Always ensure you have referred to an acronym or abbreviation title in full before introducing them unless they are well known, eg UK, MSP, VAT.

The first time you refer to one, explain it in full on each page, then use the initials. For example:

• Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)

This must be followed for all faculties, departments, programmes and facilities.

Don’t use an acronym if you’re not going to use it later in the text.

Honours and decorations should be spaced without use of commas or stops. For example: The Rt Hon Lord Smith of Kelvin.

Professor should be written in full and not abbreviated to ‘Prof’.

If a PhD is listed, the preface 'Dr' is not needed.

Plurals and dates should be written without apostrophes. Examples: MPhils or 1990s.

There is no full stop required for place names with abbreviations of Saint. For example: St Andrews.

Do not use full stops in abbreviations – AFRC, not A.F.R.C.

The abbreviation for million is M.

Eg, etc & 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 'like' or 'including'. Never use etc at the end of a list starting with these words.

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

When writing on the website, remember you’re speaking to the user, so address them as such. Use terms such as 'you’ll study' 'you’ll join our community' as opposed to 'students will study' 'staff will join our community'. Speaking to the user makes them feel welcome and part of our community.

Alt text for graphs, charts, diagrams & infographics

The information in data-rich images needs to be accessible to all users, including people with visual impairments. 

To make data-rich images accessible, you need to do the following: 

• write a sentence summarising what the content shows in the alt text field
• describe the main information in words in the adjacent body text, or provide a link to the dataset
• check colour and contrast are accessible – please see section on ‘Colour and contrast’

Describing data-rich images

You should describe the data, not the format. You should explain what’s happening in the data, and any trends that stand out.  For example, you could describe the trends, and add a table showing important data points, or link to an attachment of the raw data. 

Ways you can use body text to make complex images accessible include:

• a table containing the important data
• a description of the most important information and what it means
• a link sending users to a page with the full dataset
• an attachment containing the full dataset, either on the publication page or as an inline attachment with a short explanation or link
• an option for users to request a copy of the raw data

If it’s an infographic or a diagram, include an explanation of the important processes, relationships and information in the body text.

Using diagrams

Only use a diagram to support the content if it makes the subject clearer, or summarises a large amount of information. 

Diagrams need to be clear and easy to understand.

Don’t use Americanisms. For words which can be written with either s or z, use the s version. Examples: realise, organise, recognise.

Program can be written in this way when writing about computer programs. Otherwise, it should be programme.

Ampersands should be used in circumstances where a corporate body or department prefers to use the abbreviation. Use ampersands in charts, tables and where there is a long list containing a lot of 'ands'.

Example: The Department of Electronic & Electrical Engineering.

Always use ampersands for department and course names.*

Examples: Civil & Environmental Engineering, Computer & Information Sciences, Design, Manufacture & Engineering Management

Always use ampersands for headings on web pages.

Examples: Learning & teaching, Fees & funding, Modules & courses

*Use ampersand for single honours. Joint honours should use the ampersand to join two courses; if one of the courses has an & this would change to and. For example:

Business Analysis & Technology
Business Analysis and Technology & Economics

Journalism, Media & Communication
Journalism, Media and Communication & Law

English & Creative Writing / Politics & International Relations
English and Creative Writing & Politics and International Relations

Use bullets to make text easier to read. Make sure that:

• you always use a lead-in line (as above)
• the bullets make sense running on from the lead-in line
• you use lower case at the start of the bullet
• you don’t use full stops within bullet points – where possible start another bullet point or use commas, dashes or semicolons to expand on an item
• you don’t put 'or', 'and' after the bullets

Bullet points should be used for list items where there is more than one item, and the order of the items is not important. Numbered bullets should be used for list items where there is more than one item and the order is important to the user. For example, a step-by-step process:

1. Turn on the computer
2. Select a folder
3. Delete this folder

When referring to the University, always use an initial capital. When referring to universities in general, use lower case. Use capital if referring, in full, to another university.

Other than headings, initial capitals should only be used when they act like proper nouns.

Examples:

• last month, the Principal of the University of Strathclyde visited Edinburgh.
• last month, several university principals visited Edinburgh.

Use capitalisation for:

• titles eg Professor Tim Bedford, Ms Jane Smart
• buildings eg Graham Hills Building
• place names eg Glasgow
• brand names eg Apple, Microsoft
• faculties, departments, institutes and schools eg Strathclyde Business School
• names of groups, directorates and organisations eg Professional Services
• titles of publications eg Annual Review
• job titles eg Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering
• COVID-19 should be written in capitals

If you are talking about a job title in general, do not capitalise.

Examples:

• A number of engineers are available for research opportunities.
• There are many jobs available for qualified teachers.

Exception: If you are writing a number of job titles in a bulleted list, use capital letters:

• Management Accountant
• Business Analyst
• Commercial Manager

Please note that if you are writing about a Faculty, please write its name in full.

Example: Faculty of Engineering, not Engineering Faculty

Block capitals should not be used for emphasis. Instead, use bold. Words written in all caps can look like an acronym and can be difficult for the user to read.

Videos embedded on the University website that include people speaking, must have a captions file. Further information can be found in our video guidelines.

Do not use colour on its own to convey information (for example, do not use lines such as ‘As highlighted in the blue box below). Users who are colourblind cannot easily see colour differences.

You can use the glitch colour contrast checker or the WebAIM colour contrast checker to check that the contrast ratio in an image is accessible.

Use a comma when you’re providing excess information and the sentence would make sense without it. For example:

The University of Strathclyde is based in Glasgow city centre, and ranks in the worldwide top 50.

Not The University of Strathclyde is based in Glasgow city centre and ranks in the worldwide top 50

Use contractions. We use them when we speak and they make text easier to scan. So, for example, use:

• 'we're' instead of 'we are'
• 'they're' instead of 'they are'
• 'I'm' instead of 'I am'
• 'you're' instead of 'you are'

Course abbreviations should be written without full stops: PgCert, PgDip, MSc, MLitt, MPhil, UG, PGT, etc. Masters should be written with upper case ‘M’ and is not possessive, for eg: a Masters degree in Chemistry.

Abbreviations for UG courses:

• BA (Bachelor of Arts)
• BEng (Bachelor of Engineering)
• BSc (Bachelor of Science)
• Bachelor of Laws (LLB)

Abbreviations for Postgraduate courses:

• DBA (Doctor of Business Administration)
• DEdPsy (Doctorate in Educational Psychology)
• DPharm (Doctor of Pharmacy)
• EdD (Doctor of Education)
• EngD (Engineering Doctorate)
• LLM (Master of Laws)
• MArch (Master of Architecture)
• MBA (Master of Business Administration)
• MEd (Master of Education)
• MLitt (Master of Letters)
• MPhil (Master of Philosophy)
• MRes (Master of Research)
• MSc (Master of Science)
• PgCert (Postgraduate Certificate)
• PGDE (Postgraduate Diploma in Education)
• PgDip (Postgraduate Diploma)
• PhD (Honorary Doctorate)

When listing available degrees in related courses blocks on course pages use a comma between each course.

Examples:

• Advanced Architectural Design (MArch, PgDip)
• Climate Change Law & Policy (LLM, PgDip, PgCert)

For the course title on course pages you should use a forward slash between each course.

Examples

• MSc/PgDip Counselling
• MSc/PgDip/PgCert Global Public Health

Preferences - writing about courses - as tested with our students:

• Class (not module)
• Elective (not optional)
• Compulsory (not mandatory)

Dates should appear as: 7 July 2014; 28 August 2017 etc

Always put the day before the month:

• The clocks change on 22 March. Don’t use ‘th’ etc with dates – just use the number and month.

Use ‘to’ in date and time ranges – not hyphens, n rules or m dashes. For example:

• academic year 2018 to 2019
• Monday to Friday
• 9am to 5pm
• 6 January to 31 March

Use either the 12- or 24-hour clock – not both in the same text. The 12-hour clock uses a full stop between the hour and minute; the 24-hour clock uses a colon.

• 9.15am
• 1.30pm
• 10pm
• 14:30
• 20:40
• midday (not 12 noon, noon, or 12pm)
• midnight (not 00:00)

Always explain what your date range represents, for example ‘academic year 2023 to 2024’. Date ranges can include variations such as the academic year, calendar year or tax year. This is why explaining date ranges must be very clear.

Write email addresses in lower case and as active links. Example: john.smith@strath.ac.uk.

Don’t present emails as ‘Get in touch’ or ‘contact Professor Smith’. Emails embedded in hyperlinks can be inaccessible as they often launch a user’s preloaded email client, which may not be what they want to use.

Presenting the full email address allows users to see exactly what the email address is and copy and paste it into the email service of their choice.

Avoid using exclamation marks. If you must use them, keep them to an absolute minimum.

Use bold sparingly to emphasise key points. Overuse will dilute its impact. Don’t use bold in place of headlines. Use the appropriate headline size (see section on Headings).

Avoid using underlines, they will make your content look like a link and may confuse users.

Don't use italics. They are hard to read for some users and therefore breach accessibility guidelines.

Avoid making reference to the placement of content as this will change in responsive design. For example, don’t refer to an image ‘on the right’.

Don’t add extra spaces between lines; extra spaces cause problems for screen readers. Make sure there are no blank spaces between lines in your text.

When adding text to the website, avoid copying and pasting directly from emails/Word/documents as this can pull in unwanted coding to the webpage. Copy your text to Notepad or Text Edit equivalent before pasting.

It's best practice to avoid using FAQs on the website. If your content is focused on user needs, FAQs shouldn’t be required.

FAQs are discouraged because they: 

• duplicate other content on the site
• cannot be front-loaded (putting the most important words people will search for first), which makes usability difficult
• are usually not frequently asked questions by the public, but information the content owner deems important
• mean that content is not where people expect to find it; it should be in context with relevant headings and suitable page titles
• can confuse search results

Use headings in order or importance of information

H1- HEADING: This is the heading on your page

H2 - INTRODUCTION: This is the introduction to the next most important piece of information.

H3 - SUBHEADING: This is the heading you’ll use to categorise information underneath your introduction heading

H4 - SUBHEADING: This is the heading you’ll use to categorise information underneath the H3 heading.

H5 - SUBHEADING: This is the heading you’ll use to categorise information underneath the H4 heading.

Use them to break up your content.

Don't use headings to make text BIG or bold. This can confuse readers, especially those who use screen readers.

All headings should be written in sentence case.

Examples:

• Why this course?
• Partnerships with business & organisations
• Discover more about Strathclyde

Where a heading contain a proper name eg name of course or title of department, then you should use capital letters.

Examples:

• Journalism & Creative Writing BA
• Accounting & Business Enterprise BA

The exception is when you’re writing about a subject which is a general term.

Examples:

• Computer & information sciences
• Naval architecture

Where possible, please limit the length of your headings; headings that are too large can look overwhelming on the page.

Don’t make a whole sentence or paragraph a heading, and don’t use a full stop at the end of a heading.

Here's some examples of hyphenated words (despite the spellcheck):

• Full-time; part-time; high-tech; non-payment; CD-ROM; re-election; two-thirds.

Some examples of words without hyphens (despite the spellcheck):

• Postgraduate; multimedia; multidisciplinary; worldwide; cooperate; coordinate; email; taskforce; rearrange; offshore; reuse, reopen; fundraising.

If in doubt, don’t use a hyphen unless it’s confusing without it.

Do not use suspended hyphens. For example, do not use this: part- and full-time workers. Instead, use: part and full-time workers.

Images containing text (not including company/brand logos) should only be used when absolutely necessary.

If using a screenshot that includes text, add a border around the image to differentiate it from surrounding text. Any images of text that include important information to the user should be available as text alternative on the page or within alt text summary of the image. See section titled ‘Alternative (alt) text’ for further info.

Avoid jargon. These words can distance us from our users. They can be vague and meaningless. Sometimes they confuse people. There are numerous guides in this area including the Government Digital Service Content style guide.

Jargon can include technical terms but also some words that people use every day. Within the right context they are fine, but too often they are used to pad out sentences. Words to avoid include:

• innovate and innovative (unless it really is – words like ‘new ideas’, ‘different’ or ‘make changes’ – might be better)
• collaborate (use ‘working with us’)
• facilitate (what are you actually doing?)
• key (when you mean ‘important’)
• transform (what are you actually changing?)

Links should be active and specific. Use meaningful link names that make sense out of context, and avoid adding links with different text going to the same destination on a page.

Don’t start a link with directional text. For example: 'click here for more information' doesn't make sense out of context and wouldn't be found by first letter navigation. This makes our content available to users with different requirements and devices.

Make sure that 'element' names are meaningful element names. For example: 'search box' and 'submit form'.

Links should be opened in the same window, and not opened in a new window.

Examples

Below are some best practice examples:

• View our engineering scholarships
• In the majority of combinations, accounting is fully accredited for entry to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.
• The programme is an innovative cross-faculty alliance between the Strathclyde Business School and the Faculty of Science.

When linking to a URL, use 'https://' as opposed to 'http://' if available.

If linking to resources that require a login, such as SharePoint or PEGASUS, please mention this in the text. For example: ‘Information on how to apply can be found on the PEGASUS apply section (University login required).

Use first names where appropriate, rather than a string of initials. Example:

• Dr Jim Brown rather than Dr J L Brown

Give people’s title, forename and surname when first mentioned. On subsequent mentions, use title and surname. Example:

• Professor Susan Mitchell was the guest lecturer, as was Dr Keith Jones. It was the first time that Dr Jones had spoken to that group.

For someone entitled to a styling such as Sir/Dame as well as an academic title, the academic title always precedes the Sir/Dame in the full first mention. Example:

• Professor Sir Jim McDonald

As a general rule, use figures for numerals (and ordinals) greater than nine and for all numerals that include a decimal point or a fraction.

Examples:

• One to nine (first to ninth) and 10, 11, 12, 13th, 14th, 15^th and 7.1, 8.2 and 9.3.

The exceptions are percentages (9%), monetary values (£8) and when you begin a sentence with a numeral.

Examples:

• Twenty-two higher education institutions exist in Scotland.
• There are 22 higher education institutions in Scotland.

For numbers over a thousand, use a comma: 21,000. It was more than 2,000.

Use ‘500 to 900’ and not ‘500-900’ except in tables.

Also note: 10am; 40mph; 50kg; 18th century

When referring to periods of study, Year 1, for example, use upper case ‘Y’ and the numeral ‘1’. Examples: Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5.

If referring to first year, use lower case ‘f’ and ‘y’. For example: first year, second year, third year, fourth year and fifth year. If referring to Honours year, however, use upper case ‘H’.

The same rules apply to semester. For example: Semester 1, Semester 2 etc and first semester, second semester etc.

In tables, use numbers throughout. This includes the key facts table used on course pages.

Use spacing between parts of telephone numbers (international code, area code, phone number) Example: + 44 (0)141 548 2115

Use numerals and spell out measurements the first time that you write them, for example, 3 centimetres becomes 3cm.

Abbreviating kilograms to kg is fine – you don’t need to spell it out.

If the measurement is more than one word, like ‘kilometres per hour’, then spell it out the first time it is used with the abbreviation. From then on, abbreviate. If it's only mentioned once, don’t abbreviate.

When referring to course grades, use numbers, 2:1 or 2:2 rather than upper Second class or lower Second class.

All webpages must contain a page title content type (uos Page title). Only one page title should be used per page. The page title contains the ‘Heading Level 1’ of your webpage and should correspond with the section name/URL.

Banner images on Page titles should only be used for decorative purposes and not to convey important information. For example, event details, or similar, should not be displayed in the banner but on the main body/text of the webpage.

Always use figures and the symbol %. For example, 20%.

Double quotation marks are used to indicate direct speech.

Example:

The Principal said: "I am pleased to announce that the University has secured £10 million in research funding for 2008."

If the whole or major part of a sentence is included before the closing quotation mark, the full stop should come within the quotation marks. If the text in the quotation is not the major part of the sentence, the full stop should come after the closing quotation mark.

Example:

In announcing the University's campus development plans, the Principal declared that "funding would be sought from external sources".

In long passages of speech, open quotes for every new paragraph, but close quotes only at the end of the final paragraph.

Avoid using symbols (such as % *) as part of your section names and media files in the content management system. These can affect, and potentially break, URLs and links.

Tables should be built from scratch in the content management system (don’t copy and paste a table from Excel onto a webpage, as this won’t translate onto the website.)

All tables must have at least a heading row or column. Data within the table must be associated with these heading cells. 

All tables must have a summary and a caption, and avoid empty cells in your table.

Don’t use tables simply as a layout choice for your page; tables should only be used to display appropriate information. 

Keep written content friendly and conversational in tone, with a focus on our expertise and professionalism. It should be serious, but not pompous.

Picture our audience – everyone from school pupils to funders, to other academics – and write as though you're talking to them with the authority of someone who can actively help.

All of our audience groups should understand our content. Remember that we have a global audience. Use language that is easy to understand and jargon-free.

All videos on the University website need to adhere to our video guidelines.