UCAS style guide A-Z

This style guide is intended to offer guidelines on general rules of the English language and the UCAS house style.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Learn how to abbreviate and use acronyms.

Ampersand

View how to use the '&' (ampersand) symbol.

Apostrophes

Read about how to use, and how not to use, the apostrophe.

Brackets and parentheses

Learn how and when to use brackets in written English.

Bullet points

How to use bullet points in a list and elsewhere.

Capitalisation

Learn how and when to capitalise words in titles and prose.

Collective nouns

Read about how to use collective nouns.

Colloquialisms

Learn about colloquialisms and their usage.

Colons and semicolons

The ':' symbol (colon) and ';' symbol (semicolon) are often misused. Learn more about this symbol.

Comma

How and when you should use the comma.

Dashes

Not all dashes are the same. Learn the differences and find out more.

Dates

How to write dates using UCAS style.

Emails

How to use written text within emails.

Exclamation marks

Learn why you should, and should not, use an exclamation mark in written English.

Full stops

Read about the usage of the full stop symbol.

Groups, organisations and departments

How to write the names of groups and organisations.

Hyphens

Read about the use of the '-' (hyphen) symbol.

Italics

Why you should not use italics in written text.

Job titles

Read about the proper representation of job titles.

Keep it simple

A simple rule for better English.

Minutes

How to represent meetings properly by writing minutes.

Narrative

Learn about how to write in the first, second, and third persons.

Numbers

Read about the UCAS style regarding written numbers.

Qualifications

How to express the names of qualifications used by UCAS.

Question marks

How to use the question mark symbol.

Quotation marks

Learn how to represent a quotation in written English.

Repetition

How to avoid repeating oneself and to write better English.

Seasons

Learn how to represent the seasons of the year in written English.

Split infinitives

You would learn about split infinitives if you were to boldly go to this page.

Telephones numbers

How to represent telephone numbers in written English.

Times

Read about how to express a time of day in the UCAS style.

Titles and headers

Learn how to use titles and headers in documents.

Twitter messages

Given the shortage of space, how to express a clear message on Twitter.

Web terminology

How to write about web terminology so that everybody can understand.