A technology style guide...

08/09/2015 09:25

... featuring troublesome words, quirks and linguistic anomalies. More important than the actual term used (for example, one could argue the merits of email vs e-mail all day) is the need to use terms consistently within an organisation.

So with that caveat, here's my preferred list of technology terms.

 

  • 24/7 You'd be surprised how often this gets used. Use digits (i.e. avoid 'twenty-four seven'). See general advice on numbers.
  • a/an When preceding an acronym, let pronunciation be your guide. For instance, you'd use 'an LMS', but 'a library management system'. If the 'h' is silent use 'an' ('an honest man') but not if the 'h' is pronounced (i.e. 'we stayed in a hotel').
  • affect/effect Where the meaning is to influence or change, use 'effect' for nouns ('She had a profound effect on me') and 'affect' for verb ('She affected me profoundly'). When conveying pretence, use 'affect' for both verbs and nouns. ('She was very affected', 'Jamie Oliver affected a ridiculous 'mockney' accent). When used to convey achievement, use 'effect' ('I'm trying to effect a change in our attitude to Bucks Fizz').
  • abbreviations and acronyms Use your judgement to decide if an abbreviation needs explaining. Where it does, put it in brackets at the first mention, and thereafter refer to the abbreviation. (Example: 'A Web Application Firewall (WAF) protects a web server from less-trusted networks. The WAF is an seential'). If the individual letters are pronounced (i.e. an abbreviation like 'LMS') use caps. If the letters are pronounced as a word (i.e. an acronym like 'Nasa'), use title caps. Obviously, if any organisation has a convention that contradicts this (such a NISO) follow their use.
  • accommodate Two c's, two m's.
  • AD/BC See dates.
  • ad hoc Two words. No hyphen.
  • antivirus One word. No hyphen.
  • API Application Programming Interface.
  • backup/back up When a verb, use two words: 'back up your software using fulldbdump'. When a noun, use one word: 'take a backup of your software'.
  • backlog One word.
  • blog Can be a noun and verb: 'I'm going to blog my recent system rebuild'. Don't use 'weblog' unless explaining the etymology of the word. Use the verb post to describe responding to an individual blog post.
  • blog post Two words (good suggestion from RS).
  • Blu-ray Trademark.
  • brackets Always use round brackets unless you need to interrupt quoted text with an interpolation from the editor, writer, or anyone who's not the speaker. i.e. "I thought Neville [Phil, younger brother of Gary] transformed the game." (If the brackets form a standalone sentence, like this one, place punctuation inside the brackets.)
  • Britain/UK Synonymous. Means 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. Great Britain = Wales, Scotland, England (i.e. the physical island).
  • bullets Rules for creating bulleted lists are as follows:
    - Lead into a list of bullets with a colon
    - Each bulleted entry should start with a capital letter
    - Do not add a full stop at the end of each entry
  • circa* 'Approximately' is probably a better word to use, unless you're referring to dates/ages.
  • commonplace One word.
  • CV No dots. Upper case.
  • datastore Lower case. One word.
  • dates and times There's no 'right' way of doing this, so here is one set of conventions.
    Use 'day date month year', with no commas.
    Use am or pm with no spaces or full stops.
    Putting that altogether we get . 'Join us on Wednesday 25th July 2009, starting at 10:30am'

    When referring to a set time please use the word 'to' rather than a hyphen e.g. 8:00am to 10:00 am.
    Avoid abbreviating dates unless space demands. If necessary use three letter abbreviations (Jan, Feb, Mar).
    Decades: 1960s, 60s (no apostrophe, not 'sixties')
    Centuries: 21st-century (lower case with hyphen)
  • dB (decibel) lower case d, upper case B.
  • discreet/discrete Discrete = having a clear independent shape or form. Discreet = careful not to attract attention
  • downtime One word. See also uptime.
  • dot-com Adjective. Hyphenate. 'He was fired from a series of dot-com startups.'
  • Earth You'd be surprised how often this is used without a capital letter.
  • email Lower case, no hyphen.
  • e-words With the exception of email, hyphenate all e-words(i.e. e-commerce, e-content, e-books, e-resources, e-learning.) Use upper case 'E' if starting a sentence.
  • e-book see e-learning
  • e-learning Note retention of hyphen but lower case. e-resource; e-book; e-reader; e-journal; e-textbook also follow this format.
  • e-journal see e-learning
  • e-reader see e-learning
  • e-resource see e-learning
  • e-textbook see e-learning
  • etc. Always requires a full stop.
  • eg Means 'for the sake of example'. Lower case, with no points, with a comma either side. Avoid if possible, and use 'for example' instead. Not to be confused with ie.
  • Eire Do not use; say Republic of Ireland or Irish Republic
  • Excel With an upper case e.
  • fact-finding Hyphenate.
  • FAQs Stands for frequently asked questions. Note there is no apostrophe.
  • File extensions Enter well known file types in lower case 'Download the pdf file'. Include the name in brackets if it is an unusual one. 'Download the cql (DCC Catcher Saved Queue List) file' .
  • focussed/focused Both are correct. Try to use 1 version (I prefer focussed)
  • forums Not bulletin board or message board (unless referring to legacy systems).
  • forward-thinking Hyphenated.
  • further/farther Use farther for geographical references. For all other uses (including FE) use further.
  • GB gigabytes
  • GHz gigahertz
  • government Lower case.
  • halve/half "We plan to halve our carbon footprint, and to use half as much pesticide."
  • happy New Year note that happy is not title capitalised
  • high-profile Hyphenated.
  • higher education/further education Lower case.
  • homepage One word.
  • hyperlink One word. Not 'shortcut' or 'hot link' (terms used in early OPACs)
  • ie Means 'that is'. Avoid if possible, but when used, note that it has no points, is in lower case, and has a comma either side, ie, like this. Note that it means something quite different from eg
  • in-depth Hyphenate when used as a modifier 'For more in-depth analysis, read the article', but used alone don't hyphenate 'The team had strength in depth'.
  • in-house Hyphenate. "Use a design service if you don't have the in-house skills."
  • internet The worldwide collection of networks offering a number of services, one of which is the web. When used as a modifier, use lower case (i.e. internet application, internet service provider). If you're referring to *the* Internet, capitalise. The Net is also acceptable, and also a terrible film starring Sandra Bullock.
  • Internet Explorer Title case. IE (caps) is now accepted.
  • iPod Surely everyone knows how this is capitalised :o)
  • licence/license licence = noun ('refer to the Sybase licence for terms'). license = verb ('I am licensed to carry out this work for Sybase')
  • long-term Hyphenate when a modifier (We're going to build long-term relationships), but not when used alone. (In the long term, we're going to build relationships)
  • knowledgebase One word.
  • Linked Data Capitalise the first letter of each word. Linked Open Data also acceptable but only if data is available under an open licence. Avoid Open Linked Data.
  • local authority Lower case.
  • log in/login As a verb, use two words ('To log in to the system'). As a noun use one word ('If you've forgotten your login, contact support.')
  • midday all one word, not two separate words, nor is it hyphenated.
  • next generation Not hyphenated (Simon!).
  • none vs non- 'None' is a pronoun meaning not one (of a group of people or things) or not any, as in "She went to buy some oranges but they had none". 'Non-' is a prefix added to words to mean 'not' or 'the opposite of', as in non-sexist, non-functional.
  • numbers Spell out numbers one through nine. Use numerals from 10 to 999,999. Thereafter use m or b for items and money (£5m, 10m books), but use million for people. Spell out ordinals one through nine (i.e. use the word 'fourth' and 'fifth', rather than '4th' and '5th'). Spell out (and hyphenate) fractions (one-half, two-thirds). For decimals less than zero, include the 0.

    Putting all that together we get the following correct examples:

Three books
7,043 books
7 million people
A quater of a million
The first book
Two-thirds of all books
The average child reads 0.7 books every week

And the following incorrect examples:

Incorrect examples
¼ million
3 books
7043 books

7m people
The 1st book
2/3 of all books
The average child reads .7 books every week

  • offset One word.
  • open source Lower case.
  • online, offline One word. No hyphen.
  • PC Abbreviation meaning 'personal computer'. Upper case. Note that the plural has no apostrophe ("install the client on all PCs")
  • percent Use the '%' symbol. If you're compelled to spell out, note both percent and per cent are acceptable.
  • PowerPoint Capitalise both p's.
  • prerequisite Not hyphenated.
  • Principal/principle Principal = "Iraq's principal export is oil" (ie main). Principle = "The country is run on socialist principles". (ie basic idea).
  • qualifications No full stops (MSc, BA, BSc, GSCEs), but use hyphen for A-levels.
  • Quotation marks Some rules. 1. If you're quoting a full sentence, place punctuation inside in the quotation marks. Otherwise, the point comes outside. 2. When starting a new paragraph within a quote, close the paragraph with a full stop only. Then start the new paragraph with quotation marks. 3. If omitting words within a quotation, indicate this with dots. i.e. "The Prime Minister is lacking vision and is out of his depth... ...he should go now". 4. Use single quotation marks for quoted words within a quotation. 5. Only use double quotes for actual speech. For titles, events, etc., use single quotes.
  • real-time Hyphenated.
  • RDFa lower case a (Resource Description Framework – in – attributes)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS) Note title case and no hyphens
  • Semantic Web Lower case.
  • SharePoint One word. Note caps.
  • skillset One word, although this simply our preference. That is, 'skill set' isn't wrong.
  • sign-on As in 'single sign-on'. Note the hyphen. See also login/log in.
  • smartphone One word, small s, small p.
  • SOA Stands for service-oriented architecture. Note hyphen.
  • spelling Use British forms of spelling ('authorised', not 'authorized'), even if you're writing for an international publication. In fact, especially if you're writing for an international publication.
  • stand-alone Note hyphen.
  • startup As in startup company. i.e. "Many internet startup companies failed in dotcom bust"
  • that/which Use 'that' when using a restrictive clause, use 'which' when using a non-restictive clause. For example:
    "Our house that is green, needs painting".
    (which house needs painting? The one that is green. We're restricting the verb so that it only applies to this house. 
    "Our house, which is green, needs painting"
    (which house needs painting? Our house. It just happends to be green. We're not resticting the verb, so it can applies to amy house.
  • straightforward One word.
  • third party No hyphens.
  • time-saving, time-consuming These expressions are usually hyphenated.
  • telephone Don't use telephone or 'phone as a verb. Use call.
  • UK No points. Preferable to 'United Kingdom'. See also Britain.
  • US No points. Not USA. 'America' is also acceptable.
  • uptime Indicative of time that a service is available (i.e. the opposite of downtime). One word.
  • up-and-coming Hyphenate.
  • up-to-date Hyphenate when used as a modifier 'Hepi always wears up-to-date clothes.', but when standing alone 'Hepi's clothes are up to date'.
  • URLs When quoting URLs, only include the protocol if it is something other than http. For example: www.ceditor.co.uk, ftp://borg.bbc.co.uk/. If you have to include a long URL that breaks a line, insert the line break before a forward slash.

www.guardian.co.uk/politics/cartoon/2009
/may/23/mps-expenses-press-vultures

  • web When used as a modifier, use lower case and two words (i.e. web address, web page, web application, internet application, web service). However, the following are usually given as single words: website, webcam, webmaster, webcast. If you're referring to *the* Web, capitalise. Don't use 'worldwide web', unless you're making a direct comparison with the Semantic Web. Note that 'web' is not interchangeable with the word internet.
  • Web 2.0 Title case. Note: Web 2.0 is tricky one. I've seen it as web 2.0 (the Guardian use both), Wikipidia and O'Reilly use Web 2.0. I suggest we stick with Web 2.0 for now, but I think in a few years time it will become lower case, as web and internet have.
  • website One word. Lower case. Don't use 'Web site' or 'Website'. See also internet.
  • web services Two words. Lower case.
  • Wi-Fi Caps and hyphen. The term Wi-Fi is often used as a synonym for IEEE 802.11 technology.
  • worldwide One word. No hyphens.
  • world-class Hyphenate.
  • workflow One word.
  • year Hyphenate the following constructs: '10-year-old system.'
  • YouTube One word. Upper case T.