​​Copy style-guide
​​Commonly used words and how we write them.
​​

​​Account area

​​Rather than ‘account space.’

​​Add-ons

​​Not a ‘customer-facing’ term,  use something more friendly such as ‘add the following optional extras to your policy’.

​​And/Or

​​Don’t use - decide between one and the other.  The same for if/when.

​​Affect/effect

​​Effect is a noun, affect is a verb.  Eg. ‘the additional cover will affect your price.’  Or, ‘adding home emergency cover to your policy has a positive effect on your premium.’

​​Altogether

​​In total.  NOT all together.

​​Ampersands

​​In titles not body copy

​​Between

​​Use between x and x, not ‘between 15 to 20’ or ‘between 15-20’

​​Colons

​​Use before a list 

​​Contractions

​​Where naturally sounds better

​​Capital letters

​​Only on proper nouns

​​Dashcam

​​It’s one word, not two

​​Direct Debit

​​Is a brand name - use capitals

​​Email

​​no spaces!

​​En suite

​​It’s two words, not one

​​Financial Conduct Authority

​​FCA on second mention

​​Flood water

​​Not floodwater

​​For free

​​Doesn’t sound right, don’t use it.  For nothing sounds better, or just free.

​​In and into

​​Use in instead of on, e.g. ‘Your policy will be in your account area.’  And remember that into is one word.

​​Last name

​​Preferable to surname

​​Less or fewer?

​​Less means smaller in quantity, eg less money; fewer means smaller in number, eg fewer coins.

​​Licence

​​In British English, licence is the noun and license the verb. So you need a driving licence to drive.

​​Log in or Log into

​​Never login or even worse, Login to

​​MORE TH>N

​​It’s a brand name, and should be written as such

​​OK