A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Z

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Capitalisation

Lower case

You should use lower-case letters to write about:

• specific centuries, for example, 'the 20th century'
• seasons (see Seasons)

Sentence case

Use sentence case when you write page titles, summaries and section headings. Sentence case is how you would normally write a sentence, with an upper-case letter to start the first word, then by lower-case letters for the other words.

Title case

Use title case when you're writing about specific departments, faculties, job titles and course titles. See our full Academic terms guide. Title case means that the first letter of each word is in upper case, except for some smaller words, like 'and' or 'in'.

You should also use title case when you're writing:

• phrases like 'Undergraduate Induction' or 'Postgraduate Induction'
• about University buildings and car parks (see Locations)

Car park

Write this as two words, not 'carpark'. If you’re writing about a specific car park on campus, write it as ’the West Car Park’.

City of Bath

Use 'city of Bath', not 'City of Bath'. 'The City' (rather than 'the city') is the City of London (the Square Mile), not any other city.

Coloured text

Do not use coloured text as it is not consistent or accessible.

Colons

Use colons to:

• introduce a list
• add to what's been said before
• introduce other sentences or questions

Here are some examples:

The Faculty of Engineering & Design has four departments:

• Architecture & Civil Engineering
• Chemical Engineering
• Electronic & Electrical Engineering
• Mechanical Engineering

Images of Research: submit your photo now.

Inaugural lecture: What is wrong with knee replacement?

Also see Semicolons.

Comprise, compose or constitute

'Comprise' means to contain or embrace ('The University comprises four faculties and one School'); do not use 'is comprised of'.

'Compose' and 'constitute' are used in the opposite way, for the parts that make up the whole ('The University is composed of four faculties and one School'; 'Four faculties and schools constitute the University').

Contact details

See Phone numbers, Email addresses or Postal addresses.

Content types

Only use upper case for the first letter of the content type, for example, 'Guide', 'Publication' or 'Corporate information'. Not 'Corporate Information'.

Continual or continuous

'Continual' means over and over; 'continuous' means without interruption ('We come to work continually every day'; 'She spoke continuously for an hour').

Cooperation

Not 'co-operation'.

Coordinate

Not 'co-ordinate'.

Countries and cities

Preferred country names

United Arab Emirates - Write 'United Arab Emirates (UAE)' in full in the first instance, but use 'UAE' in subsequent mentions.

United States - Use 'United States' rather than 'United States of America', 'USA' or 'America'. Only use 'US' when hard character limits apply, such as headings or page titles. Avoid using 'USA' as this can also mean the US Army.

Here are some common mistakes:

• use 'Beijing', not 'Peking'
• use 'Colombia', not 'Columbia'
• use 'Kolkata', not 'Calcutta'
• use 'Myanmar', not 'Burma'
• use 'Mumbai', not 'Bombay'
• use 'South Korea', not 'Korea'

Courses

The correct way to write a course title is 'BSc (Honours) Chemistry' or 'BSc (Hons) Chemistry'. Note there is a space between 'BSc' and '(Honours)'.

Note that we use the term 'courses' for external marketing purposes. However, we can use the word 'programmes' when writing content for internal-only audiences.

Course components

Refer to the individual components of a course as 'Units' both internally and externally. Do not use 'Modules'.

Coronavirus disease

Use the World Health Organisation's formatting when writing about the Coronavirus disease.

Use 'COVID-19' or 'Coronavirus disease'.

Currency

See Money.