The HE Byte

House Style Guidance

Download this style sheet as a printable PDF file

Document

  • submit your article preferably as a Word (.doc) or Open Document (.odt), otherwise in Rich Text Format, but never as a PDF
  • for ease of editing and uploading please use one of our Word or Open Document templates  (these are linked to from the above PDF or please ask for the relevant file).

Typeface

  • only use italics sparingly, for emphasis
  • do not bold any text – this will be done by the editor

Quotations

  • do not italicise
  • use double inverted commas

Punctuation

  • double inverted commas for all speech and quotations
  • single inverted commas only within a phrase surrounded by double inverted commas

 Bullet points

  • use a colon at the end of the text introducing the bullet points
  • keep points short and concise
  • use lowercase at the beginning of the point and do not use a full stop at the end
  • only use sentence punctuation where each point is a full sentence

Numbers

  • spell out numbers from 0 to 9. Write numbers in words from ten onwards
  • use numerals for measurements (12 km) and ages (10 years old)
  • use numerals for percentages in the text but spell out “per cent” (24 per cent)

Dates

  • 1 January 2021
  • do not abbreviate months

Spellings

Department for Education (DfE)
government
home education, EHE (when elective), HE (when not elective) or home ed
local authorities (LAs)
local authority (LA)
Lord (followed by name)
noble Lord
Ofsted
Peer (meaning a Peer of the realm, as distinct from peer = colleague)
Private Members’ Bill
Secretary of State for Education
state
Under-Secretary of State for Education
worldview

Updated, December 2020