A to Z style guide

Abbreviations and acronyms

If you need to use an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out the first time you mention it. Then use the short version for all other references. If the abbreviation isn’t clearly related to the full version, specify in brackets.

• First use: Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU)
• Second use: ROCU
• First use: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
• Second use: UTC

Police officer rank abbreviations

Constable (PC)	Detective Constable (DC)
Sergeant (Sgt)	Detective Sergeant (DS)
Inspector (Insp)	Detective Inspector (DI)
Chief Inspector (Ch Insp)	Detective Chief Inspector (DCI)
Superintendent (Supt)	Detective Superintendent (Det Supt)
Chief Superintendent (Ch Supt)	Detective Chief Superintendent (Det Ch Supt)
Assistant Chief Constable (ACC)	In full or ACC
Deputy Chief Contable (DCC)	In full or DCC
Chief Constable (CC)	For external communications, use Chief Constable Sir David Thompson Fro internal communications, use Dave Thompson

If the abbreviation or acronym is well known, like API or HTML, use it instead (and do not worry about spelling it out).

You can find a list of all commonly used WMP acronyms here

Acknowledgment – spelling

The above title is the correct spelling, not “acknowledgement”.

Act

Uppercase when using full name, such as, Criminal Justice Act 1998.

Lowercase on second reference or when speaking in more general terms, for example:

• “the act”
• “we need to find out more about the freedom of information act”.

Active voice

Use active voice. Avoid passive voice. Our voice, tone and style guide explains why.

In active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action. In passive voice, the subject of the sentence has the action done to it.

• Active voice: Nigel logged into the account.
• Passive voice: The account was logged into by Nigel.

One exception is when you want to specifically emphasise the action over the subject. In some cases, this is fine.

• Your account was flagged by our IT team.

Addresses

90 York Way, Birmingham B19 3PU

Addressing people

• Replace “sir/madam” in letters and emails with a simple and friendly “Hello”.
• Do not call women ‘girls or ‘ladies’.
• Avoid gendered terms in favour of neutral alternatives, like ‘bartender’ instead of ‘barmen’ and entrepreneur instead of ‘businessman’.
• Swap “guys” for “people” when addressing group.
• Where possible, use a person’s name instead of ‘his/hers’ such as, ‘Terri’s bag’.  Alternatively use ‘them’, ‘they’ and ‘theirs.

Addressing the reader

• Address the user as ‘you’ where possible.
• Your content should make a direct appeal to people to get involved or take action, for example ‘You can contact Shared Services by phone or webchat’ or ‘Report your burglary’.

Admissible and Inadmissible – spelling

The above title is the correct spelling (avoid spelling it as “admissable” or “inadmissable”).

Ages

Do not use hyphens in ages unless to avoid confusion, instead use words, for example:

• Write in his late teens, mid forties or late sixties
• Avoid writing “18-24” or “42-47”

Do not reference a person’s age unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. If it is relevant, include the person’s specific age, offset by commas.

• The officer, 65, had just received their free bus pass.

Do not refer to people using age related descriptors like such as young, old or elderly. If necessary, use ‘older’ or ‘younger’.

Ambulance services

Use uppercase when referring to specific services, otherwise use lowercase:

• West Midlands Ambulance Service.
• ambulance service.

American and UK English

Use UK English spelling and grammar. For example:

• ‘organise’ not ‘organize’
• ‘modelling’ not ‘modeling’
• ‘fill in a form’, not ‘fill out a form’

Ampersands

We only use & in logos. When writing we always use ‘and’. It’s easier to understand.

Do not use ampersands unless one is part of a company or brand name.

• Ben and Dan (in this example presume they are the names of two colleagues
• Ben & Jerry’s (a corporate brand name)

Antisocial

Antisocial is written without a hyphen.

Apostrophes

The apostrophe’s most common use is making a word possessive. If the word already ends in an s and it’s singular, you also add an ‘s. If the word ends in an s and is plural, just add an apostrophe.

• The thief took Ricardo’s car
• The thief took Chris’s car
• The thief took the managers’ cars

Apostrophes can also be used to denote that you’ve dropped some letters from a word, usually for humour or emphasis. This is fine, but do it sparingly.

Do not use apostrophes to indicate plurals. For example:

• NPUs (not NPU’s)
• in the 2020s (not the 2020’s)
• the Operations Department (not the Operation’s Department)
• PCSOs (not PCSO’s)

BAME and BME

Writing/speaking about under-represented groups (also see: Ethnicity)

How we write/speak about under-represented groups, including words and phrases we use and avoid.

BAME, BME

We do not use the terms BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnic or BME (Black and minority ethnic). Different people have different experiences – these phrases do not take this in to account and are very unpopular amongst many of the communities affected. Internal consultation (Feb 2021) has also supported the use of this term being stopped.

Ethnicity and race

We refer to ethnicity and not race because surveys usually ask people for their ethnicity and not their race and using consistent terms helps people to understand our data.

Under-represented

We use ‘under-represented’ to refer to all ethnic groups except the White British group. Under-represented include White minorities, such as Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller groups.

Phrasing

‘People from a Black Caribbean background’, ‘the Black ethnic group’ and ‘Black people’ are all acceptable phrases. ‘Blacks’ is not. ‘Coloured’ is also not acceptable an acceptable phrase.

Similarly ‘people from a White British background’, ‘the White ethnic group’ and ‘White people’ are all acceptable.

However, we don’t say ‘Mixed people’ or ‘Mixed race people’. We usually say ‘people with a Mixed ethnic background’ or ‘people from the Mixed ethnic group’, or ‘dual heritage.’

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller ethnic groups

‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’ is one of the 18 standardised ethnic groups. We differentiate between Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller communities if data is collected separately. We don’t use slashes (/) in commentary as this can imply these terms are the same. Instead we refer to:

• ‘the White Gypsy and Roma ethnic group’ or ‘White Gypsy and Roma people’
• ‘the White Gypsy and Irish Traveller ethnic group’ or ‘White Gypsy and Irish Traveller people’

For example: 29 per cent of White Gypsy and Roma pupils met the expected standard in reading, compared with 31 per cent of White Irish Traveller pupils.

Ordering and style

Capitalisation

We capitalise all ethnic groups. For example, Asian, Black, Mixed, White, Gypsy, Irish Traveller, and Other. This is because:

• ethnic groups such as Asian and Indian start with a capital letter so this maintains a consistent approach for all groups
• it makes our content easier to read if we’re comparing ethnic groups

Ethnicities and nationalities

These ethnic groups are also nationalities:

• Bangladeshi
• Chinese
• Indian
• Pakistani

If there’s a risk of users mistaking ethnicities for nationalities, we avoid confusion by writing:

• ‘people from the Indian ethnic group’, not ‘Indian people’
• ‘pupils from the Chinese ethnic group’, not ‘Chinese pupils’

(Approved at WMP D&I Governance Board on 10/03/21)

Guidance from .GOV explains why we have made these changes.

Board

Always lowercase unless it’s part of a proper title: so uppercase for the Citizens in Policing Board, but lowercase for the management board.

Bob-E

Uppercase B and E. Hyphenated.

Bold

Only use bold to refer to text from interfaces in technical documentation or instructions.

You can use bold to explain what field a user needs to fill in on a form, or what button they need to select. For example: “Select Continue. The Verify Certificate window opens.”

Use bold sparingly – using too much will make it difficult for users to know which parts of your content they need to pay the most attention to.

Do not use bold in other situations, for example to emphasise text.

To emphasise words or phrases, you can:

• front-load sentences
• use headings
• use bullets

Brackets

Use (round brackets), not [square brackets]. The only acceptable use of square brackets is for explanatory notes in reported speech:

“Thank you [Chief Constable] Dave Thompson.”

Do not use round brackets to refer to something that could either be singular or plural:

• ‘Check which document(s) you need to send to Corporate Communications.’

Always use the plural instead, as this will cover each possibility:

• ‘Check which documents you need to send to Corporate Communications.’

British Transport Police

Always uppercase

Bullet points and steps

Bullet points make text easier to read. Make sure that:

• you always use a lead-in line
• the bullets make sense running on from the lead-in line
• you use lowercase at the start of the bullet if following from a lead-in line. Where there is no lead line use uppercase at the start of the bullet
• you do not use more than one sentence per bullet point – use commas or dashes to expand on an item
• you do not put ‘or’ or ‘and’ after the bullets
• you do not make the whole bullet a link if it’s a long phrase
• you do not put a semicolon at the end of a bullet
• there’s no full stop after the last bullet point

Bullets should normally form a complete sentence following from the lead text. But it’s sometimes necessary to add a short phrase to clarify whether all or some of the points apply. For example, ‘You must bring one of the following forms of identification with you when you collect your car:’

The number and type of examples in a list may lead the user to believe the list is exhaustive. This can be dealt with by:

• checking if there are other conditions (or if the list is actually complete)
• listing the conditions which apply to the most users and removing the rest
• consider broader terms in the list which capture more scenarios (and could make the list exhaustive)
• creating a journey to specialist content to cover the remaining conditions

Steps

Use numbered steps instead of bullet points to guide a user through a process. You do not need a lead-in line and you can use links and downloads in steps. Steps end in a full stop because each should be a complete sentence.

Capital Letters

Use capital letters for:

• the Chief Constable is always in capitals
• courts – for example, Birmingham Magistrates’ Court
• West Midlands Police
• police departments – for example, the Criminal Investigation Department
• team names – for example, the Corporate Communications Team
• titles – Chief Superintendent Peter Farmer

Do not use capital letters for:

• describing people’s jobs. For example, crime prevention officer George Smith
• police stations – for example, Kings Heath police station
• describing people’s ranks – for example, the chief inspector of Kings Heath area, sergeants going to get trained.
• talking about crime types – for example, burglary and vehicle crime.

When writing out an email address or website URL, use all lowercase.

• corporate_communications@west-midlands.police.uk
• west-midlands.police.uk

Do not capitalise large amounts of text or random words in the middle of sentences – it looks like it is being shouted.

Captions

Never end with a full stop.

Caveats

Do not let caveats dictate unwieldy grammar.

• Use: You can
• Avoid: You may be able to

Child exploitation and abuse

When talking about Child exploitation and abuse, please refer to the Child exploitation and abuse: an appropriate language guide.

Code of practice

Lowercase.

Colons

Use a colon when you’re opening a quote.

• Dan said: “Use a colon before a quote”.

Use a colon when you’re about to use:

• bullet points to make a list

Commas

When writing a list, use the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma).


• Use: David admires his siblings Oprah, Jeremiah, and Justin Timberlake respectively
• Avoid: David admires his siblings, Oprah, Jeremiah and Justin Timberlake respectively

Otherwise, use common sense. If you’re unsure, read the sentence out loud. Where you find yourself taking a breath, use a comma.

Community Speedwatch

Uppercase.

CONNECT

When writing about the CONNECT system, ensure you write the name in capital letters.

Contractions

Contractions make us sound human, use them. Contracting words does not affect the validity of a statement.

• Use contractions like ‘you’ll’ but avoid negative contraction like can’t as they can be hard to read or misread.
• Use cannot instead of can’t
• Avoid negative contractions (such as using “don’t” instead of “do not”) like can’t as they can be hard to read or misread.
• Avoid should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, they’ve too. These can also be hard to read.

ControlWorks

One word. Uppercase C. Uppercase W.

Co-operation

Hyphenated.

Cop and copper

We do not describe ourselves as cops or coppers.

Coronavirus

The virus is to be referred to as COVID-19 at all times, with the sole exception being when it’s used in a social media hashtag, in which case the hyphen should be removed.

County Lines

Lowercase: county lines.

Crown Court

Uppercase when referring to a specific court. For instance Wolverhampton Crown Court. Lowercase in all other circumstances eg they appeared at crown court.

Dashes and hyphens

Use a hyphen (-) without spaces on either side to link words into single phrase, or to indicate a span or range.


• first-time user
• 12-hour and 24-hour

Use ‘to’ instead of a dash or slash in date ranges. ‘To’ is quicker to read than a dash and is easier for screen readers.

Dates and times

Dates and times must always be shown in the order of weekday_date_month_time (using am or pm): Monday 3 January 9pm

When writing dates only write the number without the ordinal indicator, for example:

• Write: 1 January
• Avoid: 1^st January

Use brackets to age-proof date

• The incident happened last Monday (25 January)

Date ranges

Use ‘to’ instead of a dash or slash in date ranges. ‘To’ is quicker to read than a dash, and it’s easier for screen readers.

• The operation will run from Tuesday 10 June to Friday 3 July

Decades are written as 80s, 90s, 00s. Centuries are written as nineteenth century, twentieth century. Add an ‘s’ to numerals and dates to pluralise them: 1940s.

Decimals and fractions

Spell out fractions in full, for example:

• two-thirds

Use decimal points when a number cannot be easily written out as a fraction, for example:

• 1.542 or 66.6

Department

Lowercase except when in the title:

• the Crime Prevention Department

Diamond Awards

Uppercase.

Director

Lowercase in text. Uppercase in titles. For example:

• Neil Chamberlain, Director of Commercial Services.
• The director of commercial services said we would be investing in more technology

Disability

Words to use and avoid when writing about disability.

Diversity

When capturing diversity data use the College of Policing’s diversity monitoring categories.

Domestic abuse

Lowercase. Never domestic violence.

eg, etc and ie

‘eg’ can sometimes be read aloud as ‘egg’ by screen reading software. Instead use ‘for example’ or ‘such as’ or ‘like’ or ‘including’ – whichever works best in the specific context.

‘etc’ can usually be avoided. Try using ‘for example’ or ‘such as’ or ‘including’. Never use ‘etc’ at the end of a list starting with ‘for example’ or ‘such as’ or ‘including’.

‘ie’ – used to clarify a sentence – isn’t always well understood. Try (re)writing sentences to avoid the need to use it. If that isn’t possible, use an alternative such as ‘meaning’ or ‘that is’.

Emoji

Emojis all have their place. And that’s social media. Do not use them in any other communication.

Ethnicity

We follow .GOV guidance on how to write about ethnicity.

Also see: BAME, BME – writing about under represented groups

We refer to ethnicity and not race. This is because:

• surveys usually ask people for their ethnicity and not their race
• using consistent terms helps people to understand our data

We use ‘ethnic minorities’ to refer to all ethnic groups except the White British group. Ethnic minorities include White minorities, such as Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller groups.

For comparisons with the White group as a whole, we use ‘all other ethnic groups combined’ or ‘ethnic minorities (excluding White minorities)’. We also refer to ‘White’ and ‘Other than White’ if space is limited.

We do not use ‘Non-White’ because defining groups in relation to the White majority was not well received in user research.

We only refer to people’s ethnicity or immigration status when it is absolutely necessary and relevant.

Exclamation points

Use sparingly. We’re not here to shout at people.

FAQs

FAQs (frequently asked questions) are never used. If you write content by starting with user needs, you will not need to use FAQs.

File extensions

When referring generally to a file extension type, use all uppercase without a full stop.

• GIF
• PDF
• HTML

Add a lowercase s to make plural.

• JPGs

Fire and rescue service

Lowercase.

Freedom of Information

Uppercase.

Full stops

Full stops go inside quotation marks. They go outside brackets when the braketed area is part of a larger sentence, and inside brackets when the bracketed area stands alone.

• Christy said, “I ate a doughnut.”
• I ate a doughnut (and I ate a bagel, too).
• I ate a doughnut and a bagel. (The doughnut was Sam’s.)

There’s only one space after a full stop.

Gender

• a social construction relating to behaviours and attributes based on labels of masculinity and femininity; gender identity is a personal, internal perception of oneself and so the gender category someone identifies with may not match the sex they were assigned at birth
• where an individual may see themselves as a man, a woman, as having no gender, or as having a non-binary gender – where people identify as somewhere on a spectrum between man and woman

This is the UK Government’s definition of gender which we also adopt.

The terms sex and gender are unique and are not interchangeable.

Gender-neutral text

Make sure text is gender neutral wherever possible.

Use:

‘them’, ‘their’, ‘they’

General election

Lowercase, but uppercase if referring to a specific election. For example:

• The 2024 General Election
• at the next general election

Geography and regions

Use lowercase for north, south, east and west, except when they’re part of a name or recognised region. For example:

• the south west (compass direction)
• the South West (administrative region)

Go-live

Make sure to hyphenate this phrase.

Government

Lowercase unless it’s a full title. For example:

• UK government
• Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom
• Welsh Government, as it’s the full title

Group

Uppercase for names of groups and organisations:

• Knowledge and Innovation Group

Lowercase when a group has a very generic title for example: working group or research team.

• Working Group
• Research Team

Gypsy, Roma and Traveller ethnic groups

‘Gypsy or Irish Traveller’ is one of the 18 standardised ethnic groups. We differentiate between Gypsy, Roma and Irish Traveller communities if data is collected separately. We don’t use slashes (/) in commentary as this can imply these terms are the same. Instead we refer to:

• ‘the White Gypsy and Roma ethnic group’ or ‘White Gypsy and Roma people’
• ‘the White Gypsy and Irish Traveller ethnic group’ or ‘White Gypsy and Irish Traveller people’

For example: 29 per cent of White Gypsy and Roma pupils met the expected standard in reading, compared with 31 per cent of White Irish Traveller pupils.

Hyphenation

Hyphenate:

• re- words starting with e, like re-evaluate
• co-ordinate
• co-operate

Do not hyphenate:

• reuse
• reinvent
• reorder
• reopen
• email

Do not use a hyphen unless it’s confusing without it, for example, a little used-car is different from a little-used car.

Use ‘to’ for time and date ranges, not hyphens.

ie

See eg, etc and ie

Impairment and medical conditions

When writing about a person’s impairment or medical condition make sure you avoid:

• referring to a person’s medical, mental or cognitive condition unless it’s directly relevant to what you’re writing
• using impairment-related idioms such as: ‘blind as a bat’ or ‘falling on deaf ears’
• describing them as ‘victims’
• using terms such as ‘suffers from’ or ‘handicapped’
• describing a person as ‘mentally ill’

If you need to mention a person’s impairment or medical condition make sure you:

• ask the person how they would describe their impairment, medical or mental condition, and reference that that’s how the person describes themselves. For example, ‘Tim, who describes themselves as hard of hearing, works in Fleet Services’
• use terms such as accessible toilet, ramped access and blue badge parking
• use ‘deaf’ as an adjective to describe a person with significant hearing loss. You can also use ‘partially deaf’ or ‘hard of hearing’ depending on how the person identifies

Italics

Do not use italics. Use ‘single quotation marks’ if referring to a document, scheme or initiative.

Job titles

Use uppercase for specific job titles such as:

• Chief Constable Dave Thompson
• Detective Chief Inspector Gillian Davenport

Use lowercase to describe people’s jobs such as:

• PC George Smith, a crime prevention officer at…
• crime prevention officer George Smith

Kilograms, kilojoules, kilometres, kilowatts

Abbreviate as kg, kJ, km, kW

Law

Lowercase even when it’s ‘the law’.

Less or fewer?

Less means smaller in quantity, for example, less money; fewer means smaller in number, for example, fewer coins.

LGBTQ+

When making reference to LGBTQ+ communities, make sure you:

• use LGBTQ+ and not LGBT or any other acronym
• always reference communities rather than community
• indicate how a person identifies when including someone’s sexual orientation. For example, ‘Rhadem, who identifies as gay, was driving his Audi Q2’
• use text that is gender neutral wherever possible. Use ‘them’, ‘their’, ‘they’ etc.

Avoid:

• using words such as homosexual, lifestyle or preference
• describing marriage as ‘gay marriage’ – it’s just marriage. Do not use ‘same-sex’ marriage, unless the distinction is relevant to what you’re writing.

Abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and the + represents other identities; it is not normally necessary to spell it out.

For more guidance follow the GLAAD media reference guide.

Licence or license?

Licence is the noun and license the verb. So you need a licence to run a licensed bar, or you may need to visit the off-licence.

Links

How to add links to content and GOV.UK’s linking policy

Lists

Lists should be bulleted to make them easier to read. See bullets and steps.

Live Chat

Write as two words. Uppercase L. Uppercase C.

Ma’am

We are polite and always treat people with dignity and respect. There is no expectation for you to use words like sir, ma’am, Mr, Mrs or other terms of address when speaking or writing to people – especially those in more senior positions.

Ask people how they would like to be addressed.

Metaphors

See “Words to avoid” (located in the “W” section of this page)

Millions

• Always use million in money (and billion): £138 million.
• Use millions in phrases: millions of people.
• But do not use £0.xx million for amounts less than £1 million.
• Do not abbreviate million to m.

Mischief Fortnight

Uppercase.

Money

When writing about money use the symbol before the amount. Include a decimal and number of pence if more than 0.

Numbers with four or more figures have commas. Numbers above six figures are written out full.

• £17
• £19.99
• £1,750
• £1million

Months

See Dates.

MyTime

Uppercase. One word.

N/A

Separate with a slash. Only use in tables.

Neighbourhood Watch

Always uppercase.

newsbeat

Lowercase, one word.

Numbers

Numbers at the beginning of sentences should be written out:

• Five years ago

One to nine are to be written out.

• one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine.

Number 10 and above should be written in figures.

• He was 12 years old.

Avoid using number as replacement for words, for example:

• for, not 4
• to, not 2

Weights, times, measures and dates should be stated numerically

• 12kg
• 10am
• £1 million

Or

Do not use slashes instead of ‘or’. For example:

• Incorrect: Do this 3/4 times.
• Correct: Do this 3 or 4 times.

Parliament

Uppercase.

PDF

Uppercase. No need to explain the acronym.

Percentages

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

Police

Lowercase, even when referring to ‘the police’.

Police Force  

We are West Midlands Police force, but use this term sensitively, as research shows the word ‘force’ can seem bureaucratic .

Where possible it is best to talk to people person to person, rather than from a force perspective.

Examples of this include:

• “Thanks for your interest in working with us,” instead of “Thank you for your interest in working with the force.”

• “We take your comments very seriously,” instead of: “The force takes your comments very seriously.”

Police Service

Police service is a general term which is used to describe policing by more than one force.  Use West Midlands Police force, not West Midlands Police service.  We are a member of the police service as part of a wider picture, not in isolation. 

Police station

Write police station in lowercase, for example:

• Kingstanding police station

Police and Crime Commissioner

Uppercase

Police officer

Lowercase.

Prime Minister

Use Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Prime Minister.

Pronouns

We are polite and always treat people with dignity and respect. Ask people how they would like to be addressed.

If your subject’s gender is unknown or irrelevant, use “they,” “them,” and “their” as a singular pronoun. Use “he/him/his” and “she/her/her” pronouns as appropriate. Do not use “one” as a pronoun.

You can add your preferred pronouns to your email signature and Bluepages entry.

Public sector

Lowercase.

The Queen

Uppercase.

Question marks

Question marks go inside quotation marks if they’re part of the quote. Like full stops, they go outside quotation marks when the quote area is part of a larger sentence, and inside quotation marks when the quote stands alone.

PC Jones asked: “Is everyone ready to go out on patrol?”

Quotes

We lead into quotes like this:

• Gurmit Bansal, from Erdington, said: “I love cake.”
• Not “I love cake,” said Gurmit Bansal, from Erdington.

Quotation marks

Use quotes to refer to words and letters, titles of short works (like articles and poems), and direct quotations.

Full stops and commas go within quotation marks. Question marks within quotes follow logic—if the question mark is part of the quotation, it goes within. If you’re asking a question that ends with a quote, it goes outside the quote.

Use single quotes:

• in headlines
• for unusual terms
• for quotes within quotes
• when referring to words or publications, for example: ‘Download the guide ‘How to Access Your Payroll Slips’ (PDF, 360KB)’

Ranges and spans

Use ‘to’ to indicate a range or span of numbers. It reads better on screen readers.

• It takes 20 to 30 days.

Reading age

We want everyone to understand what we have to say. Therefore we aim to write to a reading age of nine.

Our style page explains why.

Readability

Readability is how easy it will be for someone to read a particular piece of text. If the readability of your text is high, people will be able to understand your sentences easily. If the readability is low, people still might understand what you’re saying, but it’s likely to be a draining experience. Instead of focusing on the substance of your writing, they’ll need to spend a significant amount of energy unpacking overly complex vocabulary and sentence structure.

To be clear, big words and complex sentences aren’t bad. But using too many of them demands much more concentration from your reader.

Risk assessment

Lowercase. Two words. No hyphen.

The Royal Household

Uppercase when referring to the departments that, collectively, support the British Royal Family.

Seasons

spring, summer, autumn, winter are lowercase.

Security classifications

Uppercase when referring to government security classifications, otherwise lowercase.

If it’s not clear from the context, you may need to clarify that it’s a classification not a general description: ‘information classified as Official’ rather than ‘Official information’.

Government security classification information

Semicolons

Do not use semicolons as they are often mis-read. Long sentences using semicolons should be broken up into separate sentences instead.

Sentence length

Do not use long sentences. Check sentences with more than 25 words to see if you can split them to make them clearer.

Read more about short sentences.

Sex

• refers to the biological aspects of an individual as determined by their anatomy, which is produced by their chromosomes, hormones and their interactions
• generally male or female
• something that is assigned at birth

We adopt the UK Government’s definition of sex.

The terms sex and gender are unique and are not interchangeable.

Sign in or log in

Use sign in rather than log in (verb) for calls-to-action where users enter their details to access a service.

Do not use login as a noun – say what the user actually needs to enter (like username, password, or collar number).

Sir

We are polite and always treat people with dignity and respect. There is no expectation for you to use words like sir, ma’am, Mr, Mrs or other terms of address when speaking or writing to people – especially those in more senior positions.

Ask people how they would like to be addressed.

South, the south of England

Lowercase.

South-east, south-west

Lowercase, hyphenated.

Spaces

One space after a full stop, not two.

Speech marks

See ‘Quotes’

Speedwatch

Uppercase. One word.

Standards of conduct

Lowercase.

Street Watch

Uppercase. Two words.

Team

Lowercase: Youth Offending team, Behavioural Insights team.

Team Talk

Uppercase. Two words.

Teamwork

Lowercase. One word.

Telephone numbers

Phone numbers should be written out in full with the correct area code. If you are writing to an international audience add +44 and drop the first zero.

• 02476 123 456
• 07969 123 456
• +447969 123 456

Temperature

For temperatures: Use the degree symbol (Hold down the Alt key and on the numeric keypad on the right of the keyboard, type 0176) plus a “C”.

• 35°C

Time

Write the time using 12 hour format followed by am or pm. Use a full stop when separating minutes from hours.

• 7am
• 7.30am
• midnight (not 00:00)
• midday (not 12 noon, noon or 12pm)
• 6 hours 30 minutes

Use ‘to’ in time ranges, not hyphens: 10am to 11am (not 10-11am)

Midnight is the first minute of the day, not the last. You should 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).

24 hour format must be used for operational policing. Use a colon to separate minutes from hours.

• 19:00
• 19:30

Use a hyphen for 12-hour and 24-hour.

Titles

Page titles should:

• 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 use acronyms unless they are well-known, like EU

Twitter account

Uppercase. Twitter is a trademarked name.

UK government

Never HM government.

URL

Uppercase. No need to explain the acronym.

Webchat

One word. Not ‘web chat’. Lowercase w.

Webpage

One word.

Website

west-midlands.police.uk

You do not need to write www.

Wellbeing

Not well-being. You do not need the hyphen.

West Midlands Police

Always use West Midlands Police ‘is’

Do not use West Midlands Police ‘are’

If using more than once, in first reference use:

• West Midlands Police (WMP)

In subsequent references, use:

• WMP

Do not use:

• W.M.P.
• West Mids Police
• West Mids. Police
• WMPolice (unless it’s our Twitter handle)
• WM Police

Wifi

Lowercase, no hyphen.

Word document

Uppercase, because it’s a brand name.

When to use ‘we’

We use I, we and you. Our communications are capable of being spoken out loud and sound as if they’re being addressed to a real person. We talk about people, not the public, our communities or officers and staff.

We keep it short and to the point. If we must write longer copy, we break up the text with short, engaging subheads every three or four paragraphs to drive the reader on.

We work in evidence so use facts and examples to add weight to our position.

Words to avoid

Please try to avoid using these words:

• agenda – use plan, scheme or programme (unless it’s for a meeting)
• advancing – use progressing, moving forward or proceeding
• collaborate – use working with
• combating – use reducing or preventing
• commit/pledge – (we need to be specific – we’re either doing something or we’re not)
• countering – use responding to or dealing with
• deliver – use provide, supply or give (pizzas, post and services are delivered – not abstract concepts like improvements or priorities)
• deploy – use employ, implement or use (unless the scenario in which it’s being used involves the military or software)
• dialogue – use conversation or speaking to people
• disincentivise – use put people off or discourage
• empower – use encourage, enable or allow
• facilitate – use ease, assist or help (say something specific about how you’re helping)
• focusing – use bring together, aiming at or looking at closely
• foster – use incorporate, engender or bring in (unless the word is being used when discussing children)
• impact – use influence, make an impression on or have an effect on
• incentivise – use encourage or motivate
• initiate – use introduce, begin or start
• key – use important, fundamental or solution (unless it unlocks something)
• land – provide, supply or give (only use as a verb if you’re talking about aircraft)
• leverage – use influence, power or pull (unless you’re using it in the financial sense)
• liaise – use communicate, interact or co-ordinate
• overarching – use principal, main or primary
• progressing – use making headway, advancing or taking steps forward
• promote – use help, support or encourage (unless you’re talking about an ad campaign or some other marketing promotion)
• robust – use tough, strong or vigorous
• slimming down – use narrowing or reducing (processes do not diet)
• streamline- use update, rationalise or simplify
• strengthening – use reinforcing, supporting or consolidating (unless it’s being used in the context of strengthening bridges or other structures)
• tackling – use dealing with, challenging or confronting (unless you’re discussing rugby, football or some other sport)
• transforming (what are you actually doing to change it?)
• utilise – use employ, apply or use

Avoid using metaphors – they do not say what you actually mean and lead to slower comprehension of your content. For example:

• drive (you can only drive vehicles, not schemes or people)
• drive out (unless it’s cattle)
• going forward (it’s unlikely we are giving travel directions)
• in order to (superfluous – do not use it)
• one-stop shop (we are government, not a retail outlet)
• ring fencing

With all of these words you can generally replace them by breaking the term into what you’re actually doing. Be open and specific.

Xmas

Always Christmas.

Year

Write 2021, not “the year 2021”. For a span of years use ‘to’. For example, 2019 to 2021, not 2011-12.