I received an email with a link to the U.K. government’s content style guide. Since I don’t plan on writing content for U.K. government websites, I wasn’t going to read it.I couldn’t help myself and clicked the link. I was pleasantly surprised. For example, the U.K. government advocates plain English (it’s mandatory):
“Use plain English – don’t use complicated or long words when easy or short ones will do – use ‘buy’ instead of ‘purchase’, ‘help’ instead of ‘assist’, ‘about’ instead of ‘approximately’ and ‘like’ instead of ‘such as’.”
The style guide also listed government buzzwords and jargon to avoid because they can lead to distrust. Some of the words listed (and why) include:
- Agenda (Unless it’s an agenda for a meeting)
- Collaborate (The government prefers “working with”)
- Dialogue (The government prefers to “speak to people”)
- Key (Use only for keys that open locks; important topics should be labeled as “important”)
- Facilitate (Say what you’re actually doing)
While much of the style guide is irrelevant to U.S. writers, it’s worth reading. If you write for U.S. and U.K. markets, you’ll definitely get some good insight into language differences and style preferences.The U.K. government’s website content style guide is located at: https://www.gov.uk/designprinciples/styleguide