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NCSL editorial style guide

British English (-ise) | Oxford English Dictionary
Last updated: 9 January 2008

The NCSL editorial style guide, for print and electronic content, is designed to be a reference for:

Tips for using the style guide

The style guide is a working document, which will be updated and revised. Any revisions will be highlighted.

Abbreviations and acronyms

  1. The first time that an abbreviation is used, it should be written out in full and followed by the abbreviation.
    The National Professional Qualification for Headteachers (NPQH) is mandatory. NPQH is for aspiring headteachers.
    The abbreviation alone can then be used in sentences that follow.
  2. Avoid unnecessary or ambiguous abbreviations
    local authority not LA
  3. Use no punctuation with: etc, ie, eg, km
  4. Abbreviate kilobytes to kb (no space): 16kb
    Abbreviate megabytes to Mb (no space): 5Mb

Apostrophes

  1. Use the normal possessive ('s) after singular words and names that end in s.
    St. James's, boss's, Professor Jones's
  2. Use the normal possessive ('s) after plurals that do not end in s.
    children's, women's, media's
  3. Use the ending s' on plurals that end in s, including plural names that take a singular verb.
    bosses', Joneses', Reuters', Barclays', Smith Brothers'
  4. Although singular in other respects, the United States, the United Nations, the Philippines etc, have a plural possessive apostrophe:
    We visited the United States' new centre for learning.
  5. Use an
    apostrophe for the meaning 'worth of'.
    He has six years' experience.
    In a month's time, we will launch the programme.
  6. Do not put apostrophes into decades.
    the 1990s or the nineties

Articles

  1. Avoid overuse of definite articles
    NPQH is for aspiring headteachers not The NPQH is for aspiring headteachers
    NCSL is delivering six new programmes not The NCSL is delivering six new programmes
  2. Take care with indefinite articles.
    an LPSH participant, a hotel,an MP
  3. Use 'an' rather than 'a' before words which start with a silent h
    an honest, an hour

Biased language

Wherever possible, avoid biased language.

  1. Take care that any terms you use in connection with ethnicity, sexual orientation and disabilities are not offensive to the people they refer to.
  2. Avoid using occupational titles ending in ‘-man’ unless you want to refer exclusively to male workers.
  3. Avoid using masculine nouns and pronouns to refer to groups that include women.
  4. Use minority ethnic not ethnic minority.

Bulleted lists and numbered lists

Lists that are not whole sentences should start with lower case. They should not contain semicolons or commas at the end of the bullet. Such lists should start with either all nouns or all verbs. Do not mix nouns and verbs if at all possible.

The NCSL lake contains:

In general, use bullets not numbers unless the number of items is important. In lists that include infinitive verbs, ensure the 'to' appears before the colon (not semicolon) and is not repeated each time.

Schools should aim to:

If lists are whole sentences, each item should start with a capital letter and end with a full stop.

There are three stages that need to be completed.

1. The pilot phase takes six months to complete.
2. The main phase may take up to one year to complete.
3. The final phase consists of a residential seminar.

Capitalisation

Overcapitalisation is common and it is often used incorrectly for emphasis. Remember, overcapitalisation slows down reading speed and is uncomfortable on the eye.

  1. Use initial capitals for proper nouns and names.
    The Department for Children, Schools and Families
  2. Capitalise the names of books, films and other major works in the usual way. Capitalise first words and all words apart from prepositions and conjunctions of fewer than five letters.
    Leading from the Middle
  3. Rough descriptions or references. Always use lower case for rough descriptions or references.
    the strategy (National Numeracy Strategy)
    the framework (Leadership Development Framework)
    the programme (the     NPQH programme)
    the UK education department (Department for Children, Schools and Families)
    The one important exception is: the College (the National College for School Leadership)
  4. Use upper case for definite geographical places, regions, areas, titles and countries.
    South-East Asia
    Mexico City
    The Hague
    the Middle East
    the Midlands
    the River Thames
    the West     (as opposed to the Developing World)
    the West Country
    Western Europe
  5. Use lower case for seasons of the year in running text.
    The prospectus will be updated in spring 2003.
    Use upper case for seasons in the title of a publication.
    NCSL Prospectus Spring 2003
  6. Use lower case for points of the compass.
    east, west, north, south
    Schools in the north east have more playing fields than those in the south west.
  7. Miscellaneous list
    A level
    autumn
    black
    Beacon schools
    cabinet
    Christmas day
    civil servant
    the College
    email
    governing council
    government
    headteacher
    internet
    Ldr
    leadership team
    Master's
    new year
    PowerPoint
    school improvement plan
    speaker
    talk2learn     (always begins with a lower case letter, even at the beginning of a sentence)
    the press
    website
    white paper
    winter

See also: Preferred spellings and usage
See also: NCSL terminology

Capitalisation of titles

  1. Terms are capitalised when used as titles. They should be in lower case when referring to the office or appointment.
    Chief Executive Steve Munby visited Becta.
    Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families Ed Balls     (note no commas in his official title)
    A visit by Professor Richard Powell is planned.
    John Smith, Headteacher of Rainham Primary School, was...
    but
    She was appointed prime minister.
    New headteachers often feel isolated.
    The next chief executive of the GLC will be a woman.
  2. Titles used in direct address are capitalised.
    'Tell us, President Bush, ...'
    'A question for you, Professor, ...'

Colons

  1. Use a colon to complete a sentence.
    They wanted to deliver the goods: better teaching and better results.
  2. Use a colon before a whole quoted sentence, but not before a quotation that begins mid-sentence.
    She said: "It will never work". He retorted that it had "always worked before".
  3. Use a colon for antithesis or contrasts.
    Man proposes: God disposes.

Commas

  1. Do not use a comma before 'and'.
    Children, teachers and parents will benefit.
    Note that there are exceptions for reasons of sense.
    There were lots of pies including beef, apple and plum, and pork.
  2. It is better in general text to put a comma after a time phrase at the start of a sentence.
    On Tuesday, he decided to teach literature.
    Additionally, it should be noted that...
    On 2 August 2002, the framework was launched.
  3. The position of the comma can change the meaning of a sentence.
    However, we learnt it was going to be a slow process.
    However we learnt, it was going to be a slow process.
  4. When inserting a clause in the middle of a sentence, use two commas. Not doing so can alter the sense.
    Professor Southworth's latest research paper on the desk is... Without commas the sentence is grammatically correct, but suggests he has written research about desks.
    Professor Southworth's latest research paper, on the desk, is...
    Adding commas indicates the paper is physically on the desk.
  5. Commas and brackets. Do not put commas after question marks, even when they would be separated by quotation marks:
    "What do you think, Professor?" he asked.

En dashes (not hyphens)

En dashes (also called en rules) are longer than hyphens. Hyphens are used for words and en dashes are used for sentences. They can be added by switching on NUM lock on the keyboard and using CTRL - (found on the top right of the numerical key pad) or ALT 150 (on numerical key pad).

  1. Spaced en dashes are used for parenthesis. Use in pairs, but not more than one pair per sentence, ideally not more than one pair per paragraph. The other organisations – the vast majority NDPBs – were funded by the government. Use dashes in this way to:
    • introduce an explanation, amplification, paraphrase or correction of what immediately precedes
    • gather up the subject of a long sentence
    • introduce a paradoxical ending to a sentence
  2. Unspaced en dashes are used to mean 'to' in certain phrases:1990–99, March–April, pp 1–50, London–Brighton road

The en dash should not be used with the word 'from'.
from March to April
from Nottingham to Leicester
The unspaced en dash should not be used together with hyphens.
5- to 11-year-olds

See also: Hyphenation

Fewer, less

  1. For countable nouns use 'fewer'.
    There were fewer children than teachers.
  2. For non-countable nouns use 'less'.
    There was less wine than water.

Foreign words

  1. Any 'de' or 'von' is likely to be lower case, unless it starts a sentence.
    De Bono is a leading educational thinker.
    Edward de Bono will be sitting in the hotseat.
  2. Borrowed words that are accented should only include the accent in English text if omitting the accent would change the pronunciation. Include the accent for café and cliché, but not for elite.

Hyphenation

If in doubt, follow the Oxford English Dictionary (not Collins) hyphenation rules.

  1. Hyphenate compounds such as up-to-the-minute and out-of-date when used attributively (before a noun). They are used with spaces when used predicatively.
    The out-of-date research paper. The research paper is out of date.
  2. Hyphenate compounds used attributively. in-house teams, a 12-year-old pupil
  3. Hyphenate fractions (whether nouns or adjectives).two-thirds, four-fifths, one-sixth
  4. Words with prefixes such as anti-,non-, and neo- are generally to be hyphenated.
    non-existent, non-payment, non-violent
    Exceptions are: nonaligned, nonconformist, nonplussed, nonstop, neoclassicism, neolithic, neologism
  5. Separate identical letters with a hyphen.
    co-operate, co-ordinate, unco-operative, pre-eminent, pre-empt, re-emerge, re-entry
    Exceptions include: override, overrule, underrate, withhold
  6. Nouns formed from prepositional verbs need a hyphen.
    build-up, call-up, get-together, round-up, set-up, shake-up, knowledge-building
  7. Adverbs do not need to be linked to participles or adjectives by hyphens in simple constructions.
    The school was ill equipped for delivering ICT.
    The principle is well established    .
    But if the adverb is one of two words together being used adjectivally, a hyphen may be needed.
    All well-established principles should be periodically challenged.
underachievee-commercead hoc (always)ad hoc agreement
anticlimaxe-learningcase studyin as much
backlogknow-howcash flowin so far
bilingualknowledge-buildingcommon sense (noun) 
blackboardlife-longen suite 
bypasslike-mindedflip chart 
childcarelong-standinghome page 
comebacklong-termhome worker 
commonsense (adj)mid-Augustnorth east(ern) 
downturnmid-weekroll out (verb) 
emailpart-timethink tank 
foreverpolicy-makerturning point 
handoutpost-holderunder way 
headteacherroll-out (noun)vice versa 
keywordwell-beingvideo recording 
laptop web team 
multilingual   
nationwide   
nevertheless   
nonetheless   
offline   
ongoing   
online   
overpaid   
podcast   
PowerPoint   
redesign   
reinvent   
shortlist   
subcommittee   
takeover   
teamwork   
timetable   
toolkit   
turnout   
underpaid   
underperform   
update (verb)   
wallchart   
website   
workforce   
worldwide   

Initials

Use spaces and no full stops between personal initials: G A Kelly

See also: References and bibliographies

Miscellaneous points

  1. Practice or practise? In British English, use practice for the noun and practise for the verb. The same rule applies for licence and license, advice and advise.
    NCSL aims to share good practice and has licensed a new provider to achieve this.
  2. Owing to or due to? At the beginning of a sentence use 'owing to' or 'because of'. Use 'due to' mid-sentence.
    He has resigned due to differences of opinion.
    Owing to a lack of funding, the school had to close.
  3. Sex or gender? Sex tends to refer to biological differences, while gender tends to refer to cultural or social ones. Use the term 'sex' on forms when asking candidates to state whether they are male or female.

NCSL terminology


Bursar Development Programme not Bursar Development programme
Consultant Leader Development Programme not Consultant Leaders Development Programme
Early Headship Provision not Early Headship Programme
governing council not Governing Council
hotseat not hot seat not Hot seat
International Placements for Headteachers
Leadership Development Framework (LDF)
Leadership Network (use all lower case when referring to the network) *new*
leadership team not Leadership Team
Leading Practice seminars not Leading Practice Seminars not Leading Edge seminars not Leading Edge Seminars
Leading from the Middle not Leading From The Middle
marketing team
National Professional Qualification for Headship (NPQH)
NCSL help desk not helpdesk
Networked Learning Communities not Network Learning Communities
New Visions not New Visions Programme for Early Headship not New Visions Pilot Programme for Early Headship
online team
Primary Strategy Leadership Programme
research associates (the people) not Research Associates
Research Associates Programme not Research Associates programme
research team
school business managers not bursars
Strategic Leadership of ICT (SLICT) not Strategic Leadership in ICT
talk2learn (always begins with a lower case letter, even at the beginning of a sentence)
Virtual School

See also: Capitalisation
See also: Preferred spellings and usage

Numbers

  1. Write out in full:
    • numbers from zero to nine
    • numbers in definitions unless from 10 and above: four per cent, five miles, 15 miles
    • numbers used figuratively: I've told them a hundred times.
  2. Use digits for:
    • numbers from 10 and above
    • numbers below and above nine in the same sentence
      There were 8 students in one class and 11 in the other.
    • centuries and dates: 21st century
    • sums of money: It cost £15,000.
  3. Never start a sentence with a number. Write the number in words instead or turn the sentence round.
    Eleven pupils were excluded. The number of exclusions was 11.
  4. Use commas with numbers of four digits and over in general text.
    The school has 1,500 pupils.
  5. Use common fractions or percentages rather than decimals where possible.
    The staff are three-quarters women.
  6. Fractions should be hyphenated (one-half, three-quarters) and spelled out in words, even when the number is higher than nine.
    A tenth of children suffer bullying at school.
  7. Spell out million and billion unless in tables: £8 million
  8. Spell out per cent instead of %, unless in tables.
    Exclusions have fallen by five per cent.
  9. Where 'to' is being used as part of a ratio, it is usually best to spell it out.
    They decided, by 30 votes to 12, to put the matter to the general assembly which voted, 27 to 19.
  10. Elision of pairs of numbers: 21–4, 1–305, 115–119
  11. Dates should be elided to the last two digits: 2006–07

See also: En dashes (not hyphens)
See also: Time

Preferred spellings and usage

acknowledgement not acknowledgment (AmE)
adviser not advisor
focused not focussed
focuses not foci
Beacon schools not Beacon Schools not beacon schools
Becta not BECTa
the College not the college (when referring to NCSL)
consortia not consortiums *new*
email not e-mail not E-mail
government not Government
headteacher not head teacher not Headteacher
login (noun) not log-in
log in (verb) not login
internet not Internet
intranet not Intranet
judgement (for general documents) not judgment
judgment (for legal documents) not judgement
Key Stage 4 not key stage 4 not Key stage 4
Master's not master's not masters (short for Master's degree)
national curriculum not National Curriculum
National Numeracy Strategy not national numeracy strategy
Ofsted not OFSTED
residential course not residential (residential is an adjective and not a noun)
the press not the Press
think tank not think-tank not Think Tank
webcast not web cast
website not web site not Website not Web site
white paper not White Paper
Year 6 not year six not year 6

See also: Capitalisation
See also: NCSL terminology

Punctuation

  1. Never use exclamation marks.
  2. Semi-colons should be used to mark a pause longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop. Don't overdo them.
  3. Add a full stop after an email address or web address.
    Visit the NCSL website at www.ncsl.org.uk.
  4. Do not use / (forward slash) to mean 'or'. Do not use 'and/or'.
  5. Avoid the overuse of brackets.
  6. Avoid the use of ampersands, unless for book titles and authors. Use 'and' for running text.

See also: Apostrophes
See also: Bulleted lists and numbered lists
See also: Colons
See also: Commas
See also: En dashes (not hyphens)

Quotes and quotations

  1. Use double quote marks when quoting speech and speech taken from a text (eg talk2learn forums). Note that the quote marks should come before the full stop if a partial sentence is quoted and after the full stop if a full sentence is quoted.
    He said during the conference "laptops will be available for all headteachers".
    "There will be another laptop for headteachers scheme this year."
  2. Use single quote marks when quoting books, titles or works.

See also: References and bibliographies

References and bibliographies

Published works should be in one alphabetical list. Multi-author works should have the list at the end of each author's piece. The preferred house style for references and bibliographies is as follows:

When linking to a specific web page, particularly on the NCSL website, use the page alias rather than the page id, ie www.ncsl.org.uk/npqh not http://www.ncsl.org.uk/programmes/npqh/index.cfm. This ensures that if the page id changes, the link will not be lost. If an alias does not exist, or you are not sure if one exists, email the web team at NCSL and they will set one up.

See also: Quotes and quotations

Time

  1. Use the twelve hour clock.
  2. Use lower case for am and pm without a space.
    10am, 9pm
  3. Use the fewest possible digits. 9–10am, 10.30–10.45am, 10.45am–12pm
  4. Use a full stop to separate hours and minutes.
    He arrived at 8.30am, some 20 minutes late, but 30 minutes earlier than his colleague.
  5. For dates, use the format 15 July 2005 unless in tables when the format 15/07/05 can be used. Do not abbreviate the days of the week or the months in running text. Only abbreviate in a table to the following format. Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun
    Jan    , Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec