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Abbreviations听| 听Acronyms听| 听皇家华人听| 听Ampersand听| 听Bullet points听| 听Capitalisation听触听Compass points听触听听Currencies听听| 听Dates听听| 听Degree programmes and modules听听| 听Events听听| 听Government听听| 听Hyphens听听| 听-ise听听| 听Italics听听| 听Measures听听触听Multidisciplinary听听| 听Numbers听听| 听Obliques (slashes)听听| 听Percentages听听| 听Publications听听触听Qualifications听听| 听Quotation and reported speech听听| 听Telephone numbers听听| 听Time听听| 听Titles听听| 听Web conventions听听| 听Appendix: UCL specifics
The following abbreviations never carry full stops:
- abbreviations that end with the same letter as the full word such as Dr, Mr, Mrs, St, Jr, Sr
- standard works of reference, e.g. OED, BMJ, THE
- countries, institutions, societies and organisations, e.g. UK, BBC, UNESCO
- degree titles: BA, BSc, MA, MSc, MPhil, PhD, DEng, DPhil
- am (for ante meridian), pm (for post meridian) and CV (for curriculum vitae)
- page number references, e.g. p6, p38.
However, use full stops for e.g., i.e. and etc. and initials of names, e.g. John D. Rockefeller; T. S. Eliot.
With organisations whose names are acronyms, refer to them in the format that听they use on their own website, e.g. Ofsted, NASA, Ofgem.
Use alumnus (male, singular); alumna (female, singular); alumni (male plural, or听mixed plural); and alumnae (female, plural).听
When mentioning past students, provide their details in brackets after their name,听followed by their year of graduation without a separating comma, e.g. Marie Curie听(UCL Chemistry 1990).
Always use 鈥榓nd鈥� rather than ampersand (&) in normal prose.听For general readability, it is much better to have 'and' rather than an ampersand. Only use an ampersand听to replace 'and' in UCL faculty and department names (e.g. UCL Spanish & Latin American Studies).
Introduce numbered or bulleted lists with a colon and ensure that the introductory听phrase or sentence makes grammatical sense with the subsequent bullets.
1. Lists of items
Use lowercase for each new item (unless it is a proper noun) and put a full stop听after the last item in the list if the sentence ends there.
For example:
The university offers:
- thought-provoking lectures
- sporting facilities
- halls of residence.
2. Lists of full sentences:
Start each new sentence in the list with a capital letter and end each sentence听with a full stop, as follows:
The couple had three main reasons for buying the house:
- It has a spectacular view of the sea.
- Ofsted rates the local school as 鈥榦utstanding鈥�.
- There are excellent transport links.
Use capitals to denote proper nouns referring to people, organisations and听places.
Use lowercase for department, school, institute, centre etc. when not referring to听the full title, e.g. 鈥淭he UCL Institute of Archaeology is world-leading in its field; last听year the institute was ranked first in the Guardian Good University Guide鈥︹��
Write these in lower case and using hyphens, e.g. south-east; north-western.听
Capitalise compass directions only when they form part of a recognised name for听a geographical or political region, e.g. the West Midlands, South-East Asia.
Write all numbers associated with currencies as figures.
Abbreviate dollars like this:
- $1 (US)
- A$1 (Australia)听
- HK$1 (Hong Kong).
Use the 鈧� symbol when writing amounts in euro.听To do this on a PC, hold down the CTRL and ALT keys and press the 鈥�4鈥� key听above the QWERTY row. On a Mac, hold down ALT and press the 鈥�2鈥� key above听the QWERTY row.
For amounts of money, the style is 拢X million/billion, but abbreviated to 拢Xm/bn in听headlines and pull quotes, with no space between the currency symbol and the听abbreviation.
Cite amounts of money in the original currency, followed by the pounds sterling听equivalent in brackets.
Write dates in the following format: 23 April 1964, or Sunday, 23 April 1964.
When referring to decades, use an 鈥榮鈥� without an apostrophe at the end, e.g.听1970s, 1420s).
For pre-Christian dates, use BCE (Before the Common Era) and leave a blank space between the year and the acronym, e.g. 400 BCE.
Instead of AD, use CE (Common Era) and, again, leave a blank space between听the year and the acronym, e.g. 120 CE.
When giving approximate dates, abbreviate circa as c. followed by a space, e.g.听(c. 145 BCE).
For each century after the ninth, use figures, e.g. 19th century.
When expressing a timespan, use words or en-dashes but not a mixture of both:听e.g. 1826鈥�50 or from 1826 to 1850.
To create an en-dash on a PC, hold down the ALT key and type 0150. On a Mac,听hold down ALT and press the hyphen key.
Use 鈥渄egree鈥� or 鈥渄egree programme鈥� and 鈥渕odules鈥� when referring to individual听parts of a degree programme.
Use 鈥渟ingle-subject degrees鈥� for those in one subject and 鈥渃ombined-studies听degrees鈥� for those in more than one subject.
When referring to specific degree programmes, write the subject name first, then听the qualification, e.g. 鈥淓nglish BA, Chemistry MSci, Astrophysics MSc鈥�.
Write the titles of events in roman type and capitalise the first word and any听proper nouns (e.g. Heroes from the dark side: ancient heroes versus the听Minotaur).
When referring to an event in body copy, put the title in inverted commas.
Use lowercase for government and the coalition (the 2010鈥�15 administration).
When terms such as Conservative, Democratic, Independent, Liberal and听Republican refer to specific political parties or movements, put these in capitals.
Use a hyphen for the following:
- adjectives involving more than one word, when these come before a noun, e.g. He had an up-to-date haircut, but his shoes were not up to date
- numbers, e.g. five-year-old; 12-month period
- words with the prefix 鈥榬e-鈥� that begin with an 鈥榚鈥�, e.g. re-entry; re-examine
- words with the prefix 鈥榗ross鈥�, e.g. cross-disciplinary
- those following 鈥榥on-鈥�, 鈥榓nti-鈥� or 鈥榩ro-鈥�, e.g. non-invasive; anti-inflammatory; pro-life
- those following 鈥榮emi-鈥�, 鈥榪uasi-鈥� and 鈥榚x-鈥�, e.g. semi-quaver
- prefixes before a capitalised name, numeral or date, e.g. pre-1950; mid-August.
Use 鈥榠se鈥� and 鈥�-isation鈥� (e.g. capitalise, nationalisation).
Italicise foreign (including Latin and Ancient Greek) words that are not commonly听used in English (e.g. trompe l鈥檕eil, C. difficile).
Abbreviate as follows:
- centimetre/s cm
- kilogram/s kg
- kilometre/s km
- metre m
- millimetre/s mm
- square metre/s m2
Write the measurement with no space between the figure and the unit,听e.g. 5kg.
If both miles and metres are referred to in the same text, continue to spell these听out, even when abbreviating other weights and measures.
Spell this as one word and do the same with interdisciplinary.
Spell out one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and nine in words; write听numbers from 10 upwards as digits.
Spell out first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth; use听digits for 10th upwards.
Unless it is a date, write all numbers at the beginning of sentences in words, e.g.听Fifteen candidates were interviewed.
Use figures for volume, part, chapter, section and page numbers.听However, when used descriptively, write out in words, e.g. 鈥淚n the second chapter,听he elaborates on the theory outlined in the first."
Write numbers higher than 999 with commas separating the thousands, e.g.听2,589; 125,397; 9,999,000,000.
NB One billion equates to 1,000,000,000 (one thousand million).
Use obliques with no spaces on either side, e.g. 鈥淭ea/coffee will be served.鈥�
Write percentages using figures and the percent sign, e.g. 23%.
Use italics for the titles of all works individually published under their own titles,听i.e. books, journals, newspapers, reports, plays, longer poems (e.g. Wordsworth鈥檚听Prelude), pamphlets, films, radio programmes, albums, substantial musical听compositions, podcasts and works of art.
In the course of a sentence, italicise English newspaper titles but not the听preceding 鈥榯he鈥� (i.e. write the听Times, the听Guardian, the听New York Times, the听British Journal of Psychiatry).
Use roman type, without inverted commas for the Bible, Koran and other religious听texts.
Put chapters in books, articles in books or journals and individually named听episodes of television or radio series in roman type, enclosed within single听quotation marks.
Use roman type and single quotation marks for poems, first lines of poems used听as titles, short stories, or essays that form part of a larger volume, e.g. 鈥極de on a听Grecian Urn鈥�; 鈥極f Superstition鈥�.
A level.
IB Diploma.
Bachelor鈥檚 degree, Master鈥檚 degree.
First class, upper second class, lower second class, third class 鈥� also write these听as 2:1 and 2:2.
Hyphenate degree classifications when used immediately before a noun, e.g.听鈥淪he was awarded an upper second-class degree."
Use double inverted commas for quotations; use single inverted commas for a听quotation within a quotation,听e.g. 鈥淭oday鈥檚 climate conference was a great success. The Prime Minister told me听he felt 鈥榲ery optimistic about the chances of success鈥� and seemed very impressed听by our work.鈥�
Use international telephone style:
Tel: +44 (0)20 7111 4444
Write all times in the 12-hour format, adding am and pm immediately after the听number, e.g. 鈥淭he event starts at 4pm鈥�.
Use a colon to separate hours and minutes, e.g. 11:30pm.
For time ranges, use an en-dash, e.g. 2鈥�5 pm; 11am鈥�1pm.
As with dates, do not mix up words and dashes (e.g. either the seminar takes听place from 1 to 2 pm, or the seminar takes place 1鈥�2pm). Close up spaces either听side of the dash where it links two digits.
Capitalise professional titles only if they appear in a Name鈥揟itle construction:听
鈥淧rofessor Henry James, Head of UCL English Language & Literature, was听absent鈥�; 鈥淗orace Engdahl, Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy, has听arrived at 皇家华人."
Use lower case for web, website, homepage, email and internet. Write 鈥渙nline鈥� as听one word.
When you link to another website from your webpage, use descriptive text,听e.g. 鈥淔or more information, visit the UCL Events blog." This helps to make your听site accessible to all users and aids search engine optimisation.
If you do need to write out a URL in continuous text do not include听听in听the address nor any punctuation after it (including a full stop),听e.g. ucl.ac.uk
Appendix: UCL specifics
Departments
Use the following format for academic departments:
UCL English Language & Literature
UCL Mathematics
Use an ampersand (&) to replace 鈥渁nd鈥� in UCL faculty and department names.
First reference:
In the first reference to a UCL department, centre, institute, use the full official听name, prefixed by UCL, e.g. 鈥淪tudent numbers have soared in UCL Biochemistry听& Molecular Biology鈥�.
Subsequent references:
Abbreviations are fine 鈥� these should be introduced in brackets after the first听reference, e.g. 鈥溾�he UCL Centre for Intercultural Studies (UCL CICS)鈥�. Retain听鈥淯CL鈥� for abbreviations.
Alternatively, use a descriptive, non-capitalised equivalent (e.g. 鈥榯he department鈥�,听鈥榯he institute鈥�, 鈥榯he centre鈥�).
Certain centres and institutes have 鈥渁t 皇家华人鈥� in their name instead, often for听funding reasons, e.g. 鈥淓SRC Deafness Cognition and Language Research Centre听at 皇家华人鈥�.
Always write the definite article in lower case, e.g. 鈥渢he Wolfson Institute for听Biomedical Research at 皇家华人鈥�.
Faculties/schools/institutes
In the first reference to a UCL faculty, institute or school, use the full official name听prefixed by 鈥淯CL鈥�.
Only capitalise the word 鈥渇aculty鈥� when used in the name of a faculty.
Similarly, only capitalise the word 鈥渟chool鈥� when used in the name of a school.
Provost
Refer to Dr Michael Spence in the following ways: 鈥淯CL President &听Provost, Dr Michael Spence AC鈥� or 鈥淒r Michael Spence AC, UCL鈥檚 President听& Provost鈥�. The reason for this is that it is a single, not combined title.
Terms
Capitalise First Term, Second Term and Third Term.
UCL
UCL is the university鈥檚 official name. Only spell it out in the postal address:
University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
UCL can also be referred to as 鈥渢he university鈥� (always lower case) or as 鈥渢he听institution鈥�.
Vice-Provost/Vice-Dean
Capitalised, hyphenated.
