UCSF Editorial and Digital Style Guide

Questions? Contact HR Communications

Overview

Provides guidance for consistency for UCSF HR's written communications and website.

The UCSF Human Resources editorial style guide provides guidance on voice, grammar, punctuation, and special cases of usage for consistency across the organization’s written materials and communication tools, including the HR website and newsletters.

UCSF HR follows the UCSF Editorial Style Guide for basic standards of terms and style, such as UCSF campus and organizational names, affiliated institutions, titles, degrees, abbreviations and acronyms. The UCSF Human Resources editorial style guide also follows the Associated Press Stylebook for standards not specifically outlined in the UCSF Editorial Style Guide as well as spelling as found in Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary.

The UCSF HR editorial style guide highlights key issues commonly found in editing HR website and newsletter content to assist HR content contributors. Though the HR communications team reviews content to ensure adherence to the style guide, individual web contributors should also adhere to the guidance below when submitting content.

As with language usage itself, this guide will evolve and expand.

Style and tone

Content should be clear, concise and professional. Use simple language and limit jargon.

Content contributors should:

  • Avoid using first or second person.
  • Define or explain any complicated or unfamiliar HR jargon or processes.

Content contributors can use websites such as Hemingway or Readability Formulas to determine the “reading level” of their content. This can help determine if content needs to be simplified. The lower the grade level, the greater the ease in comprehension.

Abbreviations

Spell out all acronyms and abbreviations upon first mention. Examples: HR Service Request System (SRS), Job Description/Employment Requisition Form (JD/ERF).

Abbreviate the University of California, San Francisco as “UCSF” or “UC San Francisco” to refer to processes/policies specific to the UCSF campus. Use University of California Office of the President (UCOP) when referring to processes/policies that apply to the entire 10-campus UC system.

Capitalization

Capitalize only the complete formal names of schools, departments, institutes, programs, offices, and course titles (UCSF School of Dentistry, Department of Surgery). Lowercase fragmentary or informal names (the department, UC law school).

Lowercase all titles and descriptor nouns (generalist, supervisor, employee, rehired retiree) unless used before the person’s name as a direct address. (Ex: Chancellor Sam Hawgood; Sam Hawgood, UCSF chancellor)

UCSF Health (proper noun) or health system (not capitalized as proper noun)

Punctuation

The serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma) should[AS1]  only be used when needed for clarity, per the AP and UCSF editorial style guides.

  • All content should be written in complete sentences with appropriate closing punctuation.
  • Apply single spaces after periods.

Title case vs. sentence case

In title case, every word in a sentence except for conjunctions and short prepositions is capitalized. In sentence case, only the first word of the sentence and all proper nouns are capitalized.

Use title case for page titles and headlines.

Use sentence case for secondary headers (such as Heading 2s, Heading 3s on the website, as titles in accordion menus, etc.)

Pronouns and inclusive language

Use nonsexist language and follow these recommendations: Don’t say he when

referring to an unspecified person. Instead, recast the sentence into the plural, or

avoid the use of pronouns altogether.

For more information about the proper use of pronouns, see the guidance from the LGBT Resource Center.

Hyperlinks

When linking to other webpages, use anchor text to tell the reader what to expect if they click on the link.

Example:  “HR’s Learning & Organization Development Team recently relaunched the Professional Development Guide. This is a self-directed guide with a workbook for anyone interested in advancing their learning and growth.”

  • The full web address should not be displayed in most cases. (Ex. “Learn about the benefits available to UCSF faculty and staff at https://hr.ucsf.edu/benefits”). However, when you are using link text around an email address, it is acceptable to display the email address as the link text.

Additional best practices:

  • Use hyperlinked text at the start or the of end of a sentence whenever possible.
  • Avoid using text that could be confusing to readers, such as “click here.”
  • Avoid using the exact same anchor text multiple times on the same page.

Accessibility

Be sure to use alternative text (also known as “alt text”) on every image you use. Alt text describes the image to screen readers and can give your page an SEO boost.

If using a video, ensure the video has captions.

If your content involves a PDF, please follow the following steps to ensure your PDF is accessible:

  1. Review your content in the PDF and determine whether it can be presented on an HTML page instead.
  2. Use Adobe Pro to tag the document.
  3. If you have any questions or need further assistance, refer to the digital accessibility program.

Keywords

When creating an article, including keywords is critical to support our site search and help our audiences find relevant content. Keywords can be added in the “Classifications” section of an article.

Examples:

  • For an article about the Faculty and Staff Assistance Program, keywords can include: Faculty support, Staff support, Assistance, Counseling, Consultation.
  • For an article about paid time off, keywords include: Sick, Vacation, PTO, Benefits, Holiday, Leave, COVID-19.

Visuals, Logos and Brand

Standard brand expression and proper use should be directed to the UCSF Brand Identity website. This includes proper use of pictures, UCSF and department logos, fonts, styles, templates, colors, and other useful guidelines.

Structuring Your Web Content

Working on your web content? The HR Communications team strongly encourages conversations with us about how to best create and structure your content. Please reach out to Terri Hunter-Davis and Stephanie Hammon to discuss your web content.