DGT Branding Toolkit and Style Guidelines

WRITTEN STYLE

Italics Italicise anything which could be described as the titles of media, for example, titles of books, magazines, journals, newspapers and our own publications.

Fractions are hyphenated when written out: two-thirds.

Try to avoid starting a sentence with a figure. If you have to, write the number in words, but try to reword the sentence to avoid this.

Use italics for emphasis sparingly. Note that italics are harder to read than bold text for people with visual impairments.

Million and billion should be written out in full, unless it is in a table where ‘m’ or ‘b’ can be used.

Money Avoid clutter. If it’s a round figure, leave out the zero. So £ 2 but £ 2.05. Sums of money should be written following the general numbers guide, for example three pence, 10pence (no space). The only exception to this should be on posters or material where a list is needed. If you are writing million or billion, no space should be left between the number and the unit of money such as £ 3million.

Out of Office messages Use the following template:

Thank you for your email. I am out of the office until [date of return to the office] and will deal with your email on my return.

If you have an urgent query please contact [firstname lastname][position] at [email address].

Use commas in money, for example £ 10,000.

Kind regards, [Email signature]

Numbers Generally in written text it should be zero to nine in written words and 10 upwards as figures. For example nine to 12-year-olds. There are some exceptions to this in listings tables or bullet points. When numbers are used by themselves, all numbers must be digits not words. Very brief forms of communication – for example posters – may also be an exception.

Quoting speech We use double quotation marks when quoting speech. For example, Lesley Dwyer says: “In this report you’ll see the improvements we have made to improve care for patients.” Spelling Use -ise rather than -ize and -ction rather than –xion. This is English spelling rather than American.

Write first, second, third, etc until 10th and above