Job titles: Job titles should be written in lower case. This includes health secretary, prime minister and so on.

Publication names: Publications are often referred to inconsistently or even incorrectly in early drafts of coverage reports and the HCRU. For consistency, when referring to a publication check the publication itself and refer to it by the correct name. Be sure to check for spaces or an absence of spaces in the name. When referring to newspapers pay close attention to whether the word ‘the’ is part of the newspaper name. If it is then this should be an upper case ‘The’, if not, it should be lower case, eg The Times, or the Independent. 

Organisation names: The rule that applies to publication names should also apply to organisations. For instance, The King’s Fund, is sometimes referred to as the King’s Fund, which is incorrect.

Tenses – past for news, present for features: Generally, news is written in the past tense and features (including opinion pieces and blogs) should be in the present tense. There are some exceptions to this rule, for instance a feature may be reporting on a conference that has happened in the past. Also, this rule does not mean that every phrase or word should be in  the past tense. However, events that have happened, such as the publication of a report, should be referred to in the past for news stories. Use phrases like ‘said’, ‘has said’, ‘has reported’, ‘has found’, rather than ‘says’, ‘reports’ or ‘finds’ when reporting news nibs and when writing press releases. The opposite is true for opinion articles and features, where present tenses should be used. For example, a phrase may read: “The NHS requires £22bn additional funding to remain sustainable, Dr John Smith writes in a blog this week.” 

One exception to this rule is in headlines, where the present tense is acceptable in news stories.

Numbers and monetary terms: Use m and bn for sums of money with no spaces between the number and the m or bn, eg £10m, $45bn. Otherwise use 1 million people, 23 billion dogs, etc. m and bn may be acceptable in headlines.

When referring to numbers, unless referring to monetary terms, spell out one to nine and use digits for 10 onwards. This includes when using a mix. For instance “between eight and 10 people are thought to have been caught up in the incident, it was reported.” Or “eight to 10 cats have…”

Quotation marks: Use double quotation marks for quotes within the main copy, but use single for quotes within quotes, headlines, captions, standfirsts, etc.

Punctuation and quotation marks: Confusion sometimes arises over punctuation, particularly, where to place commas and full stops. Dr John Smith said: “This website makes everything easy.” In this first example the full stop is contained within the quotation mark as it starts and finishes a complete statement. Another example: Dr Jane Smith said this website “makes everything easy”. Here the punctuation falls outside of the quote as it is only quoting part of the phrase.

Percentages: use % rather than per cent.

Company names – singular: Company names should be singular. For example, “Highland Marketing is one of the leading” or “Highland Marketing has”. Highland Marketing is one company. Phrases including “Highland Marketing are” or “Highland Marketing have” are incorrect. There are exceptions to this rule. For example police can be referred to as “police have announced”. The reason is that this may refer to a number of individuals or individual organisations within the police. However, “Staffordshire Police has said”, still applies as this is a single organisation. Other exceptions would include orchestras, theatre companies and sports teams, which may be plural when the individuals within the larger group are of prime interest – Manchester United is a company; Manchester United are a great team (allegedly). The second example is plural because you are referring to the players not the institution.

Trusts: NHS trusts should be referred to in upper case when referring to the name of the trust. For example Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust. However, if the full name of the trust is not being used, for instance “the trust has been innovating”, then use a lower case t. This should be the same when referring to trusts in plural. Trust names do also change on a regular basis. Be sure to check trusts’ websites for accuracy. 

Place important content first when writing: Avoid beginning a piece of writing with dates and names unless particularly important. Usually, the substance of what is taking place is more important. For example: “Today, Dr John Smith, a chief analyst at an NHS think tank, told undersecretary of state for health Joe Bloggs, that UK cancer survival rates were the lowest in Europe.” [nb fictional example, not accurate]. In this instance it takes too long to get to the essence of the story. A better way of writing this might be: “UK cancer survival rates are the lowest in Europe, Dr John Smith has today warned ministers. Dr Smith, chief analyst at the [think tank name] told health minister Joe Bloggs …”