Content style guide

[tomyems]

Add ideas, suggestions, improvements and corrections to the content style guide to this discussion

[jbuller]

A few ideas

• DDaT as an acronym and in full?
• Hyphenation of 'user centred'?
• Hashtags: Reference guidance on Pascal Case
• 'Horizon News' will be redundant soon as Sharepoint replaces Horizon.
• File extensions: PDF and DOCX or pdf and docx or 'Word'?
• Would be good to reference the GOV.UK style guide and any other internal style guides

[sshukor]

Thanks for your great suggestions @jbuller. I will document them and add them to our style guide backlog, which will be reviewed by the HO style council when we next meet in January. Cheers, Steve

[sshukor]

Update: Hi @jbuller,

We discussed your suggestions at our recent style council meeting.

• We think DDaT is a cross-gov term and as such I will reach out to GDS to ask them to consider adding it to their style guide.
• We will add a new entry for 'user centred' to the HO style guide
• We would like to explore the hashtags suggestion further. Please could you provide more information on your suggestion.
• We are checking timescales re Horizon News
• File extensions: could you provide some more information about the guidance you would like to see?
• We link to the GOV.UK style guide where relevant. Let me know if this is what you meant.

Thanks again for getting involved! You're helping to make the guide better for everyone.

[jbuller]

• We would like to explore the hashtags suggestion further. Please could you provide more information on your suggestion.

https://www.accessible-social.com/copy-and-formatting/hashtags
https://twitter.com/rnib/status/1128736809968492544

• File extensions: could you provide some more information about the guidance you would like to see?

As I wrote should they be capitalised or program names used instead:
PDF and DOCX or pdf and docx or 'Word'?

• We link to the GOV.UK style guide where relevant. Let me know if this is what you meant.

I see the references throughout. I meant a line at the top that says this supplements the GOV.UK style guide so see it for guidance on things not listed here.

[sshukor]

Thanks @jbuller. Some amusing hashtag bloopers there!

[robertdeniszczyc2]

Hi,

I have a couple pieces of feedback for consideration please:

Should the record for biometric residence card also have the note that these are no longer in use to reflect the synonymous entries of UK residence card and EEA biometric residence card?

And the following two entries seem to be contradictory:

His Majesty’s
Use ‘HM’ rather than ‘His Majesty’s’ in front of the name of the relevant public body. For example, ‘HM Revenue & Customs’.

His Majesty’s Passport Office
Capitalised. You can use ‘HM Passport Office’ after the first full mention. Do not use ‘HMPO’ in public-facing services.

The first one says to use HM, but the second says use ‘HM Passport Office’ after the first full mention; to write the first full mention in the second example would require breaking the guidance of the first if I'm reading it correctly?

Cheers,
Rob

[sshukor]

Thanks for your suggestions and highlighting these inconsistencies @robertdeniszczyc2. I will document them and add them to our style guide backlog, which will be reviewed by the HO style council on 27 January. Cheers, Steve

[sshukor]

Update: Hi Robert,
We discussed your suggestions and will be updating the style guide as follows:

• Update BRC, UK residence card and EEA BRC entries to make them consistent. Also, we are removing 'no longer in use' because it is not quite accurate. They are being phased out and can still be used in some cases.
• Update our HMPO guidance

Thanks again for getting involved. We really appreciate it. Keep the suggestions coming!

[TLStom]

Hi. I have a couple of terms and phrases that would be useful to confirm style:

• priority visa (PV) service / super priority visa (SPV) service: Should this be capitalised? Should it include "service"? What is the correct acronym, and when to use the acronym?
• When to use "Visa Application Centre (VAC)" or "UK Visa and Citizenship Application Services (UKVCAS)"
• When to use "settlement" vs "non-settlement" during the visa application process
• General capitalisation rules for various visa routes, for example "work", "study", "family", "high potential individual".
• Guidance on how to use UKVI.

[sshukor]

Hi @TLStom,

Thanks for these great suggestions! I'll take them back to the style council for discussion. In the meantime it would be good to know if you've had any feedback from users regarding these terms.

[sshukor]

Also:

• There is an existing entry on VAC. What is missing from your point of view?
• Could you provide some more information regarding the issue with using UKVI?

[sshukor]

Hi! We've just published new guidance on UKVCAS and VAC in the Home Office style guide following your suggestion. More to follow. Thanks again for getting involved!

[TLStom]

Thanks @sshukor.

I'm noticing inconsistency between what's being used by external suppliers and the Home Office, so just want to align these.

For the entry on VAC, it would just be good to know when to use the term "visa application centre" or "UK visa and citizenship application centre", so confirm that these refer to specific types of service points and are not interchangeable terms.

For UKVI, it's on usage. First off, to confirm that it is "UK Visas and Immigration" and not "UK Visas & Immigration", and second when you can just use "UKVI" without using the full name.

[sshukor]

Thanks @TLStom. I'm following up on both of these excellent points. Thank you!

[sshukor]

See comment above. Thanks again!

[TLStom]

Thanks @sshukor!

[sshukor]

Quick update @TLStom, we've updated our guidance on UKVCAS and VAC. UKVI is still on our to do list.

[jbuller]

"Home Office" or "the Home Office"? (same for other departments and internal teams)
Seems like there's no easy answer: https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/389049/how-to-do-you-know-when-to-add-the-before-organisations-names
"XYZ team" rather than "XYZ Team"

[sshukor]

Thanks for this suggestion @jbuller. I'll follow that up.