English style guide

Spelling

At Uppsala University we use British spelling as our standard. When writing in English, change the language setting in Word to ‘Engelska (Storbritannien)’ – or ‘English (United Kingdom)’ if you are already using the English language version of Word – and use the Spell Check function when you have completed your text.

Here we list some words where British spelling can be a problem or where we recommend a particular spelling convention for use at Uppsala University.

Spell all verbs ending in -ize/-ise or -yze/-yse with an ‘s’. This spelling applies to all forms of the verb and to nouns and other words derived from the verb:

• organise, organisation, harmonising, realised, analyse, paralysed.

When a verb ends with a vowel plus a consonant, the final consonant is generally doubled before -ing or -ed, or other suffixes:

• travel, travelling, travelled, traveller
• occur, occurring, occurred, occurrence
• equal, equalling, equalled
• commit, committing, committed.

However, there are certain exceptions, mainly when the stress is not on the final syllable:

• benefit, benefiting, benefited
• visit, visiting, visited
• target, targeted, targeting.

Always write programme, except for computer programs:

• The programme for the visit has not been finalised.
• You can download the program from our website.

The words licence/license and practice/practise are spelled differently as nouns and verbs:

• Nouns are spelled with -ce:
  • Examples of best practice in research.
  • A driving licence is an acceptable form of ID.

• Verbs are spelled with -se:
  • No one can learn a language without practising.
  • Is the restaurant licensed to sell alcohol?

Write centre. However, some centres at Uppsala University have established names using the American spelling, e.g. Uppsala Antibiotic Center. When new centres are given English names, the British spelling should be used.

Write the following words as a single word without a hyphen:

• Cooperate, cooperation, coordinate, coordinator, coexist, multicultural, postgraduate, postdoctoral, prerequisite, subsection, subtitle, worldwide

Write no one as two words, without a hyphen.

IT is a rapidly evolving area, and this includes spelling conventions. Write as follows:

• internet (lower case)
• email, online, offline, website (one word, without a hyphen)
• Wi-Fi

Initial capitals or lower case?

Titles of works, conference names etc.

Write titles of books, dissertations and journals, and names of conferences and similar events, with a capital letter at the start of each significant word. Use italics for titles in running text. In titles of articles, lectures and news items, only the first word should begin with a capital letter.

• My Family and Other Animals (book)
• Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology (journal)
• From Friends to Foes: Institutional Conflict and Supranational Influence in the European Union (dissertation)
• Uppsala Health Summit (conference)
• Troponin I and echocardiography in patients with systemic sclerosis and matched population controls (article)
• Why there are no three-headed monsters, resolving some problems with brain tumours, divorce prediction and how to save marriages (lecture)
• Eat, escape, love: the price of looking sexy (news item)

Proper names

In proper names, a capital letter is used to begin each significant word. This applies, for example, to names of institutions, organisations, geographical places, buildings, days of the week, holidays, months, historical and geological periods, nationalities, languages and religions. Note that the word ‘the’ is only written with a capital T at the beginning of a sentence or title:

• Uppsala University, the Swedish Council for Higher Education
• the Lake District, the Great Hungarian Plain
• Uppsala Castle, the Sistine Chapel
• Ramadan, Christmas Eve, Monday, August, New Year’s Day
• the Great Fire of London, the Battle of Poltava
• the Renaissance, the Age of Freedom
• Jehovah, Islam, Hinduism
• French cuisine, the Sami people, Aramaic manuscripts

Names of parts of the University follow the same rules:

• Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy
• Faculty of Languages
• Department of Information Technology

When referring to Uppsala University as ‘the University’, use a capital U. However, use lower case letters in ‘the faculty’ and ‘the department’.

Academic titles

Academic titles are written in lower case when used generally and with an initial capital when referring to a particular person/position/title:

• Johan Isaksson, Professor of Molecular Epidemiology
• Professor Johan Isaksson
• All previous professors of mathematics have ...
• The Vice-Chancellor will give a welcome address at the conference
• The Colloquium gathers vice-chancellors from various universities

Courses, programmes, subjects and degrees

Always write Bachelor, Master and Doctor with an initial capital. Use the genitive before nouns such as programme, degree, level or thesis but not before expressions such as of Science or of Arts. Write names of specific programmes or degrees with an initial capital on all significant words:

• Apply here for the Master’s Programme in Bioinformatics.
• He has just received his Master of Science degree.
• Please send a copy of your Bachelor’s thesis.

Use lower case for subjects and main fields of study unless they are part of the name of a programme, course or degree:

• 15 credits in tax law are required.
• Master's Thesis in Language Technology, 30 credits.
• The programme leads to a Master of Science with Chemistry as the main field of study.

Personal names

The first time a person is named, use the form academic title (if any) + first name + last name. Later in the same text, just use the last name.

• The Economics Prize was awarded to Professor Oliver Hart of Harvard University and Professor Bengt Holmström of MIT. Hart and Holmström have made crucial contributions in the field of contracts.
• Patti Smith drew a full house at her recent appearance in Stockholm. Obviously enjoying the occasion, Smith explained how she had taken up photography and explained her technique.

Names of historical people associated with Uppsala University:

Write Carl Linnaeus, Gustav II Adolf

Abbreviations

The general rule is that truncations (in which the word is cut short) end in a point whereas contractions (in which the first and last letter are used) are written without a point. When plurals of abbreviations are formed by adding an ‘s’, a point follows the ‘s’. The abbreviations of page (‘p’) and line (‘l’) form their plural by doubling the consonant:

• vol. 3, vols. 5–6, ch. 7, chs. 12–14, p. 123, pp. 12–17, ll. 18–24
• etc., e.g., i.e., cf., ibid., et al. (note that ‘et’ is a whole word)
• St (Saint), but St. (Street)
• Rd (Road)
• Mr, Mrs, Dr, but Prof.

Abbreviations used as currency codes or to represent units of measurement are written without points:

• kg, cm, EUR

Acronyms (which are pronounced as words) and initialisms (in which each letter is pronounced separately) are written without points and without spaces:

• EU, USA, UK, OECD, NATO
• SCAS, CEMUS
• FAQ, SME, MOOC
• BA, MA, PhD, LLM

If the abbreviation for an organisation is unlikely to be generally understood, give the full name when it first occurs, with the abbreviation in parentheses:

• The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS) aims to provide optimal research conditions for curiosity-driven research.

In running text, initialisms representing organisations and countries are written with the definite article. Acronyms on the other hand are written without the definite article:

• in the UK; a study commissioned by the WHO
• Sweden joined NATO in 2024.

Acronyms and initialisms that are countable form their plurals in the same way as ordinary nouns:

• PhDs, SMEs, MOOCs, UFOs

When initials are used in personal names, set a point after each initial and a space between the last initial and the surname:

• M. Ward, J.S. Bach, J.R.R. Tolkien

Punctuation

Full stop

Every sentence ends with a full stop, a question mark or an exclamation mark. If the last word in a sentence is an abbreviation with a point, do not add a full stop after it:

• We will provide paper, pens, etc.

Do not use a full stop at the end of a heading.

Colon

Use a colon (not a semi-colon) before a list or expansion:

• The Faculty of Languages consists of four departments: the Department of English, the Department of Linguistics and Philology, the Department of Modern Languages and the Department of Scandinavian Languages.

In running text, the word after a colon is written with a small letter, not a capital letter:

• Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilisations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Semi-colon

A semi-colon can be used to link two clauses that could each be an independent sentence but are closely associated:

• Students are not only the leaders of tomorrow; they must begin to take on leadership roles right now.

A semi-colon can also be used for greater clarity instead of a comma in complicated lists or sentences:

• The festival will include screenings of The Turin Horse, directed by Béla Tarr (Hungary, 2011); The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, directed by Werner Herzog (Germany, 1974); and The Seventh Seal, directed by Ingmar Bergman (Sweden, 1957).

Comma

“The purpose of commas is to make the text clear and easy to read” (Myndigheternas skrivregler). This applies to Swedish and English alike. Here we will only give a few examples of uses and rules that are particularly important when writing English.

Comma after introductory adverbial expression or subordinate clause:

• After being taken from Prague by Swedish troops in 1648, the Silver Bible was incorporated into the library of Queen Christina.
• However, we have had to cancel the lecture due to illness.

Comma in relative clauses: Use commas round non-restrictive (non-defining) relative clauses, i.e. clauses that add information but can be omitted without making the sentence incomplete (parenthetical additions):

• The University Main Building, which was built in the 1880s, is currently being renovated.
• Anders Celsius, who is best known for his work on thermometers, was primarily an astronomer.

Do not put commas round restrictive (defining) subordinate clauses, i.e. clauses that contain information that cannot be omitted without making the sentence incomplete or changing the meaning:

• The course consists of three modules. The module which begins on 20 October is worth 15 credits.

Note that the word ‘which’ can be replaced with ‘that’ in a restrictive subordinate clause, but not in a non-restrictive subordinate clause.

Oxford comma

Normally no comma is needed before the last item in a list (before ‘and’). However, such a comma (sometimes called an ‘Oxford comma’) can be used in situations where the relationship between items in the list needs to be clarified:

• The cats were black and white, brown and yellow, and ginger. (Here ‘brown and yellow’ belong together, not ‘yellow and ginger’.)

In the worst case, the absence of a comma can cause unwanted ambiguity:

• “Top stories: World leaders at Mandela tribute, Obama-Castro handshake and same-sex marriage date set.” (Sky News)

Hyphens and dashes

At Uppsala University only two types of lines are used in written texts in English:

• the hyphen: -
• the en-dash: –

To type an en-dash in Word, press Ctrl + the minus key on the number pad. Alternatively, you can type word–space–hyphen–space–word–space/punctuation mark. The hyphen will auto-format to an en-dash.

The en-dash is used to mark ranges:

• pp. 36–45
• 25–30 participants
• SEK 20–25 million
• 12–15%

An en-dash can be used to link two names or parties:

• the Swedish–Norwegian War of 1814
• the Borg–McEnroe rivalry

An en-dash can also be used in place of a colon or comma for added effect, particularly in web texts. But use them sparingly, as the effect decreases with overuse. Insert spaces before and after the en-dash:

• Welcome to Uppsala University – a place of knowledge, culture and critical dialogue.
• The building – which was erected in the 1880s – is being renovated.

A hyphen is used in compound adjectives before a noun:

• a well-stocked library (but the library is well stocked)
• part-time studies (but you may study part time)

A hyphen is also used before a prefix and a name or number:

• anti-Palme sentiment, pre-twentieth century poetry, mid-1970s music

A hyphen is used in some words formed by adding a prefix, for reasons of clarity or pronunciation:

• pre-eminent, re-creation, re-analyse

Parentheses

Parentheses can be placed around synonyms, explanations, definitions or other extra information:

• Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS)
• Uppsala is famous for its celebrations on 30 April (Valborg).

Quotations and quotation marks

In English, quotations are introduced by [“] or [‘] (shaped like 66 or 6) and concluded by [”] or [’] (shaped like 99 or 9). The key for single quotation marks is next to the ä-key. Do not use the accent key (next to the backspace key). A dash is not used to introduce a quotation in English.

Use double quotation marks [“ ”] for direct quotation and single quotation marks [‘ ’] for quotations within quotations:

• “Rabbit,” said Pooh to himself. “I like talking to Rabbit. He talks about sensible things. He doesn’t use long, difficult words, like Owl. He uses short, easy words, like ‘What about lunch?’ and ‘Help yourself, Pooh.’ I suppose, really, I ought to go and see Rabbit.”

Place commas that are part of the quotation inside the quotation marks. Also place a comma inside the quotation marks if the speaker is identified after the quote ends. If the sentence ends with the quote, place the full stop inside the quotation marks:

• “Go home”, he said, “to your father.”
• “Go home,” he said, “and never come back.”
• “These findings indicate a link between children’s motor skills and their cognitive development,” says Janna Gottwald.

Use single quotation marks to mark terms that you are using in a figurative or ironic sense, or that you want to define or otherwise draw attention to:

• We tried to laugh at the lecturer’s ‘jokes’.
• We need a grammar ‘czar’ to enforce correct punctuation.
• In this study, we use the term ‘young adult’ to refer to an individual between the ages of 16 and 24.

Apostrophe

An apostrophe is used in genitive (possessive) expressions:

• Johanna’s book, Erasmus’s ideas, nobody’s fault, the EU’s fundamental values, Women’s Studies

When the plural of a noun is formed by adding an ‘s’, as is generally the case, no extra ‘s’ is added after the apostrophe:

• Students’ rights, actuaries’ salaries, the Beatles’ success

An apostrophe and genitive ‘s’ is also used when writing about programmes and levels in higher education:

• Choose from more than 40 international Master’s programmes.
• A Master’s degree from Uppsala University will enable you to ...
• ... with limitless educational offerings at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels.

Note that the possessive pronoun ‘its’ is written without an apostrophe:

• Civilisation and its Discontents

An apostrophe is also used to mark the omission of one or more letters in contractions:

• Can’t, doesn’t, you’re, it’s (= it is or it has)

Be careful to distinguish between the possessive pronoun ‘its’ and the contraction ‘it’s’:

• It’s a common misconception that the ostrich sticks its head in the sand to hide from enemies.

The key for the apostrophe is the same as for single quotation marks and is next to the ä-key. Do not use the accent key (next to the backspace key).

Date and time

Write dates in the form 4 June 2014 or (without the year) 4 June, without any punctuation. Avoid the long-winded form the 4th of June and the numerical notation 4/6/14, which can easily be misunderstood.

In scientific contexts, we recommend the ISO format: 2014-06-04.

Decades are written without an apostrophe:

• the 1960s

Write the abbreviations BC (= Before Christ) and AD (= Anno Domini) – or, if you or your department or publisher prefer, BCE (= Before the Common Era) and CE (= Common Era) – after years or periods, with a space and without punctuation. When giving ranges, use a dash without spaces:

• the reign of Augustus (27 BC–14 AD)
• the third millennium BCE

Use the 24-hour clock for time, with a colon between hours, minutes (and seconds, if indicated), and a 0 before hours before 10. The abbreviations ‘am’ and ‘pm’ should not be used.

• The seminar begins at 08:45 and ends at 15:40.
• Lunch 12:00–13:15 (note that an en-dash is used, not a hyphen)

Always write out the minutes, even when indicating the full hour: 14:00 not 14.

Numbers

Spell out numbers one to nine, and use figures for higher numbers. However, if a sentence contains a number written with figures, use figures for all numbers in that sentence. Always use figures in statistics and with units of measurement denoted by symbols or abbreviations.

• The University has nine faculties spread over three disciplinary domains.
• The Disciplinary Domain of Medicine and Pharmacy is divided into 2 faculties with a total of 11 departments.

A point is used as decimal separator (not a comma):

• 10.51 cm

A comma is used as thousand separator to make long numbers easier to read:

• EUR 1,483,000

In scientific and technical contexts, use a hard space instead of a comma. To type a hard space in Word, press Ctrl+Shift+Space:

• 2 440.45 g

Currencies and units of measurement

In running text, write monetary amounts with currency abbreviations. These abbreviations are written before the number, with a space in between:

• EUR 2,400; USD 2 billion; SEK 100.

If using currency symbols, close them up to the number:

• €120; ₤78; $50.75

Abbreviations of units of measurement are written with a space after the number, but no space is used before a percentage sign:

• 84 kg; 1.23 cm; 45%

Use the percentage sign in technical and scientific contexts, but otherwise write out the words per cent (two words!).

Telephone numbers

The word ‘Telephone’ is abbreviated ‘Tel.’ Use ‘Mobile’ for ‘mobile phone’.

If you can assume that the target group for your text is limited to Sweden, write the number in the usual way. If the target group may include readers outside Sweden, write the number in the form recommended by the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS):

Tel.: +46 18 471 00 00, Mobile: +46 70 111 11 11

Gender-neutral writing

Avoid the word chairman. Write chair instead. Sometimes it is better to use the verb:

• Professor Hanna Lundquist has been appointed chair of the committee.
• Professor Hanna Lundquist chairs the Committee on Academic Standards.

Use gender-neutral job titles:

• Police officer, postal worker, firefighter, businessperson, spokesperson

The word ombudsman, however, is (still) acceptable.

Use they as a gender-neutral pronoun rather than he or she. The object pronoun is them and the possessive pronoun their:

• If a student considers their work has been unfairly graded, they can send a complaint to the ombudsmen for grading issues.

The associated reflexive pronoun is themself:

• Anyone would consider themself fortunate to have such colleagues.

Write humankind or humanity rather than mankind.

Plain language

“Plain language means texts produced by public authorities that are written in a way that is correct, simple and easy to understand” (Language Council of Sweden). As a public authority, Uppsala University is obliged to apply the principles of plain language in English language communications as well as in Swedish. When referring to English, ‘plain language’ is sometimes also known as ‘plain English’. Two fundamental principles are to remember who you are writing for (the target group) and to be clear about the purpose of your text. Here are a few points that can help you to write more clearly.

Avoid long and complicated sentences: On average, sentences should be no longer than 20 words or two lines long. Use normal word order.

Use active verb forms: Sometimes passive verb forms are appropriate or even necessary. But active verb forms are less complicated and should be used where possible.

Avoid ‘nounitis’: You can often use a verb instead of a verb and a noun. This makes the language more direct and less complicated.

Use short and simple expressions: Do use a broad vocabulary and choose the most suitable word for each occasion. But avoid unnecessarily long and fussy expressions. Here are a few examples:

Use lists for greater impact, especially when writing for the web:

For more tips on plain language, see the European Commission publication How to write clearly

See also Plain English Campaign

Word division (hyphenation)

Avoid word division as far as possible. Never split words of one syllable. If you have to divide a word at the end of a line, the pronunciation generally governs where to split the word. However, the sense also plays a role. The aim must be to disturb the reader as little as possible. Here are some general rules:

Words should be divided into syllables, e.g. com-bine, walk-ing. Compound words should be divided into the words they are made up of, e.g. life-time.

A word must never be divided between two letters that form a single sound. For example, write lead-ership (not le-adership), worth-less (not wort-hless), wish-ing (not wis-hing).

Words that begin with a prefix should be divided after the prefix, not in the middle of it, e.g. inter-national (not in-ternational).

A word formed by adding a suffix to the stem should be divided before the suffix. For example, write miss-ing, success-ful, desir-able.

Except in cases where the stem ends in a double consonant, divide words between double consonants: excel-lent, omis-sion, remit-tance.

Avoid dividing a word that already contains a hyphen other than after the hyphen: self-explanatory, easy-going, long-sighted.

Do not divide a word so that only two letters come on the second line, and if possible avoid divisions that leave only two letters on the first line (with the exception of prefixes such as re- or un-).

If in doubt, use a dictionary that shows possible divisions, preferably the New Oxford Spelling Dictionary.

English headlines

News headlines in English follow certain patterns to save space and communicate what is most important. Here are a few general recommendations:

Use verbs in the present tense:
Uppsala University adopts new policy document
instead of
Uppsala University has adopted new policy document

Use the infinitive with ‘to’ for future events:
Vice-Chancellor to inaugurate new physics lab
instead of
Vice-Chancellor will inaugurate new physics lab

Omit definite and indefinite articles (a, the):
New Zennström professor appointed
instead of
A new Zennström professor appointed

Omit forms of the verb ‘to be’ with adjectives:
Students dissatisfied with housing situation, survey shows
instead of
Students are dissatisfied with housing situation, survey shows

Omit words such as ‘says’ with quotes:
Otto Cars: “Major breakthrough in fight against antibiotics resistance”
instead of
Otto Cars says “Major breakthrough in fight against antibiotics resistance”

Replace conjunctions (such as ‘and’) with punctuation:
Uppsala University to launch five new MOOCs – University Board “highly pleased” with outcome

Letters and emails: opening and closing phrases

Start a letter to an unknown recipient “Dear Sir/Madam”. If you are writing to a person in a certain position but do not have their name, you may use their title: “Dear Admissions Officer”. You may also use the name of the organisation or company to which you are writing: “Dear Telia”. You should end letters begun in any of these ways with “Yours faithfully”, although “Yours sincerely” is also acceptable these days and will not offend anyone.

If you know the recipient’s name, use it with the appropriate title: “Dear Professor Becker”, “Dear Dr Johnson”, “Dear Ms Hawkins”, “Dear Mr Campbell”. Note that “Professor”, unlike “Dr”, should not be abbreviated. Do not use the title “Miss”. Do not use the title “Mrs” unless you are certain that the recipient prefers that title. End letters that begin in this way “Yours sincerely”.

If you are on first-name terms with the recipient, use their first name: “Dear Susan”, “Dear John”. End the letter “Best regards” or “Kind regards”, or more informally, “Regards” or “Yours”.

You can generally start emails in the same way as letters. However, you may start a relatively informal email to a company (for example, a reservation enquiry to a hotel) simply with “Hello” and you can start an email to a person with whom you are on first-name terms simply with their name: “Susan”, “John”. End with “Regards”, “Yours” or “Best wishes”. Other sign-offs in emails include “Cheers” and “Best”.

A comma (not a colon or an exclamation mark) may be placed after the opening phrase but is not necessary. If (and only if) you use a comma here, you should also place a comma after the closing phrase.

If in doubt, use a more formal expression.​