Sherwood PSF Consulting website: style notes

Language version

UK English, using the –ise (not –ize) spelling for words such as organisation and recognise.

Miscellaneous style rules

Capitalisation

The general rule is to use lower case except if there is a compelling reason to use a capital letter, and this rule extends to the names of website pages.

Avoid the over-use of initial caps because:

Excessive capitalisation makes text look heavy and slows the reader down, especially in websites or anything read on screen.
Once you start capitalising some words in some contexts because they seem somehow special – say for example “Executive Coach” or “Barrister” or “Government” or “Director” or “Board” or “Change Management” or “Business Degree” etc. etc. – it becomes almost impossible to stay consistent.

In general, use capital letters only for:

The first word of a sentence, line or caption
Proper nouns
Job titles when used as a person’s title to describe that person in that current role – but not when used in a general sense in running text or to describe previous roles
Other terms specified in this style guide

Numbers

One to nine in words; 10 and above in figures. For mathematical quantities always use figures. Avoid starting a sentence with a number in figures. Instead, write it out in full, e.g. “Twenty years ago…”

For numbers over a thousand use comma as separator, e.g. £1,400.

Write whole-pound prices without the pence, e.g. £1,400 not £1,400.00.

To write a span of values in running text use the word “to”, e.g. “This would take 1.5 to 2.5 hours.” To write a span of values in a list or table use a hyphen (not a dash) with no space before or after thus: 1.5-2.5 hours.

Telephone numbers

Use the format +44 (0)7717 436465 for mobile numbers.

Hyphens

Where two or more words are used together as an adjective describing a noun that follows, hyphenate them.

Examples:

one-to-one coaching
high-impact approach

But not when you’re using an adverb ending in -ly:

highly skilled trainers – not hyphenated.

Quotations

Double quotes; single quotes only for quotes within quotes.

Oblique stroke / slash

If using this punctuation, put a space before and after the slash except if it’s a small phrase such as and/or. The slash can be a useful shorthand way of linking two things. However, it’s probably usually better to avoid slashes where possible and write “and” or “or” or otherwise expand the phrase to make your meaning clear.

Bulleted lists: capitalisation and punctuation

Write the first word of each item in a list with initial cap.
If each item in the list is a sentence, end each item with a full stop.
If each item is a clause with no verbs, put no end punctuation, not even at the end of the list.
If the list contains some sentences and some verbless clauses, put a full stop at the end of every item for consistency – but it’s best to try to use the same grammatical form for the whole list.

Font formatting

Use bold for intro paragraphs and sparingly for emphasis. Use italics for client quotes or, sparingly, for emphasis. Avoid underlining text because on a website underlined text looks like a link and people will try to click on it.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WORDS AND PHRASES

A

advisor

In preference to adviser.

Air Miles

and, &

Write the word “and” in preference to the ampersand character except in company or brand names that use the ampersand, or where otherwise specified in this guide.

away-day

Hyphenated.

B

Bar, the

Initial cap.

barrister

No initial cap.

C

court

No initial cap.

E

email

No hyphen.

etc.

With full stop.

F

focused, focusing

Use the single s spelling.

FTSE 100

With a space between FTSE and 100 – but don’t let it wrap to two lines.

I

in-house

Always hyphenated even if it doesn’t precede a noun.

N

not-for-profit

P

Panel

Panel as in A Panel, B Panel, C Panel – initial cap P. Otherwise it’s lower case, as in selection panel for example.

proactive

One word, no hyphen.

pro bono

Not hyphenated. Terms beginning with pro are hyphenated where pro means “in favour of”, such as pro-business or pro-European. Latin terms are two words even when they precede what they modify: pro bono, pro forma, pro rata, pro tem.

programme

Not program unless it’s a computer program or a direct quote from a US source or part of a proper noun spelled that way.