Home The Style Guide

The Style Guide

A style guide is a set of guidelines for writing and formatting documents consistently. It helps ensure that an organisation’s written materials are clear, consistent, and easy to read. This is ours.

There are many reasons why we use a style guide:

  • Consistency: A style guide helps ensure that all written materials within an organization are consistent in terms of language, tone, and formatting. This is especially important for large organizations with multiple writers and editors.
  • Clarity: A style guide can help writers avoid confusing or ambiguous language, making their writing clearer and easier to understand.
  • Efficiency: A style guide saves time by providing clear guidelines for writers to follow, eliminating the need to make decisions on minor formatting or language issues.
  • Professionalism: Adhering to a style guide helps writers create professional, polished documents that reflect well on their organization.

Overall, using a style guide helps writers create high-quality written materials that are clear, consistent, and easy to read. So, let’s get into it…

Writing style

  • Use active voice and avoid jargon whenever possible
  • Write in a straightforward, objective manner
  • Use acronyms and abbreviations sparingly and define them on first use
  • Use gender-neutral language

Example: Instead of writing “The soldier conducted a search and seizure operation,” write “The soldier searched the area and seized evidence.”

Tone

  • Keep the tone respectful and professional
  • Avoid sensationalism or hype

Example: Instead of writing “The enemy was completely obliterated in the attack,” write “The attack was successful in defeating the enemy.”

Headlines

  • Keep headlines concise and informative
  • Use title case
  • Avoid clickbait-style headlines

Example: “New military technology successfully tested in field” instead of “You won’t believe what this new technology can do!”

Subheadings

  • Use subheadings to break up long articles and summarise key points
  • Use sentence case

Example: “Successful deployment of new missile system” instead of “SUCCESSFUL DEPLOYMENT OF NEW MISSILE SYSTEM”

Quotations

  • Use double quotation marks for direct quotations
  • Use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes
  • Include the speaker’s name and title in the text, not in the quotation marks
  • Use ellipses (…) to indicate omitted text within a quotation

Example: “According to General John Smith, ‘The operation was a success…we were able to achieve our objectives.'”

Numbers

  • Spell out numbers one through nine and use numerals for numbers 10 and above
  • Use numerals for ages, dimensions, distances, weights, and percentages
  • Use numerals for dates, times, and page numbers
  • Use numerals for large numbers (e.g., 1,000) and round numbers (e.g., $100,000)

Example: “The platoon consisted of 36 soldiers and 2 officers.”

Dates

  • Use the month-day-year format (e.g., January 1, 2020)
  • Abbreviate months with more than four letters (e.g., Jan., Feb., etc.)
  • Use the day of the week only if it is relevant to the story

Example: “The attack took place on October 3, 2020.”

Disputed territories

  • Use neutral language when referring to disputed territories
  • Avoid using language that implies one side or the other has sovereignty over the territory
  • If necessary, specify which countries or groups claim control over the territory

Example: “The disputed territory of XYZ is claimed by both Country A and Country B.”

Proper nouns

  • Use proper nouns (e.g., names, titles, places) correctly and consistently
  • Use titles appropriately (e.g., Mr., Mrs., Dr., etc.)

Example: “General John Smith” instead of “general john smith”

Titles

  • Capitalise job titles only when they are immediately preceded by a name (e.g., “General John Smith”)
  • Lowercase job titles when they are used alone or when they follow a name (e.g., “the general,” “John Smith, general”)

Example: “General John Smith announced the news” instead of “The General announced the news.”

Right to reply

  • Offer individuals or organizations the opportunity to respond to criticism or allegations made in an article
  • Include their response in a fair and balanced manner

Thank you for reading the UK Defence Journal Style Guide. We hope that it has been helpful in providing guidelines for writing and formatting documents consistently and professionally. If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to contact us.