Academic qualifications

When writing about degrees, the level is possessive and not plural. For example, write bachelor’s degree and master’s degree. This is because when you attain a master’s qualification, you become a master of your subject area. Both are also lowercase.

For example, “She got her master’s degree at a local university.”

If the qualification is abbreviated, then write it like BA, BSc, MA, MSc, PGCE or PhD.

Also, cap down disciplines such as anthropology, physics and mathematics. For example, “she graduated with a master’s degree in medicine.”

Accessibility

To make sure your documents can be read by someone using a screenreader, use Microsoft Word’s accessibility checker.

• Always remember to add alt text to images being published online or in PDFs. This will enable someone using a screenreader to know what’s happening in photographs or graphics that accompany your content. See also: Alt text
• Where possible, give videos and graphics a link to a text version or text description
• To check how easily readable your writing is, use The Writer’s readability checker. Clear, simple language should be used wherever possible. Even if you’re writing for a specialist or knowledgeable audience, keep in mind that it should still be accessible (if at all possible) to a reader who has a learning disability

Accessibility also plays a large part in how we write. Sightsavers prides itself on making all its communications accessible, so they can be used and understood by as many people as possible.

This benefits people with disabilities, but also many other groups: for example, people using mobile devices, people with poor internet connections, or people who prefer to watch videos without sound.

In terms of our writing, it is vital to use clear and concise language, so it is easily understood by everyone. If you are not sure about something you have written, ask yourself if someone who does not work for an NGO would understand the words you are using.

For more guidance on accessibility, see the Sightsavers brand book.

Acronyms and initialisms (see also Capitals)

We tend to use the term ‘acronym’ to apply to any initialised word, although technically if it can be pronounced as a word itself it’s an acronym (like FIFA) and if it can’t it’s an initialism (like NTD or BBC). More here if you’re really interested.

The general rule with acronyms/initialisms (we’ll just use ‘acronym’ from here to save time) is: avoid them where possible. But if you must use them, spell the full wording out first, followed by the acronym in brackets. After this, use the acronym. If the term/phrase only occurs a couple of times in your entire document, just write it in full throughout.

• Sightsavers was given a high performance rating by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in its mid-term assessment. A spokesperson from the FCDO said…
• Never use an acronym to describe people (for example, PWD for ‘people with disabilities’, VI people for ‘visually impaired people’)
• Even if your audience knows the terms you’re using, try not to baffle them with too many acronyms in one sentence

These following acronyms are OK to use provided we spell out the words in full on first mention.

• The FCDO (Foreign, Development and Commonwealth Office)
• MDA (mass drug administration)
• NGO (non-governmental organisation)
• NTD (neglected tropical disease/s)
• SAFE (surgery, antibiotics, facial cleanliness, environmental change)
• WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene)
• WHO (World Health Organization)
• MoE (for ministry/ministries of education)

adviser, not advisor

affect/effect

Affect is the verb, effect is the noun: ‘NTDs affect many people, but good hygiene has a big effect.’

Effect can also be a verb meaning to bring about a change: ‘The prime minister effected a change in policy.’

Agenda 2030

Or the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development if written out in full.

Ages

Hyphens are only used for modified nouns. In the hyphenated example below, the phrase ‘six year old’ is modifying the noun ‘girl’. If there’s no noun following the phrase ‘six year old’, don’t use hyphens.

• Nahbila is a happy six-year-old girl
• Nahbila is six years old
• Don’t write: Nahbila is six-years-old

For numbers one to nine, use words – from 10, use digits:

• One-year-old Ismael was born with cataracts in both eyes
• At the camp, 75-year-old Hadiya was screened and immediately referred for trichiasis surgery
• Jacob, who’s nine years old, lives with his family near the Ogun river in Kaduna state, Nigeria

Alt text 

Alt text is a simple text description of an image. It is particularly useful for people with visual impairments who use screenreading software: the software reads the alt text aloud so the user can understand the image without being able to see it. 

The alt text should give a brief description of the image, in context. No need to write ‘Image of…’ or  ‘Picture of…’ – the screenreader will do this automatically. For example:

• A young girl sitting on a chair in a hospital waiting room
• Two smiling young men walking together hand in hand. One of them holds a white cane

If the image contains a graph or other numerical data, it’s best practice to include all the data in the alt text. For example:

• A pie chart showing the causes of blindness worldwide, featuring the following statistics: cataracts 51%, glaucoma 8%, age-related macular degeneration 5%, trachoma 3% and other 33%

Don’t use alt text on images that are purely decorative or background items. Instead, use empty quote marks “”, which will instruct the screenreader to ignore the image.

For more information see the RNIB guidance.

among, not amongst

Ampersands (&)

‘And’ should always be written out in full – ‘&’ should not be used except in rare exceptions, such as in company names if it’s part of the brand (M&S), or if it’s a necessary design element.

‘And’ and ‘But’

Both are acceptable ways to start a sentence.

Apostrophes

Used to indicate a missing letter or letters (can’t, we’d) or a possessive (David’s book).

Use an apostrophe and ‘s’ to show that something belongs to a person or thing, or when you’re using a plural word that doesn’t end in ‘s’, such as ‘people’:

• The surgeon’s work took eight hours (the work of a single surgeon)
• He was the people’s champion (the champion of the people)

If it’s a name that ends in S, add an extra apostrophe and an extra S so the phrase is written as you’d say it out loud:

• Sylvas’s work is time-consuming
• Grace’s eyes were causing her a lot of pain

If you’re talking about more than one person and the word ends in ‘s’, put the apostrophe after the ‘s’:

• The surgeons’ work took eight hours (the work of a group of surgeons)

When you’re talking about time, single units have the apostrophe before the ‘s’ and multiple units have it after, like this:

• One day’s notice
• One week’s work
• Two days’ notice
• Two weeks’ work

Contractions (shortened words like we’ve, we’re, there’s) can give a friendlier, more conversational tone, and should be used in general writing to avoid sounding overly formal. So this sentence:

• He couldn’t build on his early promise at school as the extra support he required wasn’t available

sounds more chatty and informal than this one:

• He could not build on his early promise at school as the extra support he required was not available

No apostrophes in dates: 1960s, the 60s.

it’s vs its

It’s is a shortened form of ‘it is’:

• It’s Sightsavers’ mission to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for people with disabilities

Its is the possessive form of ‘it’:

• Sightsavers wants to fulfil its mission

Sightsavers vs Sightsavers’
Because Sightsavers ends in ‘s’, deciding whether you need to use Sightsavers or Sightsavers’ in your sentence can be tricky. To check, try replacing the word Sightsavers with a similar entity that doesn’t end in ‘s’, like Oxfam. In the sentence you’re writing, if you’d say Oxfam’s, then add the apostrophe to Sightsavers. If you wouldn’t, don’t.

• Find out more about Oxfam’s approach to fundraising
• Find out more about Sightsavers’ approach to fundraising
• Oxfam wants to eliminate avoidable blindness
• Sightsavers wants to eliminate avoidable blindness

Just to complicate matters, there are some instances where either option would be fine.

Our style guide is called The Sightsavers style guide, but could equally be called Sightsavers’ style guide, because it is the official Sightsavers style guide (not needing an apostrophe), but also the style guide belonging to Sightsavers (needing an apostrophe). In general, if either option is correct, leave off the apostrophe.

‘Beneficiaries’

Try to avoid using this term: it could be seen as patronising or implying an unequal balance of power. Instead, use terms such as ‘programme participants’, ‘people taking part in our projects’, ‘people we work with’ or ‘people in the communities where we work’.

benefited/benefiting

Books, films and TV titles

Use single quote marks for TV, radio and book titles, but not for newspaper titles.

• Sightsavers ambassador Sunetra Sarker has starred in ‘Casualty’ and ‘No Angels’
• The Times is partnering with Sightsavers for this year’s Christmas appeal

(Note that the single quotes should be ‘curly’ typographer’s quotes, not straight quotes.)

both

Can normally be taken out, as it can create confusion. For example: ‘Sightsavers trained both doctors and nurses’ can be read as implying there are two doctors, or that doctors were trained as well as nurses, so it’s confusing. If it makes sense without it, take it out.

Brackets (parentheses)

When you use brackets as part of a longer sentence, the full stop (or any other punctuation) goes on the outside (like this). When the whole sentence is within the brackets, the full stop should be on the inside.

(This is an example of when the punctuation should go inside the brackets.)

braille (lower case – not Braille)

British vs American English

Our overall house style for UK and global content, including on all our English websites (UK/Global, US and Ireland), is to use British English. The exception is organisation names, which should be written as they’re styled by the organisation themselves (for example the World Health Organization, The Carter Center). 

In international publications in English-speaking countries (excluding online), content should be written in a recognised variety of Standard English (SE). This usually means the version of English that is accepted by academic and publishing convention in that country. For publications or websites using a language other than English (French, Italian, Swedish), we are reliant on translators to meet similar editorial standards, so we have less control over the finished products/content.

British English should be the default option for all global content, but if you’re unsure, go with whatever will be least jarring for your audience. For example, if you’re writing a document for an event in New York where the audience will be an international mix but American English would make more sense to the majority than British English, go with American English.

Bullet points and numbered lists

Use bullet points if the items in your list are of equal importance or don’t need to be in sequence. Use a numbered list if you’re referring to a series of steps.

As a general rule, for all bullet points and numbered lists use a capital letter and no full stop.

But use your discretion – if a particular format requires it (for reasons of design, accessibility or country/partner standards) full stops can be used. Above all, keep it consistent.

Bullet points should be kept short if possible. If your bullet points or list items are very long, consider whether they’d be better written as paragraphs, or using subheadings.

‘Capacity-building’

This jargon term should be avoided wherever possible: it’s pretty meaningless to anyone who doesn’t work in international development. Instead, try to use a variation of the following:

• Helping people or organisations to develop their skills, knowledge and resources so they can work on a larger scale and reach more people (known as ‘capacity building’)

Capitals (see also acronyms)

Capital letters can look overly formal and old-fashioned, so only use them when there’s a reason to. They can also come across as shouty. Don’t use caps (or italics, or underlining, or, heaven forbid, all three) for emphasis. If emphasis is needed, bold text can be used: We think all children should be able to attend school.

Headlines and headings should be written in sentence case:

• A different kind of goal
  not
• A Different Kind of Goal

But if there’s a name or title in the heading, it’s fine to keep the caps on it, like this:

• Big news for the World Health Organization
• Sightsavers publishes Everybody Counts report

Do capitalise:

• organisations
• campaigns
• resolutions
• acts of parliament
• government departments
• languages

Don’t capitalise:

• diseases or eye conditions
• job titles or descriptions (for exceptions see Job titles)
• generic titles
• governments, even when referring to a specific one
• academic disciplines (see Academic qualifications)

So it’s the World Health Organization, Senegal’s Ministry of Health, Sustainable Development Goals, the Equal World campaign, the Official Secrets Act, but the UK government, ministries of health, river blindness, non-governmental organisations, mass drug administration.

Pharmaceutical product names, such as Mectizan® and Zithromax®, should always be capped up, but the generic name, such as ivermectin and azithromycin, should be capped down.

Caps and geography
Cap up the first letter of an official name of a region: North India, West Africa.
Keep it lower case if you’re referring to a general area: southern Malawi, the south of India.

Captions

See ‘Credits and captions’

cataracts

Should I write cataract or cataracts?
The condition is called ‘cataract’, but this often sounds jarring in a sentence – to a reader unfamiliar with our work, “He was diagnosed with cataract and referred for surgery” would sound like it was missing an ‘s’. In general, go with the most easily readable option.

Here’s the official line, from Imran Khan, Sightsavers’ chief global technical lead: “A cataract refers to a clouding of the lens in one eye, so if someone has cloudy lenses in both eyes, we can say that the patient has cataracts (plural). If it is only in one eye, then we can say that the patient has a cataract in one eye. So it is a condition and also a thing.

“Technically, a person can have different types of cataracts in one eye (depending on anatomical location of the opacification in the lens and/or cause), but it is common convention to still refer to the patient having a cataract in one eye (singular).”

How long does a cataract operation take?
Cataract surgery times can vary between hospitals, and depending on any complications. Child cataract surgery usually requires general anaesthetic and an overnight stay in hospital; the surgical skill needed is higher, as is the cost of equipment and consumables. Adult surgery can be much quicker and require less recuperation time.

Sandeep Buttan, Sightsavers’ global technical lead on eye health in Asia, has advised that:

• an adult cataract operation can take as little as 8-10 minutes
• a child cataract operation can take as little as 30 minutes

Colons and semicolons

A colon introduces a list, an explanation or a definition.
Semicolons can be used in two instances. In lists, use them if they provide more clarity than commas.

• Sightsavers provides funding for specialist teachers; classroom equipment, including Braille kits and screen readers; and training

Or use them to join two related but independent clauses:

• “I am 16; I don’t go to school because I can’t see anything.”

combating/combated

Commas

Countries

Côte d’Ivoire Note the circumflex over the o.
Democratic Republic of Congo Abbreviated to DRC. Not to be confused with Republic of Congo.
The Gambia With cap T. In alphabetical lists, file under G.
Guinea Not to be confused with Guinea-Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau With hyphen. Not to be confused with Guinea.
Republic of Congo Not to be confused with Democratic Republic of Congo.
South Sudan Include full name within page: Republic of South Sudan. Not to be confused with Sudan.
sub-Saharan Note lower case S (not Sub-Saharan).
Sudan Include full name within page: Republic of the Sudan. Not to be confused with South Sudan.

Country and city names

Make sure you are mindful and are using the correct names for places. Many African and Asian countries and cities have changed names away from Anglicised or colonial names or spellings – for example Tombouctou in Mali, Kolkata and Bengaluru in India, Eswatini instead of Swaziland. Check Google if you are unsure.

COVID-19

Write all in capitals with a hyphen. COVID-19 (coronavirus) can also be used if needed. For hashtags on social media, camel case should be used for accessibility best practice (for example, #Covid19Disability).

Credits and captions

Photo credits, when used, should always appear with a copyright symbol and no spaces. No full stops are needed after the credit.

• © Sightsavers/photographer name

On the WordPress sites, photo credits don’t automatically display, but if we have an agreement with a photographer to credit them wherever their images are used, add the photo credit at the end of the photo caption, like this:

• Six-year-old Ulami collects water for his family from a seasonal river in Horr, northern Kenya. © Sightsavers/Jerome Starkey

Photo captions should be used where they add useful information to an image and explain how the image relates to the content it’s illustrating.

See also: Alt text

Currencies: see Foreign currencies

Currently

Can usually be taken out. For example, say ‘He has cataracts’ rather than ‘He currently has cataracts.’

DPOs (now known as OPDs)

Disabled people’s organisations – we now refer to these as OPDs: organisations of people with disabilities (or organisations of persons with disabilities, where ‘persons’ is required for a specific audience).

Dashes and hyphens

You should use a hyphen when not doing so would make the meaning unclear or confusing. Hyphens should be used to form compound adjectives but only when they are followed by a noun. For example: ‘life-changing operation’ but ‘the operation was life changing’. Other examples include a Sightsavers-funded project; sight-saving surgery; a low-cost operation. The exception is ‘low and middle income countries’ – we don’t hyphenate this as it can get confusing (see low and middle income countries).

There are three different types of dash:

• Hyphen-
• En dash–
• Em dash—

Use a hyphen with no spaces to join words together: French-speaking, Sightsavers-supported.

En-dashes can be used to break up a sentence or replace brackets or other punctuation. They should have a space either side.

Em-dashes shouldn’t be used. They’re used in American English, but not in British English (our standard language at Sightsavers). 

• John doesn’t live in the UK – he happens to live in Magombo, a remote region of Malawi – so when he started having trouble with his vision things were very different
• They haven’t been reached with Mectizan® treatment – yet
• It can be treated successfully with a quick, straightforward and low-cost operation – if it’s caught in time

Hanging or suspended hyphens can be used if needed for clarity, for example:

• It was suitable for a 13- or 14-year-old child
• We spoke to Hadiya both pre- and post-surgery

data

Data, like agenda, takes a singular verb (we don’t use ‘datum’ or ‘agendum’).

Dates and times

Dates

Write dates in the order day/date/month/year, like this:

• Wednesday 1 January 2014

No commas, no ordinals (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd)

Time

10am (not 10.00am) but 10.30am. No space between the time and am or pm (also, never a.m. or p.m.).

Time should be expressed using figures and then am or pm:

• 9–11am
• 9.30am–12.45pm

Decimals

Keep to one decimal point: £1.2 million,not £1.24 million.

Department for International Development (DFID)

Do not use. DFID has now merged with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to become the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, so we should no longer be using DFID in any communications.

developing countries (and related terminology)

Avoid if possible. There’s a lot of debate about using terms that lump countries together based on their economic, social or environmental status. If possible, avoid using catch-all terms and be specific about what you mean. Sightsavers’ preferred terminology is based on country income levels: ‘low income countries’, ‘low and middle income countries’, ‘low and lower middle income countries’ (no hyphens) depending on what is most appropriate for your audience. Don’t use ‘developing world’ or ‘third world’. See also: Global south

Disability

See our disability and inclusion language guide for full information on how we write about blindness, visual impairment, disability and inclusion.

It is important we differentiate between impairment and disability. Impairment is the injury/illness/condition that causes a loss or difference of function to an individual, whereas disability refers to the limitation or loss of opportunities to participate equally in society because of social and environmental barriers.

Language to use

• People with disabilities/person with a disability (disabled people/person): within any one piece of communication we should consistently use either ‘people with disabilities/person with a disability’ or ‘disabled people/person’ – don’t alternate between the two
• Person/people with [name of impairment]
• People without disabilities/person without a disability
• Persons with disabilities: this term is commonly used by global institutions (for example the UN and the World Bank), NGOs, DPOs and policymakers, but is jarring for a general public audience. For audiences who won’t be familiar with the term, use ‘people with disabilities’ instead, except where it’s part of a title or quote
• Older people

People with sensory impairments

• Blind person
• Partially sighted person
• Person with low vision
• Person with visual impairment
• Deaf/deaf person (there is a strong Deaf community with its own culture and sense of identity, based on a shared language. When referring to a person or people who identify as part of this community, Deaf should be capped up). The term ‘d/Deaf’ can also be used
• Person with hearing loss
• Person who is hard of hearing
• Person who is deafblind

People with physical impairments

• Person who has a spinal cord injury
• Persons who is a wheelchair user/person who uses a wheelchair
• Person with cerebral palsy
• Person with restricted growth/short stature/dwarfism/little person (use the person’s preferred terminology)

People with cognitive impairments

• Person with dementia/Alzheimer’s (dementia is not a mental illness but affects memory, attention, orientation and other areas of cognitive functioning)

People with intellectual impairments/disabilities

• Person with Down syndrome

People with behavioural impairments

• Autistic person/Person with autism/on the autism spectrum
• Person with Asperger’s syndrome
• Person with ADHD (Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)

People with neurological impairments

• Person with epilepsy

People with developmental disabilities

People with mental health conditions

• Person with depression/anxiety/psychosis

When mental health conditions – in interaction with barriers in society – become disabling, it is referred to as psychosocial disability.

Language to avoid

• Differently abled
• PWD
• Special needs
• Cripple
• Invalid
• Victim
• Handicapped
• Suffering from
• Inspiring/Brave
• Collective nouns: the disabled/the blind/the deaf
• Non-disabled
• Able-bodied
• Normal
• Someone who can’t see (avoid focusing on what someone cannot do)
• Dumb (‘non-verbal’ may be an appropriate alternative, but consider whether it’s relevant to mention)
• Deaf-mute
• Confined to a wheelchair/wheelchair-bound
• Spastic
• Midget
• Mentally handicapped
• Mentally defective
• Retarded
• Sub-normal
• Mongoloid
• Stupid
• Slow/slow learner
• Fits (when referring to someone who has epilepsy)
• Elderly (use ‘older people’)

Diseases and eye conditions

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a group of 17 diseases – see the list below showing where to cap up or down:

• Buruli ulcer (capped up as it takes its name from Buruli County in Uganda)
• Chagas disease (capped up because it’s named after epidemiologist Carlos Chagas)
• dengue and chikungunya
• dracunculiasis (guinea-worm disease)
• echinococcosis
• foodborne trematodiases
• human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
• intestinal worms (soil-transmitted helminths)
• leishmaniasis
• leprosy (Hansen’s disease)
• lymphatic filariasis
• rabies
• river blindness (onchocerciasis)
• schistosomiasis
• taeniasis/cysticercosis
• trachoma
• yaws (endemic treponematoses)

The five NTDs that Sightsavers works on are intestinal worms, lymphatic filariasis, river blindness, schistosomiasis and trachoma. For more see neglected tropical diseases.

Other diseases and eye conditions

Cap up:

• Ebola (named after a river)

Cap down:

• glaucoma
• cataracts
• diabetic retinopathy
• refractive error

dissemination

Avoid – use ‘distribution’ or ‘giving out’ instead.

Diversity language

If a specific term or approach is not covered by this style guide, refer to www.diversitystyleguide.com.

Down syndrome

Not Down’s syndrome, and no capital on syndrome.

drug

Avoid using (unless specifically referring to MDA – mass drug administration): use ‘treatment’ or ‘medication’ instead where possible.

easy read

Lower case, no hyphens. (For example: ‘Download our easy read document’)

eg/etc/ie

Avoid these. Screenreaders may read them as words (for example ‘egg’) and many people are not familiar with their meanings, so they can make sentences misleading or confusing. Try rewriting your sentence to avoid them, or use an alternative: ‘for example’, ‘like’, ‘including’, ‘and so on’.

Eid al-Fitr

With hyphen: note the spelling.
An Islamic holiday that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.

elderly

Do not use this term – use ‘older people’ instead.

Ellipses

If used to finish a sentence, or when speech is trailing off, the dot-dot-dot should directly follow the final word with no gaps and no further punctuation:

• Watch this space for details…

To signify that part of a quote has been cut out, leave a space after the dots like this:

• Lumley says: ‘I’ve got photographs of Arif at home in a frame and I was so looking forward to seeing him… I couldn’t wait to see what sort of a young man he had grown up to be.’

eliminate/eradicate

In our NTD programmes we’re aiming to eliminate, not eradicate, disease. Read more on the small but vital differences between elimination, eradication and control.

email (not e-mail)

The End is in Sight campaign

If referring to the campaign by name, we should capitalise. Otherwise lower case. The logo should always be sentence case.

• Thanks to Sightsavers, the end is in sight
• Join Sightsavers’ End is in Sight campaign
• The end is in sight for trachoma, thanks to the End is in Sight campaign

etc (see eg/etc/ie)

Exclamation marks

F Scott Fitzgerald said that using an exclamation mark is like laughing at your own joke. People don’t talk with exclamation marks, so they should be used sparingly: only for quotes or sentences that really need them, otherwise they lose their impact. Never use multiple exclamation marks: like this!!! (same goes for question marks – no multiples).

eye care (two words)

Eye conditions: see Diseases and eye conditions

face washing (two words)

Films, books and TV titles

Use single quote marks for TV, radio and book titles, but not for newspaper titles.

• Sightsavers ambassador Sunetra Sarker has starred in ‘Casualty’ and ‘No Angels’
• The Times is partnering with Sightsavers for this year’s Christmas appeal

(Note that the single quotes should be ‘curly’ typographer’s quotes, not straight quotes.)

focused/focusing (one S)

Foreign currencies

Default currencies for each of the Sightsavers country sites are as follows:

• Sightsavers.org: £
• Sightsavers.ie: €
• Sightsaversusa.org: $
• Sightsavers.se: Kr (styled as 2 Kr)
• Sightsavers.no: Kr (styled as 2 Kr)

For any currencies other than these, use the three-figure ISO code (this can be found on any currency conversion website). Any figures in currencies other than the default currency should be followed by a conversion to the default currency in brackets. For example: “The Bangladeshi government has set aside a total of BDT828 million (£7.9 million) to spend on national eye care.”

But use common sense – there is no need to put £500,000 in brackets after the phrase “I feel like a million dollars.”

When the whole word is used it is lower case: euro, pound, dollar, etc. Abbreviate dollars like this: $50 (US dollars); A$50 (Australian dollars); HK$50 (Hong Kong dollars).

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)

This has replaced the Department for International Development (DFID).

Foreign Secretary David Lammy (no commas)

Or the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, David Lammy (with commas).

Full stops

Full stops are used in callout/standfirst text (the block of intro text that follows a headline but comes before the main body copy), image captions and alt text, but not in headlines (unless deliberately used for effect) or after photo credit information.

Full stops are not needed in abbreviations such as Ms, Dr, and pm, or in initials. So we’d write the NHS, not the N.H.S, and JRR Tolkien, not J.R.R. Tolkien.

general election (capped down)

Global Disability Summit (but ‘the summit’ without a cap)

Global Education Monitoring Report

global south

Avoid this term: rewrite where possible.
It’s often used by global development organisations, but may not be understood by the general public so should be avoided in public-facing content.
There’s also a lot of debate about using terms that lump countries together based on their economic, social or environmental status. Try avoid using catch-all terms and be specific about what you mean. Sightsavers’ preferred terminology is based on country income levels: ‘low income countries’, ‘low and middle income countries’, ‘low and lower middle income countries’ (no hyphens) depending on what is most appropriate for your audience. Don’t use ‘developing world’ or ‘third world’. See also: developing countries

hand washing (two words)

hard to reach

Avoid using if possible as it has multiple meanings and can be perceived as negative. Use alternatives such as ‘remote’ or ‘inaccessible’ for places geographically hard to reach, or explain what you mean (for example marginalised, excluded or overlooked).

health care (two words)

Headlines

Try and keep them as short as possible: only include relevant information from the story, and use the active voice. If possible, headlines shouldn’t run over more than two lines.

High-Level Political Forum

Capped up as it’s an annual event title, but caps not required for UN high-level meetings in general.

homepage

One word

Hyperlinks

The wording for links should be descriptive and give an indication of what the link is about. See the Links and downloads section in our WordPress guidelines for detailed guidance.

Hyphens (see Dashes and hyphens)

Image credits (see Photograph credits)

impact, impacts

To ‘impact’ something means to forcibly come into contact with it. People aren’t often physically ‘hit’ by things – they are affected by them.
Avoid using ‘impact’ as a verb, in phrases such as:
‘Read about the lives of people impacted by NTDs’ (it’s jargony, inaccessible and overly formal).
Instead, use ‘affect/affects’: (the lives of people affected by NTDs)

intestinal worms (soil-transmitted helminths, or STH)

Italics

Avoid using italics wherever possible – they can be hard to read.
On formal academic papers, it’s OK to use italics in bibliographies and references, as this style follows agreed global standards.

it’s vs its

It’s is a shortened form of ‘it is’:

• It’s Sightsavers’ mission to eliminate avoidable blindness and promote equality of opportunity for people with disabilities 

Its is the possessive form of ‘it’:

• Sightsavers wants to fulfill its mission

Job titles

Job titles and descriptions should all be lower case: teacher, ophthalmologist, surgeon, editor. For example, Jo Jones is head of global events and major giving communications; Dr Caroline Harper is Sightsavers’ chief executive; the chair of Sightsavers’ global board is Sir Clive Jones. 

The only exception is high-ranking official titles, which are capped up when they precede the person’s name, ie ‘Prime Minister Keir Starmer’. These should be capped down when used as a description: ‘the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer’.

Note: In programme country communications, exceptions may be made if lower case risks implying a lack of appropriate respect or deference. This should be decided on a case-by-case basis, depending on the intended audience.

judgement

kilometres

Abbreviate as ‘km’, with no space between the figures and the unit of measurement: 25km, 1,000km.

King Charles III

On first mention, then the King. If it’s necessary, His Majesty King Charles III or HM King Charles III.

‘leave no one behind’

In reference to the promise of Agenda 2030. Note single quote marks (as it’s a report phrase rather than reported speech), no hyphen on ‘no one’ and no capitals.

learnt/learned

Either is fine.

licence/license

Licence is the noun, license is the verb.

low income countries/low and middle income countries/low and lower middle income countries (see: developing countries)

lymphatic filariasis (LF)

Lymphatic filariasis is transmitted via mosquito bite and can be prevented with medication.

People living in at risk-areas are usually first infected during childhood. If untreated, it can lead to advanced LF which can result in an altered lymphatic system and the abnormal enlargement of body parts. This is painful and leads to permanent physical changes – a condition called lymphoedema – and is highly stigmatised. In men, the disease can cause a condition called hydrocele, a form of lymphoedema that causes intense swelling of the scrotum.

Although people infected with advanced LF cannot be cured, symptoms can be eased through care practices. For men with hydrocele, their symptoms can be eased through surgery. But only hydrocele can be operated on, so avoid saying ‘LF surgery’.

Do not describe the symptoms as ‘disfigurements’ or ‘deformities’ or any other stigmatising terms.

Mass drug administration (MDA)

If discussing people who have not participated in an MDA campaign please say either ‘participation’, ‘non-participation’ or ‘opportunity to participate’. Do not say ‘MDA adherence’ or ‘MDA compliance’.

Mectizan® and Zithromax®

Mectizan® (always capital ‘M’ and registered trademark) is the brand name of the medication that combats onchocerciasis (river blindness).

The generic name for the drug is ivermectin (small ‘i’, no trademark).  Either may be used but Sightsavers generally refers to Mectizan® as this is the name on the bottles of donated tablets, which are distributed by the Mectizan® Donation Programme.

In the USA Merck & Co., Inc. is the company name,  but outside the USA it is MSD (Merck Sharpe & Dohme). The company should never be called Merck Group or just Merck.

Zithromax® is the brand name (always capital ‘Z’ and registered trademark) of the medication that combats trachoma. Its generic name is azithromycin (small ‘a’, no trademark). Either may be used but Sightsavers generally refers to Zithromax® as this is the name on the bottles of donated tablets, which are managed and distributed by the International Trachoma Initiative (or ITI).

The official name of Pfizer is Pfizer, Inc. and this name should be used for the first mention; for further mentions use just Pfizer.

meet, not meet with

micro-entrepreneur

Names (see also Safeguarding)

In case studies, use first names only unless there is a reason to include surnames. Children featuring in case studies should only have their first names used, and be careful to avoid identifying information beyond name and age (see Sightsavers’ safeguarding policy for more information).

When quoting people in news stories, if a full name is required, use this on the first mention and the surname alone on subsequent mentions.

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)

Always lower case (not Neglected Tropical Diseases unless it’s part of an organisation’s name). The neglected tropical diseases Buruli ulcer and Chagas disease (named for a place and person respectively) should have the B and C capped up. The names of other NTDs should always be lower case, except at the beginning of a sentence.

NTDs are a diverse group of 17 communicable diseases found in tropical and subtropical conditions in 149 countries. Sightsavers works to control and eliminate five of them:

Intestinal worms (soil-transmitted helminths, or STH)

Lymphatic filariasis (LF)

River blindness (onchocerciasis)

Schistosomiasis

Trachoma

For the full list of NTDs, see Diseases and eye conditions.

Newspaper titles

Should be written as is: no italics or single quotes.

• The Times is partnering with Sightsavers for this year’s Christmas appeal

(Note that we use single quote marks for TV, radio and book titles, but not for newspaper titles, ie: Sightsavers ambassador Sunetra Sarker has starred in ‘Casualty’ and ‘No Angels’.)

nisab

no one

Not ‘no-one’, including when talking about the commitment of the Sustainable Development Goals to ‘leave no one behind’.

Numbers (see also Per cent)

Write out numbers up to and including nine; use digits for numbers 10 and above.

• One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, and so on

Follow the same number format for ordinal numbers. For example, “She came third in the race” and “They took 11^th place in the competition”.

Except…

• If decimals used – so write 4.3, not four point three
• Whole numbers starting a sentence should be written out (or the sentence reworded to avoid beginning with a number), but decimals should be kept as digits

Figures for all numbers are fine for tables, graphics, infographics, headings, blog diary entries and page references. They can also be used for social media if needed.

Spell out million and billion:

• There are one billion people in the world who have a disability

For infographics, it’s OK to use a shortened version (for example 24m).

In numbers greater than 999, put a comma between every three numbers, like this:

• 1,500
• 3,452,120

Decimals should be kept to one decimal point. See Decimals.

It’s fine to round numbers up or down where needed, as long as we’re not overstating or understating in a misleading way. For example, if you wanted to round the number of cataract surgeries we achieved in a given period and the true number was 31,753, you could write either ‘31,000 surgeries’, ‘more than 31,000 surgeries’ or ‘nearly 32,000 surgeries’. Don’t round up to a number we haven’t achieved when talking about Sightsavers’ work.

OPDs (previously known as DPOs)

Organisations of people with disabilities (OPDs). Choose whether to use ‘people’ or ‘persons’ depending on the specific audience: for general public comms ‘people’ will make more sense and for UN/World Bank/WHO audiences ‘persons’ may be the preferred option.

onchocerciasis

Use river blindness (onchocerciasis). See also Neglected tropical diseases.

older people

Don’t describe people as ‘old’ or ‘elderly’.

online, not on-line

organisation

S, not Z, unless it’s part of an official title, like the World Health Organization.

Organisations should be referred to as singular: ‘it’, not ‘they’.

Paraphrasing (see also Quotes/Speech)

Paraphrasing is acceptable, particularly where speech has been translated into English and there may be room for interpretation. If you make changes, it’s a good idea to get the participant or Sightsavers’ programme staff in the relevant country to approve your updated version to make sure you’re not misrepresenting the person whose speech you’ve amended. Where possible, try to stick as closely as possible to what the person says. Minor edits can be made to a quote so it reads better, but only if this doesn’t change the meaning of what the person says.

Don’t try to write down a person’s accent or quote pidgin English; it’s jarring, can sound patronising and will make your reader cringe. It’s fine to do some minor rewriting for sense, as long as you’re not changing the meaning of what someone is saying. Ideally stick as closely to their words as possible.

So this quote:

• “Truly da pain is a terrible thing. I ask ma Saviour each day to take me from dis life but he be not for listening. How am I to bear it?”

Would be better like this, and the meaning would stay the same:

• “The pain is a terrible thing. I ask my Saviour each day to take me from this life but he [is not] listening. How am I to bear it?”

PDF

Use all capitals in body copy, for example: ‘You can download a PDF below’. Use lower case within links, for example: ‘2017 annual report (pdf)’.

Partners

We work with (not through) partner organisations; Sightsavers doesn’t carry out the work directly. Make sure this is clear in your writing, by wording sentences like this:

• Working with our partners, we equip schools with the skills to support children with visual impairments
• But then she saw an ad for an eye camp funded by Sightsavers
• John was able to visit a Sightsavers-supported ophthalmic clinical officer at his local district hospital
• We work with partners to train specialist teaching staff

People with disabilities

This is Sightsavers’ preferred term. Avoid ‘persons with disabilities’ – it’s often used by organisations including the United Nations, but it can sound odd to a general audience.
The exception is if it’s a title or a quote, which should remain as written, ie the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
See also ‘Persons with disabilities’

People’s Postcode Lottery

• Don’t use ‘The’ in front of the title
• Don’t use PPL abbreviation in external comms
• Projects in which PPL are involved should be referenced as follows: ‘Supported by players of People’s Postcode Lottery.’
• See www.sightsavers.org/ppl/ for more approved wording

per cent (two words)

Write out in words in body copy if the term is used sporadically. If it occurs repeatedly, it’s acceptable to use the % symbol.

Use % symbol in tables, heads and social media.

Personal information

To comply with Sightsavers’ ethical content and safeguarding policies, when writing about our programme participants, we will never include any more than two of the following pieces of information in the same story:

• A person’s full name (use first name only)
• Their image
• Their precise location (region/district level is fine; village, town or school is not)

This does not apply to staff, partners or health workers, but does apply to teachers who are linked to children in materials.

As standard we avoid using a person’s full name or precise location at all (regardless of whether they are used together) in any external materials, including reports, unless there is a very compelling reason to do so, and it is agreed there is no risk to the person concerned.

Persons with disabilities

Avoid this phrase: it’s often used by organisations such as the UN, but it sounds odd to anyone not involved in international development. Instead use ‘people with disabilities’.
The exception is if it’s in a title or a quote, which should remain as written, ie the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
See also ‘People with disabilities’.

Photograph credits

Should be written ©Sightsavers/Photographer’s name, with no space either side of the forward slash. For example: ©Sightsavers/Malumbo Simwaka

pill

Avoid. Use tablet/medication/treatment instead.

policymakers (but decision-makers)

practice/practise

Practice is the noun, practise is the verb.

programme/program

In British English, programme is the preferred spelling. Program is only used to refer to computing contexts.

Put Us in the Picture

The name of the schools programme run by Sightsavers in Ireland.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust

Always write in full on first use, after this ‘the Trust’ is fine.

Quotes/speech (see also Paraphrasing)

Quotes should be introduced with a colon:

• Sightsavers CEO Caroline Harper said: “I am honoured to be the first recipient of the Hemingway Award.”

For direct speech, use double quotation marks. Use inverted commas/single quotation marks for speech within speech.

• After hearing about the programme, Sylvia went to her parish councillor. “I told him my problem, and he said: ‘I will take you the next day.’ When I was there they told me I would learn how to be walking on my own.” 

Single quote marks should be used for paraphrased speech, when referring to a widely-used phrase like ‘leave no one behind’ or when reporting answers from surveys (for example: 26 people answered ‘some difficulty’ or ‘a lot of difficulty’ to the question about daily functioning).

When using a quote that forms a full sentence, the punctuation goes inside the quote marks: “I am looking forward to the surgery. I cannot wait to see my family again,” Asma said.

When using a partial quote that does not form a full sentence on its own, the punctuation goes on the outside of the quote marks: Asma said she “cannot wait to see her family again”.

When you need to substantially edit a quote and remove large portions of text, you can either use ellipses to indicate that words are omitted:

• Original sentence
  “I will say education is very important. Actually education for a blind person is the only thing he should wish for – through education you get total liberation.”
• Edited sentence
  “I will say education is very important… through education you get total liberation.”
  

Or you can use square brackets to insert words if they’re necessary to give context or help the sentence make sense.

• “Sometimes the interval between deliveries is so long, that even the few months’ [worth of stock] that is brought will be exhausted before the other supply comes.”

If neither of these is suitable, don’t use a quote – use indirect speech instead to describe what the person is saying:

• Edward tells us that the interval between deliveries is so long that they’ve often run out of stock before the new supply arrives

References

If you’re using a quote or statistic from a website it’s fine to link to the relevant page without needing a full academic reference (unless you’re writing in a research context, in which case full references should be used if appropriate). For example:

• High temperatures and low rainfall are important factors which influence the occurrence and severity of the active stages of trachoma, according to a new study published in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• There are 885 million people at risk of lymphatic filariasis worldwide*
  [at the bottom of the text block] *Source: World Health Organization. [link it to the exact page or document containing the statistic, not to a homepage]

If you’re using a full reference, use footnotes within the text and give the full reference at the end of the document, using the formats below.

Journal articles
Author’s surname, Initials (year of publication). Title of the paper, the accepted abbreviated name of the journal, the volume of the journal: the page numbers of the paper.

• Smith, O et al (2010). MRI scans of the skins of braeburns demonstrate apples are ultramarine, PNAA 132(2):1129-1140

Books
Author’s surname, Initials (year). Title. Edition (only include this if not the first edition). Place of publication (town or city): Publisher.

• Baron, DP (2008). Business and the organisation. Chester: Pearson

Websites
Authorship or source (year). ‘Title of web document or webpage’. [type of medium] (date of update if available) Available at: include website address/URL [Accessed date].

• NHS Evidence (2003). National Library of Guidelines. [online] Available at: www.library.nhs.uk/guidelinesFinder [Accessed 10 October 2009]

river blindness (onchocerciasis)

sadaqah

Lower case.

In Islam, sadaqah is voluntary charity given to please Allah. Sadaqah is Arabic for charity or benevolence.

sadaqah jariyah

Lower case.

In Islam, sadaqah jariyah is the act of giving long-lasting charity, giving or kindness that continues to benefit others even after the death of the benefactor.

Safeguarding (see also Names)

Make sure that all content meets the requirements of Sightsavers’ safeguarding policy (see section 6 on communications). This includes making sure photo consent has been given, not publishing too much identifying information, and making sure content and images aren’t used in a misleading way.

Seasons

Try and avoid using seasons in copy, as this can vary depending on the hemisphere. Put the month, or if unsure, ‘early/late in the year’.

screen reader or screenreader (either is fine)

schistosomiasis

Sightsavers

Sightsavers should be referred to as singular: ‘it’, not ‘they’. The exception is when we’re talking about ourselves as an organisation, when it’s fine to use ‘we’ as well as ‘Sightsavers’. Using ‘we’ is more suited to less formal content, such as blogs and fundraising copy, and it may be more appropriate to use ‘Sightsavers’ in more formal writing. 

These examples are all acceptable:

• Sightsavers wants to eliminate avoidable blindness
• We want to eliminate avoidable blindness
• Sightsavers is leading the global trachoma mapping project

But these are not:

• Sightsavers want to eliminate avoidable blindness
• Sightsavers are leading the global trachoma mapping project

Sightsavers vs Sightsavers’

Because Sightsavers ends in ‘s’, deciding whether you need to use Sightsavers or Sightsavers’ in your sentence can be tricky. To check, try replacing the word Sightsavers with a similar entity that doesn’t end in ‘s’, like Oxfam. In the sentence you’re writing, if you’d say Oxfam’s, then add the apostrophe to Sightsavers. If you wouldn’t, don’t.

• Find out more about Oxfam’s approach to fundraising
• Find out more about Sightsavers’ approach to fundraising
• Oxfam wants to eliminate avoidable blindness
• Sightsavers wants to eliminate avoidable blindness

Just to complicate matters, there are some instances where either option would be fine.  In general, if either option is correct, leave off the apostrophe.

sight-saver

When referring to someone as a ‘sight-saver’, always use a hyphen (to avoid confusion with Sightsavers)

sight-saving operation

(Not ‘sightsaving’) if you’re talking about an operation that saves sight.

slum

Can be used if there’s a strong reason the term is required, but where possible use an alternative like ‘informal urban settlements’.

Spacing

Use only one space between sentences in a paragraph, not two.

Try to make sure that spacing is consistent throughout your page. Images, especially those with captions, shouldn’t be pushed up too closely against headings or body text.

Speech (see Quotes and/or Paraphrasing)

sub-Saharan

Not Sub-Saharan. See also Countries

Sundarbans

The coastal region in India (not Sunderbans; note the two As) .

Surgery vs operation

Avoid using ‘surgeries’ or ‘a surgery’ – use ‘operations’ or ‘an operation’ instead. Think about how you’d speak in general conversation – you probably wouldn’t say you were going into hospital for ‘a surgery’.

So we can say:

• Sardar had a cataract operation (not ‘a cataract surgery’)
• Sardar had cataract surgery
• We helped to provide thousands of cataract operations (not ‘cataract surgeries’)
• We helped to provide cataract surgery for thousands of people

Sustainable Development Goals

Upper case

T-shirt

Capital T, hyphenated.

trachoma

Trachoma starts off as a bacterial infection that can be easily treated with medication. If left untreated,  over time it causes scarring to the eyelid that pulls the eyelashes inward, causing them to scrape against the eye. This advanced form is called trichiasis (see trachoma trichiasis) and can lead to  irreversible blindness.

Please be aware of the difference when writing your copy: people with trachoma can be treated with medication before it becomes advanced. Make sure to clarify that if untreated, it risks causing blindness or requiring surgery. Refer to the surgery as ‘advanced trachoma surgery’, ‘trichiasis surgery’ or ‘TT surgery’. Avoid the term ‘blinding trachoma’ as it is only blinding at the late stage when people develop TT.

trachomatous trichiasis and trachoma trichiasis (TT)

Both are fine to use. In public-facing comms text, best to use the simplified ‘advanced trachoma (known as trichiasis)’ or a variation. Where possible avoid framing TT surgeries as ‘sight-saving’ or ‘sight-restoring’ as this is generally inaccurate – TT surgery can stop the pain, but any visual impairment caused is permanent.

The Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Trust: see Q

UK aid 

But UK Aid Match

under-

Words with the prefix ‘under-’ are usually one word: underdeveloped, underage, undersigned.

universal health coverage (UHC)

USAID 

very

A very overused word, and usually not needed.

vulnerable

Avoid describing people as vulnerable, as it can suggest a lack of agency and feed into negative stereotypes. Be careful where you use the word, particularly in relation to disability.

Websites

Always leave off the http:// and begin URLs with www. Our web addresses should always be written lower case, like this:

• www.sightsavers.org

never www.Sightsavers.org or https://www.sightsavers.org

Hyperlinks

Hyperlink anchor text on the website should be descriptive. Try to include the name of the site or page you’re linking to, rather than just ‘Click here’.  For example:

• For more information, visit the End Trachoma website

Try to avoid: ‘For more information, click here to visit the End Trachoma website.’

wellbeing

while (not whilst)

will

Lower case, as in ‘leave a gift in your will’, not ‘leave a gift in your Will’.

World Health Organization

With a ‘z’. On second mention, use ‘WHO’ as this is clearer when read by screenreaders. Although it can be read as the word ‘who’, the organisation is most commonly referred to as an initialism, ‘W-H-O’, with each letter being pronounced separately (like the BBC), so when abbreviated it should be written as ‘WHO’.

World Report on Vision

Xmas

Avoid: always use Christmas.

x-ray

Lower case, with hyphen.

Years

Write 2017, not ‘the year 2017’. For a span of years use a hyphen: 2016-17, not 2016/17. Write decades as, for example, 1950s. If you need to abbreviate, use figures but no apostrophe: roaring 20s, swinging 60s, a woman in her 70s, the first day of the 00s.

zakat

Lower case.
Zakat is one of the five pillars of Islam – the sacred beliefs and practices that Muslims follow. Zakat is Arabic for ‘giving to charity’.