abbreviations and acronyms 

Try to avoid using abbreviations and acronyms. If you must, explain in full first on the page.

For example, Department for Education (DfE) and thereafter just use DfE. The abbreviation or acronym is not needed in brackets if it is not used on the page again.  

accounts 

Be consistent on how you refer to the different council accounts. 

For the main customer online account use ‘South Gloucestershire Council account’. For council tax use ‘council tax account’.  

active voice 

Use active rather than passive language. For example, ‘pay for it’ not ‘to make a payment’.

accordion 

Only use accordions for non-essential information.

Due to the intermittent caching issue that we are currently experiencing with accordions on the website, you should add a message above or below.

For 4 or fewer items in the accordion write the message below: ‘If you cannot expand the sections above, try refreshing your browser.’

For 5 or more items in the accordion write the message above in a notice: ‘If you cannot expand the sections below, try refreshing your browser.’

addresses 

When writing out a postal address each part of the address should be on a new line, no need for commas to be used on each line or a full stop at the end. Unless it is in a bullet list and it works better in a line of text. 

addressing the user 

Address the user as ‘you’ where possible. For example, ‘You can contact us by phone and email’ or ‘Pay your car tax’. 

adverbs 

Avoid adverbs like ‘really’ or ‘very’. 

ages 

Use ‘aged 4 to 16 years’, not ‘4-16 years’. Avoid using ‘the over 50s’ or ‘under-18s’. Instead, make it clear who’s included, ‘aged 50 years and over’ and ‘aged 17 and under’. 

American and UK English 

Use UK English spelling and grammar. For example, use ‘organise’ not ‘organize’, ‘modelling’ not ‘modeling’, and ‘fill in a form’, not ‘fill out a form’. 

ampersand  

Do not use ‘&’, use the word ‘and’. 

A-road 

Hyphenated. 

authority 

Use ‘us’ and ‘we’, not ‘the council’ or ‘South Gloucestershire Council’ or ‘the local authority’ unless it is unclear. 

Attendance Allowance 

Upper case. 

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