# Style points (A-Z) ## **Book titles** Book titles have single curly quotes, except when they are in page titles, for example ‘Medieval Bodies’ is published in January 2018 They are never italicised. There is detailed guidance about the titles of articles, journals, films and so on in the main style guide \[link]. Most relevant here is the fact that newspaper and magazine titles are not italicised and do not have inverted commas round them. ## **British English spellings** We use ‘ise/isation/ising’ endings, and ‘our’ on words like ‘colour’. To avoid variant spellings, always refer to the Collins dictionary online: ## **Event text** Event text should only answer the user’s questions about the event – what they’ll do, about the people involved in the event, where the event will be and any key booking information. Any additional, superfluous information should be cut. ## **Exhibition titles** Exhibition titles have single quotes, except when they are in page titles (where they have no quotes). They are never italicised: for example, ‘Somewhere in Between’ is open until September 2019 in body copy But Somewhere in Between (without quotes) in the title of the exhibition page. ## **Inclusive language** Our goal is to inspire and support everyone connected with Wellcome Collection to create and maintain an inclusive and diverse culture. We identify as an anti-racist and anti-ableist organisation, and we use the [social model of disability](https://www.learningdisabilities.org.uk/learning-disabilities/a-to-z/s/social-model-disability). We are open, respectful and collaborative. If you are writing about a contributor, ask them which pronouns they prefer if you are not sure. We do not use an initial cap on phrases such as cerebral palsy, disabled person and wheelchair user. We do use D/deaf and Black (unless the contributor involved prefers not to). ## Italics In general, avoid using italics in online copy. We don’t use them for titles of things like books, magazines or films. ## **License or licence?** Our digitised collections use a variety of UK and US licences for our content. We should adhere wherever possible to UK spelling, though there are cases where the US spelling is preferable. **Licence/s (noun, UK):** Use this spelling when referring to a specific licence or broad group of licences; also when licence is part of a proper name. Examples: Digitised materials from our collections can be accessed and used under a variety of Creative Commons non-commercial, attribution and Public Domain licences. Open Government Licence. **License/s (noun, US)**: This is used in code, to avoid common errors in coding languages, and where the noun is part of a proper name. We’re unlikely to use it on user-facing parts of the site, as most Creative Commons licences don’t actually include the word as part of their proper name. Example: All Creative Commons licenses have many important features in common. **License (verb, UK/US)**: This spelling is used to denote the act of assigning a licence. ## **Paragraph length** Most of our users are on mobile. Paragraphs should be between one and three sentences long. Three is only acceptable if the sentences are simple rather than complex. When producing in Prismic, make each paragraph a separate text block for ease of positioning other page elements. ## **Podcast links** Check the link text in the ‘Subscribe on’ tag list repeatable zone to ensure capitalisation of podcast platforms, for example, Apple Podcasts. ## **Quotation marks** We use curly quotes rather than straight quotes – please change straight quotes if you find them. It’s not usually possible to create curly quotes in Prismic: you will have to copy them over from a Word document. Use (curly) double quote marks for direct quotes. Use single quotes to emphasise single words, for example, ‘Language’ is a labyrinthine topic. ## **Specialist terms** Avoid. If they must be used, explain what they mean.