Birkbeck Style Guide
This Style Guide has been created by External Relations to provide guidance and support for all staff members who work with words and have to convey information to people outside of Birkbeck, both online and in print. It includes practical tips on how to write well, how to write specifically for the web and how to convey Birkbeck’s tone of voice. It also includes the nitty-gritty of house style, including grammar and punctuation.
The ultimate aim of this Style Guide is to develop a consistent, recognisable and welcoming tone and style across Birkbeck’s publications and to make staff feel guided and supported when they are writing.
For help on a tone of voice, read our tone of voice guidelines and handy hints.
How to write well for a general audience
- Academic writing is usually produced for a specific audience of informed readers or specialists, whereas general writing is aimed at a far larger, more diverse audience, including prospective and current students, colleagues, external partners and the public. So it’s important that writing produced for Birkbeck’s audiences is simple, clear and comprehensible. Our writing should be readily understandable: we are an open, welcoming university, with a mission to make education and knowledge accessible to the many.
- Here are some tips for writing well for a general audience:
- Grammar, punctuation and spelling: polished writing, free of spelling mistakes or errors of grammar and punctuation, is easy to read, sounds authoritative and instils confidence. Our online and print publications should adhere to the highest standards of writing. If you need help or are unsure, it’s useful to ask somebody else to read and check your writing.
- Intelligent language and well-constructed sentences: use well-honed language that feels authentic to, and appropriate for, a world-class university.
- Tone of voice: adopt an approachable and welcoming tone that is also confident and authoritative. See below for more help with tone of voice.
- Cliché, jargon and ‘corporate speak’: don’t use clichés, jargon or ‘corporate speak’. Try to write in English that is straightforward, specific and easily comprehensible to non-experts. Technical or academic language is sometimes necessary, but readers tend to favour more accessible, everyday language.
- Be direct: use pronouns such as ‘you’, ‘your’ and ‘yours’, and ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘ours’. rather than less warm terms like ‘student’.
- Use the active voice: in a sentence written in the active voice, a person performs the action of the verb. The passive voice can sound formal, vague and weak, whereas the active voice sounds clear, engaging and direct. If you’re unsure, the Microsoft Word spell-check can highlight passive sentences for you.
- Active voice: The professor gave the lecture; We’ll reply as soon as we can; We’ve read your application.
- Passive voice: The lecture was given by the professor; Your letter will be replied to in due course; Your application was received.
- Avoid using humour, slang or colloquial language: Birkbeck’s audience is international and some forms of writing don’t travel well.
- Avoid doubtful or discouraging language: while we shouldn’t make false promises, we should try to avoid over tentative language that might put people off or make them doubt our reputation (eg words such as ‘should’, ‘could’, ‘might’ or ‘aim to’).
- ‘University speak’: the university world is awash with clichés and well-worn phrases. Rather than make broad, unsubstantiated claims, or fall back on tired concepts, try to use facts, examples or stories to convey Birkbeck’s reputation, quality and achievements.
How to write well for the web
- Reading on a screen is tiring and people are usually in a rush, so users seldom read every word on a page - they skim content for important information and helpful links. This means you have to make your content useful, informative, concise and direct. Arrange content so that it is easy to browse, it speaks directly to the user, it comprises short sentences and paragraphs, and it includes helpful links or calls to action.
- How to plan online content:
- Who are you writing for? Who constitutes your audience?
- What do they need to know? What is the essential information you need to convey to them?
- What do you want the user to do (eg click a link to another page, make an application, sign up for an event, download a document)?
- Does this information already exist on the Birkbeck website? If it does, you don’t need to start from scratch - it will be easier to link to the existing content.
- What do you want your audience to know, think and feel after reading your content?
- How to structure and write web content:
- Focus on the user: what the user wants is what matters the most, so try to always keep the user and their needs foremost in your mind when writing.
- Include a call to action: a call to action is an instruction to the user, often with a hyperlink, such as ‘Read more’, ‘Find out more’ ‘Contact us’, ‘Apply now’, ‘Order a prospectus’. A clear call to action encourages the user to interact with the website and with Birkbeck more deeply.
- Get to the point: tell users what they need to know as soon as possible. Don’t save key information until the final sentence, last paragraph, or the bottom of the page. Avoid preamble and expository text: ‘frontload’ by putting the most important information first.
- Keep it short: write short sentences and paragraphs. Ideally, a sentence should contain 1 or 2 ideas and be no more than 25 words or 3 lines long. Aim for 1-3 sentences per paragraph.
- Break up text: chop your content into short blocks of text. If you are copying printed text onto a webpage, you should aim to reduce the extent by 50-75%.
- Make it easy to scan: users scan pages quickly, so give them the tools to find the information they need by using:
- headings
- sub-headings
- bullet point lists.
- Be consistent: use consistent language, tone and layout.
- Use plain, everyday language: use words sparingly and precisely and try to avoid jargon or overly specialist, technical or academic language. Don’t be afraid to be erudite and knowledgeable, though.
- Be direct: use ‘you’ rather than ‘students’, and ‘we’ rather than ‘Birkbeck’ or ‘the College’.
- Avoid caps and underlining: capital letters suggest you are SHOUTING and underlining suggests a link to another page. Use bold, but only if you really have to - you don’t want to come across as bossy or impatient.
- Avoid duplication: don’t repeat (i.e. copy and paste) the same information across different pages. It’s important for search engine optimisation (see below) that content is unique.
- Links: when you are embedding a hyperlink to another page in your content, avoid the phrase ‘Click here’ and try to write a full, descriptive sentence, such as ‘Read more about our online course listings’ or ‘Download our undergraduate prospectus’. The link should make sense if read out of the context of the page.
- Check your writing: check for spelling mistakes, incorrect punctuation and wrong or broken links. It can be helpful to ask somebody else to check your writing.
Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- A search engine is anything that searches the World Wide Web for you. Google is the biggest and most famous search engine in the world: you type in a word, phrase or question and Google searches all of the Web for you, returning what it considers the best results for you.
- ‘Search engine optimisation’ (SEO) means changing the structure, content and layout of your webpage to ensure that Google and other search engines return it highly in their Web search results. This means more people will see your website when they search Google and other search engines and may be more likely to click through to your website.
- When you search Google, the search results page will include two types of result: organic and paid. Organic search results are what Google deems the most relevant results for your query, location and previous search history. Ranking highly in the organic results is the purpose of SEO.
- Paid search results are basically advertisements: a website pays Google for certain keywords, so their webpages show up prominently when someone searches for those keywords. Paid results are often visually different and sit above or to the right of organic results.
- How to optimise your content for search:
- Write well: write good-quality, user-focused content - don’t try to write for a search engine.
- Create unique, rich content: as well as quality text, include videos and images where possible.
- Use clear, descriptive titles and headings: make sure that the URL or Web address of the page, the page title and the main headings contain important keywords that relate to the topic(s) you are writing about.
- Tag audio-visual material: provide a transcript for video and audio content (a caption underneath and ALT tags), if possible, as this makes the content visible to search engines.
- Keywords: these are the words and synonyms people have searched for to find your course (see below).
- Links: include links to pages on high-quality, relevant websites. Check there are no broken links and remove documents that are out-of-date.
Keywords
- These are words and phrases associated with your page. Ideally, people searching for those terms will be able to find your page.
- There are a number of tools you can use to research keywords and see which are the most popular and relevant. Firstly, you can just search Google, see who ranks highly for your specific keywords and then check their page to see how they’ve used those keywords in the title, headings and content.
- Another nifty tool is Google Trends (google.co.uk/trends), which is free and easy to use: you simple type in keywords or phrases and Trends will show you how popular they have been in search since 2004. You can also compare words and phrases against one another, to see which are more popular and which are increasing or declining in popularity.
- Another, more professional tool is Google Adwords - Keyword Planner, which shows you the most popular keywords and how much Google charges for each keyword for pay-per-click (i.e. the more popular a keyword, the more expensive it is). You will need a Google account.
- How to use keywords:
- Use keywords in the page title: make sure the most important keywords are in the title of your page.
- Use keywords in headings: make sure the headings and subheadings on your page also contain important keywords.
- Use keywords in context: don’t randomly drop them into sentences or pointlessly pepper the text with them. Use them in the context of well-written, user-focused content.
- Use keywords near the top of the page: Google prioritises content from the top of the page down.
- Avoid over repeating keywords: use keywords at the top of the page and two or three times in the body of the page.
House style
These are the specific style rules, in alphabetical order, for writing web and printed content at Birkbeck.
Abbreviations
- Don’t use full stops after any abbreviations (am, pm, etc, ie), contractions (Dr) or acronyms (BBC, MA, BSc) and close up space between letters.
Acronyms
- Don’t use full stops after any abbreviations (am, pm), contractions (Dr, Prof) or acronyms (BBC, MA, BSc) and close up space between letters. If an acronym isn’t widely known, spell it out in full the first time, with the acronym following in brackets - you can just refer to the acronym thereafter.
Age
- Try to avoid terms that imply a judgement about the worth of older people, such as ‘the elderly’, ‘pensioners’ and ‘senior citizens’. ‘Older people’ is generally accepted.
Alumni
- When referring to the Professional Services Department, capitalise (eg Alumni). When referring to students who have graduated from Birkbeck, it is usually easier to simply use ‘graduates’ or ‘alumni’.
- Otherwise, remember that:
- alumnus means one male graduate
- alumna means one female graduate
- alumni means a mixed or all-male group of graduates
- alumnae means an all-female group of graduates.
Ampersands
- Only use an ampersand (&) if it is part of the formal title of a publication, organisation or company, or if you have limited space and can only fit in an ampersand. Otherwise, spell out the word ‘and’.
Arcane language
- Avoid using out-of-date or uncommon words, especially amongst and whilst - use among and while instead.
Article titles
- Capitalise the first letter of all words within the title, except articles (a/an/the), prepositions (to/on/for, etc) and conjunctions (but/and/or, etc). Article titles should be placed in single speech marks (‘Victorian Stage Adaptations’), with any quotes within the title in double speech marks (‘“May We Meet Again”: Rereading the Dickensian Serial in the Digital Age’).
- For journal titles, capitalise the first letter of all words within the title, except articles (a/an/the), prepositions (to/on/for, etc) and conjunctions (but/and/or, etc). Journal titles should be italicised (Journal of Victorian Literature and Culture).
Bibliographic referencing styles
- A wide range of bibliographic styles are used by scholars and students across Birkbeck, including: the APA (American Psychological Association); MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association); MLA (Modern Language Association); Chicago; and Harvard. Different subject areas usually endorse a particular style (eg MHRA style is the standard across many arts subjects). Check with your department which referencing system they recommend and follow the specific guidelines for that. Otherwise, see individual headings for details on how to reference books, chapters, journals, etc.
Bold
- Use bold to emphasise text, especially for a name, a call to action, a deadline date or another key piece of information, but use it sparingly. Bold is the main form of emphasis for online writing.
Book/journal/film/song titles
- Capitalise the first letter of all words within the title, except articles (a/an/the), prepositions (to/on/for, etc) and conjunctions (but/and/or, etc). Book and film titles should be italicised (Bleak House, Metropolis) and songs should be placed in single speech marks (‘Like a Prayer’).
Bullet points
- Bullet points make it easy for a reader to locate important information and they are especially used to format and present information on a webpage.
- Bullet points can be presented as a list, as full sentences or as incomplete sentences (fragments). Choose one of these styles and be consistent - don’t use a mixture.
- Lists that are part of a sentence: don’t capitalise any word in the list, don’t use semicolons and use a full stop after the final bullet point eg Our department offers courses in:
- archaeology
- classics
- history.
- Lists that are not part of a sentence: capitalise each word in the list and don’t use full stops eg
- Central London
- Stratford
- Other
- Full sentences: capitalise the first word of, and use a full stop after, every bullet point eg
- We offer a range of free evenings and services, designed to help you in your application and transition to Birkbeck.
- Our monthly Get Started workshops cover finance, funding and loans, preparing for study, and making an application.
- At our campus in Stratford, we offer a free advice and guidance service in partnership with the University of East London (UEL).
- Fragments: the text introducing the list of bullet points should end with a colon. Do not capitalise the first word of the bullet points, do not use punctuation (comma, semicolon) at the end of the fragments and use a full stop after the final bullet point eg At Open Evening, you can meet:
- lecturers and find out more about the courses they teach
- former students and hear how they advanced their careers
- special advisers to discuss fees and finance
- career specialist for advice on careers and employability.
Capitalisation
- Use a minimum of capital letters, except for the titles of books and journals, chapter and article titles and qualifications.
- Birkbeck: capitalise College when referring to Birkbeck directly (eg the College was founded in 1823), but use lower-case when referring to Birkbeck indirectly (eg Birkbeck is a college of the University of London).
- Emphasis: do not use capital letters for emphasis - use bold instead.
- Job titles: specific job titles at Birkbeck should be capitalised: Master, Programme Director, Programme Administrator.
- Schools and departments: the title of a school or department should always be capitalised when written in full (eg Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication; School of Business, Economics and Informatics). If you are referring to a specific department or school in your text, you should capitalise Department and School (eg ‘Academics in our School… ‘Our Department is ...’), but don’t capitalise for general or indirect references (eg ‘Birkbeck has five schools in total’). When mixing references with our schools and primary and secondary schools, capitalise our schools (eg ‘Birkbeck’s Schools are working with a local primary school’).
- Subjects and degrees: do not use capital letters for subjects, other than when part of a formal degree title (eg If you want to study history at undergraduate level, our BA History is ideal).
- Chapter titles: capitalise the first letter of all words within the title, except articles (a/an/the), prepositions (to/on/for, etc) and conjunctions (but/and/or, etc). Chapter titles should be placed in single speech marks (‘Victorian Stage Adaptations’), with any quotes within the title in double speech marks (‘“May We Meet Again”: Rereading the Dickensian Serial in the Digital Age’).
Commas
- Try to avoid using the Oxford or serial comma, which is a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’ (eg red, white and blue). If the sentence is unclear without an Oxford or serial comma then try rephrasing it, but use one if it add clarity to a list or sentence.
Contractions
- Don’t use full stops after any abbreviations (am, pm), contractions (Dr) or acronyms (BBC, MA, BSc) and close up space between letters. Don’t contract Professor to Prof - always spell it out.
Course titles
- Course titles should be capitalised (eg BA History and Archaeology), but subjects shouldn’t be capitalised in other contexts (eg Birkbeck has been teaching psychology since 1939).
- The word ‘course’ is preferable for an external, general audience, especially for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) purposes, whereas ‘programme’ should only be used for internal audiences.
Dashes/hyphens
- Full-time and part-time are always hyphenated.
- These are the three main types of hyphen:
- The short dash or hyphen (-) this is used for date ranges online (1990-99) and compound phrases (such as nineteenth-century history or part-time course). Please always use a short dash for hyphenation of all types online, including date ranges and sentence subclauses.
- The en dash (–) this is double the length of a short dash and it is used in printed publications for date ranges and in sentences for subclauses.
- The em dash (—) this is double the length of an en dash. Do not use this dash. Some bibliographic styles recommend duplicating it when it appears in primary sources - check with your department if you are unsure.
Degree titles
- Master’s and Bachelor’s are capitalised when referring to a specific degree course (eg Our Master’s in Computing) and lower-case for general references (our master’s degrees). They both always have a possessive apostrophe (‘) before the s.
- Don’t use full stops in degree acronyms (eg BA, not B.A.).
- When referring to a specific course type, use capitals (eg Foundation Degree in Management), but use lower-case when non-specific (e.g ‘our range of certificates of higher education’).
Department and school titles
- The title of a school or department (including Professional Services departments) should always be capitalised when written in full (eg External Relations, Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication, School of Business, Economics and Informatics).
- If you are referring to a specific department or school in your text, you should capitalise Department and School (eg ‘Academics in our School… ‘Our Department is ...’), but don’t capitalise for general references (eg ‘Birkbeck has five schools in total’). When mixing references with our schools and primary and secondary schools, capitalise our schools (eg ‘Birkbeck’s Schools are working with a local primary school’).
- Try to refer to your department and school using ‘we’, ‘our’ and ‘us’ to make your writing more friendly and engaging.
Ethnicity and cultural and religious difference
- Birkbeck is very proud of the rich, diverse and international composition of its student and staff body, which reflects London’s status as a world city. Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BME or BAME) people make up a substantial proportion of our student population.
- People from ethnic, cultural and religious minorities within the UK should never be presented using stereotyped, discriminatory or judgemental language, or as exemptions from the norm.
- The term ‘Black people’ (with a capitalised B) generally refers either to people of African or Afro-Caribbean origin or heritage. If you need to refer to wider groups of people, use the term Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BME or BAME).
- Try to avoid using the terms ‘immigrant(s)’ or ‘asylum seeker(s)’, except in very specific circumstances. Avoid the terms ‘non-white’ and ‘coloured’.
Gender
- Try to avoid using gender binary language, including ‘she/he’, ‘her/him’, ‘hers/his’.
- Address the reader directly as 'you' and, if you are writing in the third person, use 'they', 'their' and 'them' (eg Every student must submit their coursework by the end of term).
- Avoid using gender to modify nouns - ‘female lecturer’, ‘male administrator’ - and gender stereotypes, such as ‘working mother’ and ‘housewife’. Do not use the feminine forms of nouns: actress, comedienne, heroine, hostess, manageress, etc - use, rather, actor, comedian, hero, etc.
- People with different sex/gender identities should should always be written about with sensitivity, tact and respect. Note the important differences between transvestite, transexual and transgender people and don’t use the terms interchanegable. Also be aware and respectful of non-binary pronouns and titles (eg Mx).
Italics
- Italics should be used very sparingly; they are generally only used for book, journal and publication titles, or for non-English words and phrases that are not in common usage. Reading italics on screen is particularly tiring for eyes. If you wish to emphasise a word or phrase, use bold instead.
Lists
- For lists that are not bullet points, use a colon to open the list and semi-colons to separate each item within the list, and signal the final item with the word ‘and’ (eg You can study a range of subjects: archaeology; classics; history; and international relations).
Modules
- The titles of modules should be capitalised when referred to in full (eg You take Approaches to Language in your first term). The word modules itself is not capitalised and neither are the types of module (eg compulsory modules, core modules). Use option, rather than optional, modules (eg You can choose from a wide range of option modules).
Name of Birkbeck
- Our official title is ‘Birkbeck, University of London’. Please try not to refer to ‘Birkbeck College’, although you can refer to ‘the College’. College is always capitalised (eg the College is pleased to announce…).
Numbers (centuries, Roman numerals, percentages)
- Numbers one to nine should be written out in words (one, two, three, nine) while any numbers from 10 onwards should be written as numerals (10, 20, 50, 100, 1000).
- For design purposes and for reasons of space, it may sometimes be necessary to use numerals rather than spell out number (eg our print prospectuses use numerals for the duration of our courses: 3-year full-time course, 2-year part-time course).
- In print, use an en dash for a number range (eg 10–12). Online, use a hyphen (eg 10-12).
- Academic years: you can choose to either use the format ‘2017-18’ or 2017/18, but ensure you are consistent and only use one format throughout your tex. In print, use an en dash for a date range (eg 2017–2018). Online, use a hyphen (eg 2017-2018).
- Centuries: the names of centuries should be written out in full and they should be hyphenated if used adjectively: eighteenth century (not 18th century or C18th) and eighteenth-century culture (adjectival use). For design purposes and for reasons of space, it may sometimes be necessary to use numerals rather than spell out numbers.
- Currency: these should always be written in numerals, preceded by the appropriate symbol. Render millions with m and billions with b (eg £15, $400m).
- Dates: use the format: day/month/year, The name of the month and the year should always appear in full (eg 12 January 2017). Do not use ‘th’ ‘rd’ with dates, just the number and the month (eg 10 May). Do not use a comma after the day (eg Monday, 3 May).
- Decades: do not use a possessive apostrophe before or after decades (eg 60s, not 60’s or ‘60s).
- Eras: different subjects have different conventions when it comes to using BC/AD (Before Christ/Anno Domini) or BCE/CE (Before Common Era/Common Era), so you should use whichever is appropriate to your subject or your writing.
- Measurements: these should always be written in numerals, following by the appropriate symbol (eg 10cm, 500km), with no spaces between the number and symbol.
- Ordinals: spell these out for numbers from one-nine (eg first, second, ninth) and then use numerals for ordinals over 10 (eg 10th, 50th, 73rd).
- Percentages: these should always be written in numerals, following by the percentage symbol (eg 10%), with no spaces between the number and symbol.
- Roman numerals: avoid using Roman numerals (IV, VIII, X, C, M), unless they are part of the title of a publication or are used by a journal to differentiate between volumes. Please use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3) wherever possible.
- Thousands: do not use a comma unless there are five digits or more (eg 3000, 12,000).
- Time: use the 12-hour clock, separate the numerals with a full stop and follow the numerals with am or pm without full stops between the letters (eg The lecture starts at 11.30am).
Page references
- Page references should be abbreviated to p (page) or pp (pages) and you should always use numerals. Page ranges should be separated by an en dash in print and a short dash/hyphen online (eg pp1–10 or pp1-10).
Phone numbers
- Use spaces between the different parts of a phone number: international code, area code and phone number (eg 020 7380 3171). Bracket the 0 when including the international dialling code (eg +44 (0)20 7380 3171). Mobile numbers follow the same format (eg. 07778 778 874).
Professor
- Always spell out the word professor - don’t use the contraction Prof. Capitalise professor when referring to a specific person (eg Professor Jones has written extensively on…), but use lower-case when using a generic reference (eg there are several professors working in this field).
Quotation marks
- Use single quotations marks (‘), not double (“). The only exceptions are:
- Birkbeck news stories that are directly quoting.
- For design purposes, a double quotation mark may stand out more.
School and department titles
- The title of a school or department should always be capitalised when written in full (eg Department of Applied Linguistics and Communication; School of Business, Economics and Informatics).
- If you are referring to a specific department or school in your text, you should capitalise Department and School (eg ‘Academics in our School… ‘Our Department is ...’), but don’t capitalise for general references (eg ‘Birkbeck has five schools in total’).
Sexual orientation
- Lesbian, gay, bisexual and queer people should not be described using language that demeans, discriminates, stereotypes or sensationalises. They should never be presented as abnormal, wrong, immoral, or as an illness or problem.
- Outside of scholarly or historical work, try to avoid the word ‘homosexual’, as this has fallen out of general usage and has negative connotations.
- Be aware of the different acronyms in use for the gay community (LQBTQ+) and use the most appropriate in the context.
Small caps
- Do not use small caps, even for BC, AD, BCE and CE.
Spelling
- Use the suffixes -ise/-yse/-isation (not -ize/-yze/-ization), as this is common British usage.
- The only exception at Birkbeck is the Department of Organizational Psychology, which has adopted the -ization ending, but this should only be used for the title of the Department.
Underlining
- Avoid underlining words or phrases for emphasis, especially online, as this indicates a hyperlink to another page - use bold instead.
Web addresses
- Avoid using ‘http://www’ when writing web addresses (eg bbk.ac.uk), unless the address won’t work without this prefix when typed into a browser.