Punctuation matters, full stop.
WRITING STYLE GUIDE 2023
BDO UK
LANGUAGE Our approach
Helping you hit the right note One of the most important elements of the BDO brand is our focus on simple, plainly spoken, down-to-earth honesty. As a result, our written communications should always convey a feeling of calm control and professionalism. It’s important that all of our clients, however many different BDO offices and people they communicate with, receive the same measured, reassuring note from all of us. It’s the BDO ‘tone of voice’. Think of the brands you love - shoes, restaurants, movies, magazines, football teams, chocolates, cars, clothes, games, hotels, websites, authors, breakfast cereals – whatever floats your boat. And now think about their communications style • how they ‘speak to you’ • the words they use • what their tone of voice is
Our language should reflect the way we work. So it should be: Accessible, down-to-earth and grounded - not complex, technical or pompous. Clear and plain-speaking - no jargon, no techspeak, no waffle, no buzzwords. Active, not passive - active verbs take responsibility (‘I’ve decided’, not ‘It has been decided’) and make things happen (‘we raised the funds’, not ‘the funds were raised’). Passionate - we’re not afraid to show a bit of attitude. Energetic - short words, short sentences, active verbs, conversational tone (‘we’re doing it’, not ‘implementation has been green-lighted’). Refreshing – try to avoid clichés, try to see things from a fresh perspective. Warm and personal - where possible, write in the first person (I or we) and address the reader as ‘you’ (rather than ‘clients’). Professional - factual, helpful and to-the-point (delete every paragraph, sentence and word that isn’t strictly relevant, and support claims with evidence). Direct and punchy - paragraphs should seldom exceed 40 words – Don’t use a long word where a short one will do (use ‘law’ instead of ‘legislation’) – Don’t include unnecessary words, especially at the start of a sentence. – Use single words rather than phrases (‘to’ instead of ‘in order to’).
…and most importantly of all • How they make you feel about them
That’s what we should be providing to our clients.
A consistent tone of voice is important for a brand. It makes us distinctive and unique. It makes us dependable and reliable. It makes us a firm that clients will come back to, time and again, confident that they know what kind of people we are.
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GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION
They matter. Full stop
Some basics to ensure consistency Bullet points - ideal for breaking up lists. We put the first letter in capitals but don’t punctuate between bullets, only using a full stop at the end of the last bullet. There is one exception - where one bullet point is made up of more than one sentence a full stop should be added to the end of each bullet point. BDO is vs BDO are - companies, firms or businesses are collective nouns which are singular, not plural (BDO is committed to…, the business has brought in a new…). Always use ‘which’ not ‘who’ when talking about collective nouns (the firm which has demonstrated…). UK vs US - You should use UK English in all your communications unless you’re talking about something with a US spelling as standard (The US Center for Statistics) Full stops - we don’t use full stops for well known abbreviations (ie, eg, Mr) Exclamation marks - these are to be avoided. If your sentence needs an exclamation mark, re-write it Acronyms and abbreviations - abbreviations which are recognised and appear in the dictionary (NATO, kg, VAT, HMRC) can be used without being spelt in full. If it isn’t a commonly recognised abbreviation, spell in full the first time you use it and use upper case abbreviation after that. This style should also be adopted for internal abbreviations. Repetition - don’t repeat the same word in a sentence, try to find another way of expressing the idea. Unusual characters - avoid unusual characters wherever possible (accented letters, cedillas, ampersands) as they may change unexpectedly (eg when a font is changed). The exception is where a character is part of the brand name of a company (Marks & Spencer). Quote marks - should only be used for quotes from a referenced source and should be written as double inverted commas. Use single quote marks to indicate an expression or ‘form of words’. Your general use of grammar should follow contemporary UK dictionary conventions
Referring to BDO BDO is our trading name – to be used in all general communications and marketing material BDO LLP is our legal name (in the UK) and should be used in all disclaimers, small print, and official notifications The international BDO network or the international
network of BDO Member Firms - never ‘BDO International’ - this doesn’t exist as an entity.
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GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION
They matter. Full stop
How we use capital letters For our clients to be receiving a joined up service from the UK firm, we all need to be using language in the same way. Please try to adhere to the following guides Departments - initial upper case (Marketing department, Tax department). Teams - initial upper case (Marketing team, Corporate Finance team). Disciplines - initial upper case (Tax, Audit, Corporate Finance). The exception is when we are describing the services we provide so ‘we provide tax advice to…’. Sectors - initial upper case (Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing). The exception is if you are talking about the sector in general terms so ‘the retail market’. Job titles - initial upper case when talking about a specific role (Managing Partner, Head of Advisory) but lower case for generic roles (partner, audit senior, marketing manager). Government - initial upper case if you are saying ‘the Government’ but lower case if it’s ‘a government’. Member firms - initial upper case when preceded by BDO eg BDO Member Firm, otherwise lower case eg the member firm in France. When referring to BDO as ‘the firm’ or ‘the network’ there is no need to use a capital ‘F’ or ‘N’. Big Four - spelt out, with initial upper case. Refers to (with acceptable abbreviations in brackets): PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young (E&Y) and Deloitte. Books, films and publications etc - should be referred to with initial upper case, not in quotation marks or italics eg The Times. Always check to see if the word ‘The’ is part of the title.
How we use numbers % vs ‘per cent’ – always use the % sign to indicate percentage. Numbers - one to ten should be written in full, 11 and above should be in figures. Exceptions include sums of money, times, distances and percentages: £8, 9am, 5km and 2%. Also, in titles, numbers below 11 can be written as numerals to save space. Fractions - avoid fractions where possible, ‘£500,000’ instead of ‘£0.5m’. Dates - should be in the format ‘1 January 2011’. Note we never use date suffixes – always 1, never 1 st , always 2 never 2 nd etc. Quarters - best practice is to write in full each time eg third quarter, except for charts and graphs where Q1, Q2 etc may be used. For some publications it may be appropriate to use Q1, Q2 etc within copy (eg PCPI). Times - use the 12 hour clock in the following format eg 1pm, 8.45am ie no space between the number and ‘am’/‘pm’. Noon, midday and midnight are also allowed. Phone numbers - preferred format is to include the international prefix ‘+44 (0)20 7486 5888’. Million and billion - write in full unless referring to money eg ‘£5m’, ‘£5bn’, ‘5 million people’.
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STYLE
Making BDO distinctive
There are some words and spellings that are easy to get wrong so here’s a reminder of how they should be used and spelled: adviser - always with an ‘e’, never ‘advisor’. alternative - there can only be two of these; otherwise they would be options or choices. among - preferred to ‘amongst’. assure/ensure/insure - the first is to guard against certain risks (hence life assurance), the second is to make certain and the third is to guard against uncertain risks (hence fire insurance). buy-out, buy out - the first is the noun, second the verb. chairman - also applies to women as a job title. complement/compliment - the first means to make up (a whole), the second is to praise. despatch/dispatc h - the first is a noun, the second is a verb. different - is always followed by from, not to. email - always a lower case ‘e’, no hyphen. ext. - acceptable shorthand for telephone extension (internal use only). euro area - two words no hyphen, lower case ‘e’. eurozone - one word lower case ‘e’.
firm - lower case ‘f’, use to describe professional organisations like solicitors and stockbrokers. firm-wide - lower case ‘f’ with hyphen. focused - with one ‘s’, not two. internet - lower case ‘i’ (internet, extranet and web all lower case). online - lower case ‘o’, no hyphen. partnership - lower case ‘p’, can be used as an alternative to ‘firm’ and also to describe a joint venture, but make sure the description is accurate. plc - all lower case, is an acceptable abbreviation for ‘public limited company’. programme/program - the latter is an American spelling that in UK English only applies to computer algorithms. UK - acceptable abbreviation for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Note that Great Britain is a geographical rather than political term and only includes the first three, while British Isles (also a geographical term) is all of Great Britain and Ireland (Northern Ireland and Eire). US or USA - acceptable shorthand for United States. while - preferred to ‘whilst’. worldwide - one word, no hyphen.
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FOR MORE INFORMATION:
This publication has been carefully prepared, but it has been written in general terms and should be seen as containing broad statements only. This publication should not be used or relied upon to cover specific situations and you should not act, or refrain from acting, upon the information contained in this publication without obtaining specific professional advice. Please contact BDO LLP to discuss these matters in the context of your particular circumstances. BDO LLP, its partners, employees and agents do not accept or assume any responsibility or duty of care in respect of any use of or reliance on this publication, and will deny any liability for any loss arising from any action taken or not taken or decision made by anyone in reliance on this publication or any part of it. Any use of this publication or reliance on it for any purpose or in any context is therefore at your own risk, without any right of recourse against BDO LLP or any of its partners, employees or agents. BDO LLP, a UK limited liability partnership registered in England and Wales under number OC305127, is a member of BDO International Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, and forms part of the international BDO network of independent member firms. A list of members' names is open to inspection at our registered office, 55 Baker Street, London W1U 7EU. BDO LLP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority to conduct investment business. BDO is the brand name of the BDO network and for each of the BDO member firms. BDO Northern Ireland, a partnership formed in and under the laws of Northern Ireland, is licensed to operate within the international BDO network of independent member firms. Copyright © 2023 BDO LLP. All rights reserved. Published in the UK. www.bdo.co.uk
SIMON READ Head of Design simon.read@bdo.co.uk
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