in full: Councillor Joanna Backbencher. 

Council Tax 

Council Tax should always capitalised.

COVID-19

Upper case.

Dashes 

Dashes can be used as punctuation in sentences. They should always have a space before and after. To keep sentences simple you should avoid using a hyphen if you can replace it with commas or brackets. 

Date formats 

Dates should always be written out to help users and website readers understand them. 

• write dates with date (number), month (word), year (number) in that order - for example, 18 July 2018 
• do not put commas in dates and never use 'th' or 'rd' after the number 
• always write the month in full - January, February; not Jan, Feb 
• use 'to' in date ranges - not hyphens, for example, 18 July to 21 July
• if you need to mention the day, put that first, as in ''Friday 18 July 2022'' 
• do not describe dates using only numbers as in 18/07/15 - it is not as clear as using the word for the month, and some cultures put the dates and months in a different order 
• for financial years, sports seasons and school years write 2007/08, not 2007-08, 2008-8, 2007/8 or 2007-2008 -- for example: ''funding is available for 2015/16'' 

early years 

Always written in lower case. 

email   

When an email address is included in your content, this should be written as email not e-mail or Email (unless it starts a sentence). 

If you are including an email in your text, always write this out in full and include a link. Where possible try to link to our contact pages, or if that isn't possible link to a generic email address. People leave the organisation and we end up with out of date contacts on the site. 

For example:  If you want to find out more about writing for the web, email: webteam@gateshead.gov.uk 

Exclamation marks 

Exclamation marks should be avoided in web copy. The intention of exclamation marks is not clear to all readers - they can be read as both positive or negative emphasis, so should be used only very sparingly. 

FAQs 

We never use FAQs on gateshead.gov.uk. They often duplicate content and very rarely represent questions asked by users. Instead, if you know that you are generally answering a frequently asked question, restructure your content so that the answer is found easily in your text. If you're interested to find out more about why FAQs are bad, you can read about it on the Government Digital Services blog. 

Financial information 

Use the symbols £ and p, rather than spelling out 'pounds' or 'pence', but don't add p to end of figure if greater than £1 - £45.66 

Use 'm' and 'bn', rather than spelling out 'millions' or 'billions' but do not use 'k' for 'thousands' - £3.4m; £1.2bn  

Don't use unnecessary zeroes - £5 not £5.00, 99p not £0.99, £3.4m not £3,400,000  

See also: Numbers

Footnotes 

Footnotes are not for web pages. If the information is required then it must be included in the body text. If it's not needed then leave it out. 

Freedom of Information 

Written as upper case. It can be abbreviated as FOI once it has been used fully on the same page. 

Gateshead Council 

When writing for the web, refer to the council as we. For example: 'We are responsible for issuing a range of animal licences.' When you do need to refer to the council in an official capacity, write this as Gateshead Council. It is 'the council' when used in any other sense.  

GCSE, GSCEs

No full stops between the initials. No apostrophe in the plural.

General election

Lower case, but upper case if referring to a specific election. For example, the 2024 General Election.

Government 

Lower case unless it is a full title. For example, 'UK government', 'the government', 'local government' but 'His Majesty's Government of the United Kingdon of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. 

GOV.UK

All upper case.

Headers 

We use a structured sequence of header sizes to distinguish sections and subsections on our webpages. Headers are crucial for well-organised and user-friendly websites, they structure content, enhance readability, aid accessibility, and help with SEO.

Correct use of headers (header 1, header 2, header 3 and then header 4) guide readers through an article making it easy to read. They also make it easier for screen readers to know the correct article order.  

Hyphens and dashes 

Try to use one word if possible, rather than adding hyphens between. Hyphens make text appear less neat and hence less accessible. 

Use hyphens for: 

• re- words like re-evaluate or co- words such as co-ordinate or co-operate
• short compound adjectives - five-year plan; three-year deal; 20th-century standards 
• short and common adverbs - well-established; much-loved 

Do not use hyphens:  

• after adverbs ending in -ly - a widely discussed theory 
• after common prefixes - macro; mega; micro; mini; multi; over; super; under 
• date ranges, use to for time and date ranges instead

Dashes can be used as alternatives to brackets or commas in text - for example to draw the reader's attention to something. But should be used very sparingly. Commas are preferable as dashes, like hyphens clutter the appearance of text. When using a dash in this way, use an en dash (-) rather than a hyphen (-). 

Images 

Images should not be used unless necessary. An image can take up a lot visual space and can make pages slower to download. 

Images should not include text as search engines and screen readers can not read them, causing accessibility issues. Images should be of good quality, recent and of a suitable size for the web. If images contain people, the individual must have given written permission for this to be used on our website. Images should have a name and description. 

Italics

Never use italics. They are difficult to read on screen. Use 'single quotation marks' to list the titles of documents, books or new initiatives. 

Job titles 

Specific job titles should always be written as upper case.  For example: Joe Bloggs, Support Worker.

Generic job titles are lower case, for example, care worker, director.

Leader 

The first time you mention the Leader of the Council, use their title and name in full. For example, 'Leader of Gateshead Council Councillor Sally Smith'. In further uses you can shorten this to 'Councillor Smith'. 

Use capital letters when you are referring to a specific leader. For example, 'Leader of Gateshead Council Councillor Sally Smith put forward the suggestion'.  

At all other times, use lowercase. For example, 'Local council leaders met to discuss pollution'.  

Links 

A link should be descriptive. Make sure that any link text explains where the user is going and be action oriented. For example: 

Read our the Council plan for 2015 - 2022 (PDF) [1MB] (opens new window) rather than: For our corporate plan, Click here (PDF) [1MB] (opens new window). This is important for accessibility reasons too.   

Always link to internal pages first and external later. All external links should open in a new tab. 

When including links, never use the header 'Useful links' - we would never publish useless links. Instead use the header 'Relevant links'. 

local council 

Use local council instead of local authority where possible. Do not use LA. 

Mayor

The first time you mention the Mayor of Gateshead, use their title and name in full. For example, 'Mayor of Gateshead Councillor John Johnson'. In further uses it can be shortened to 'Councillor Johnson'. 

Use an initial capital letter when you are referring to a specific mayor. For example, 'Mayor of Gateshead Councillor John Johnson put forward the suggestion'.  

At all other times, use lowercase. For example, 'There were four local mayors on the committee'.  

money

Use the £ symbol: £75

Do not use decimals unless pence are included: £75.50 but not £75.00

Do not use '£0.xx million' for amounts less than £1 million.

Write out pence in full: calls will cost 4 pence per minute from a landline.

Currencies are lower case.

north-east 

Lower case and hyphenated if it is for a geographical region.

North East

Upper case and not hyphenated when used for an administrative region or part or name, for example, North East Combined Authority.

Numbers 

Spell out one to nine, then use numbers for 10 and above as in 'there were four social workers' or 'we repaired 40,000 potholes'. The exceptions to this are: 

• if your sentence starts with a number spell it out 
• use figures with units of measurement as in '1km' or '2 per cent' 
• use figures for any range of numbers as in '3 to 5 years' or '19 to 25 year olds' 
• in copy use m for sums of money, units or inanimate objects: £10m, 45m tonnes of coal, 30m doses of vaccine; but million for people or animals: 1 million people, 23 million rabbits, etc; use m in headlines
• add commas to numbers larger than four digits to separate thousands - £3,400; '23,000 residents' 

See also financial information.

PDFs 

Where possible, web content should be published as text on the website and not PDFs. Information published by PDF is harder to find, navigate, read, maintain. They also cause accessibility issues. However, we know that we have a large amount of policy, strategies and statutory information on the site which currently appear as PDF and to publish these as HTML would be time consuming and difficult. Where we can our preference is for web pages rather than PDF. The Digital Services team should be informed of all newly planned PDF content well ahead of its creation so that conversion to web content can be planned appropriately.  

Per cent 

Use 'per cent' not percent. Percentage is one word. Always use % with a number and in headlines. 

Police

Lower case, even when referring to to 'the police'.

Policy, strategy, plan 

Always lower case. 

Quotations and quotation marks 

We use double quotation marks for indicating direct speech in text. Open quotes for every new paragraph of a long quotation, and close quotes only at the end of the final paragraph. 

Single quotes can be used:

• in headlines 
• for unusual terms - only the first mention
• when referring to words 
• when referring to publications 
• for quotes within quotes - Councillor Joe Joseph said: "there's a number of people who say 'we cannot do that' but this report proves they can."  

Telephone numbers 

Telephone numbers should be grouped to make them easier to read such as  0191 433 3333, 07771 900 900, +44 (0)20 7450 4000. There is no need to use the words 'Telephone' or 'Phone' prior to a phone number. 

Times 

We always use the 12-hour clock for our times. 5.30pm not 17.30. 

We never use hyphens in time ranges but instead use the word to, for example: 3pm to 4pm not 3 - 4pm. 

Use midnight (not 00:00) and midday (not 12 noon, noon or 12pm)

If you have a deadline of midnight, consider using "11:59pm" to avoid confusion about a single, specific time. For example, "You must register by 11:59pm on Tuesday 14 June." can only be read one way, but "You must register by midnight on Tuesday 14 June" can be read in two ways (the end of Monday 13, or end of Tuesday 14).

Titles

Page titles should:

• be in sentence case
• be 65 characters or less
• be unique, clear and descriptive
• be front-loaded and optimised for search
• use a colon to break up longer titles
• not contain dashes or slashes
• not have a full stop at the end
• not be questions
• not use acronyms unless they are well-known, like EU

Underlining 

Text should never be underlined on a webpage as this indicates a link and could be confusing for the user. 

wifi

Lower case, no hyphen.

year 1, year 2

Lower case.