O
Online
Not on-line
Open Day
Use initial capital letter when referring to University’s Open Days – otherwise use lowercase.
P
Page titles on the web
The page titles for webpages within the content management system are generated automatically from the section names assigned within Site Manager. These page titles have the format ‘Section name – College/Department/Service/etc – University of Exeter’. The first part of the page title is generated by the section name, the second and thrid components are coded into central styles.You should ensure that the section names you choose are clear labels for the content of the relevant page containing as far as possible priority key words users are likely to be looking for. This helps make the page easier for both people and search engine robots to find. Be aware the section names also display as the navigation label for the page, so need to serve both purposes effectively.
For further advice see the guidance on naming sections in Site Manager.
Per cent
Write out in full as two words except in headlines when % can be used.
Plurals
Certain words change their spelling when pluralised:
potato - potatoes
tomato - tomatoes
Some have odd, or irregular spellings in the plural:
ox - oxen
child - children
woman - women
Words ending in <y> normally drop the <y>and add <ies>:
secretaries
hobbies
ladies
Words ending in <vowel + y> take the usual <s>:
trolley - trolleys
Postgraduate
One word, not hyphenated.
Prefixes (stuck on to the beginning of a word)
Adding a prefix to a word does not alter its basic spelling:
- dis / appear
- dis / organised (not unorganised)
- pro / claim
- un / necessary
Program or programme
Program for computers; Programme otherwise.
Programme
Not Course.
Q
Quotation marks
Make sure the full stop comes inside the closing speech marks: “We’re very excited about this new area of research.”
Use double quotation marks for reported speech.
Single quotes should be used to introduce a new idea or concept. They should only be used the first time the word appears: Universities are increasingly called upon to develop ‘third leg’ activities.
R
ResNet
Not 'Resnet', 'resnet', 'Res Net', etc
