Content guide - Formatting and punctuation

Abbreviations, acronyms, capitalisation and other content styles.

Abbreviations and acronyms

We explain an abbreviation or acronym in full on its first use unless it's well known, like UK, NHS, GP. Then we refer to it by initials.

Example: A body mass index (BMI) above the healthy weight range can increase your risk of serious health problems.

Aligning text

Left-align text in English.

Some people with cognitive differences have difficulty with blocks of text that are justified (aligned to left and right margins).

Also people who use screen magnifiers may miss text that is not left-aligned.

For translations into languages that run right to left (like Arabic), right-align instead.

Read about text alignment in the design system.

Apostrophes

We use straight, not curly apostrophes. Take care when pasting in text.

Do not use	Use
you’ll	you'll

Read more about contractions like "you'll" and "can't" in the contractions section.

Bold, italics and underlining

Use bold sparingly. Do not use italics or underlining (except for links, which are underlined by default).

Use bold in technical instructions to tell users which element (for example, a text input or button) to select. For example: Select More, then select Messages.

Do not use bold to emphasise text. To emphasise words or phrases, you can:

• front-load sentences
• use headings
• use bullets
• use words like "important" in your content

Why we say this

Large areas of bold, italics or underlining can be difficult for some people to read. Too much bold makes it difficult for them to know which parts of your content to pay most attention to.

People may mistake stand-alone bold text for a heading and underlined text for a link.

By default, screen readers do not announce text in these HTML tags differently:

• <b> or <strong> for bold
• <i> for italics
• <em> for emphasis

Users may miss anything you wanted to express by using them.

Capitalisation

We do not use block capitals as they're difficult for people to read.

We always use sentence case, including page titles. The exception is proper nouns and examples in the GOV.UK style guide capitalisation list.

Generic drug names start lower case. Brand names get an initial capital letter, except where the brand uses lower case itself.

Examples:

• Codeine comes mixed with paracetamol (co-codamol) or with aspirin (co-codaprin) or with ibuprofen (Nurofen Plus).
• Watch these healthtalk.org videos.

Conditions are lower case except where they start with a proper name.

Examples:

• Alzheimer's disease
• cancer of the colon
• Down's syndrome
• multiple sclerosis
• Parkinson's disease
• type 1 diabetes

But note: caesarean section.

Also see the entries for "Black or black" and "White or white" in the A to Z of NHS health writing.

Contractions

We use contractions like you'll, we'll, you're and what's. Often contractions make content friendlier and easier to read.

Do not use negative contractions like can't and don't. When you’re telling users not to do something, use "Do not" rather than "Don't".

Avoid should've, could've, would've and they've. They can be hard to read.

Contractions in URLs and page titles

Do not use contractions in URLs (web addresses). They can be unclear, hard to read, type and share. Some are ambiguous, like "shell" and "were" (for "she'll" and "we're").

If you can, avoid using contractions in page titles and H1s too. Ideally the page title and URL should be the same.

Full stops

Do not use full stops in headings, buttons or action links.

We do not use full stops in cards, where the card contains a single sentence and acts as a brief link to another page.

Hyphens and dashes

Hyphens

Hyphens can clutter content and make it more difficult to read.

Only use a hyphen if a word or sentence is confusing without it.

Ask yourself if there's a chance someone could misread what you've written and then add a hyphen if needed. Compare "recover" and "re-cover" (meaning "put on a new cover").

You can often write something simply and clearly without a hyphen. For example, "has no sugar" instead of "sugar-free".

We use a hyphen for:

• non-alcoholic
• non-drowsy
• self-care, self-help, self-isolate, self-test

We do not use a hyphen for:

• anticoagulant
• beta blockers
• breastfeeding

Whether or not we use a hyphen depends on the context.

Use "long term" in phrases like "in the long term". But use a hyphen for "long-term" as an adjective, for example in "long-term care". Do the same with "short term" and "short-term".

Use "follow up" as a verb, but "follow-up" with a hyphen in "follow-up appointment".

Dashes

Dashes can make content hard to read so we do not often use them.

You can use a dash, or a comma, in a bulleted list if you need to expand on an item. But follow our guidance on lists and keep bullet points as short as possible.

Consider other ways of formatting your content without dashes, for example:

• using a comma or brackets
• writing shorter sentences
• using subheadings
• using a table

We use "to" instead of a dash for ranges of numbers, dates or time.

Lists

Use lists to make text easier to read.​

Bulleted lists should be short and snappy. If possible, limit your list to no more than 6 items.​ Each item in the list should be roughly the same length.

We use bullet points in:

• the pattern to help users decide when and where to get care (care cards)
• Do and Don’t lists

Lists with a lead-in line

This is our preferred list style.

Use a lead-in line with a colon. The bullets should make sense running on from the lead-in line. In effect, the list is 1 continuous sentence.

Each bullet point starts lower case and has no punctuation at the end, including after the last point.

Do not include more than 1 sentence at each bullet point.

Avoid ending a bullet point with "and" and "or". Use the lead-in to let people know the options.

Full sentence lists

If your user research shows that it helps your users, you can use full sentence bullet points. For example, our medicines information uses full sentence bullet points for key facts.

Each bullet point should be distinct information, start with a capital letter and end with a full stop. There should be no lead in line.

Numbered lists

We use numbered lists instead of bulleted ones to guide people through a process. Each point starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop, without a lead-in line.

Quotation marks

Do not:

• overdo quotation marks – they can be distracting and are often unnecessary
• use them to tell users which element (for example, a text input or button) to select – instead use bold in technical instructions

We generally use straight double quotes:

• when quoting another source
• for unusual or colloquial terms, for example: Diuretics are sometimes called "water pills" because they make you pee more.

Use single quotes for:

• quotes within quotes, for example: "'Helicopter parenting' linked to behavioural problems in children," reports The Independent.
• headlines
• captions
• large-type quotes

Help us improve this guidance

Share insights or feedback and take part in the discussion. We use GitHub as a collaboration space. All the information on it is open to the public.

Read more about how to feedback or share insights.

If you have any questions, get in touch with the service manual team.

Updated: August 2023