Consistency checklist

January 31, 2019

Consistency checklist guide

It is important that a consistent style is used when producing materials for external audiences in both the language used and the typographic style i.e. use of upper/lower case, English language versus American spelling etc. our consistency checklist will ensure that consistent style is achieved, this guide with key stylistic and grammatical points should be adopted for all company communications and not just public relations. In fact consistency is important in all aspects of business.

Dates and time

2012 to 2013 (not 2012-13, 2012 – 2013, 2012/13)

10 May 2013 (not 10 May. 2013, 10th May 2013)

Monday 10 March 2013

11.00 am or 11 am (not 11.00am, 11.00 a.m.)

Numbers

never start a sentence with a figure: write the words instead, unless referring to a statistic
use figures for numerals from 11 upwards and for all numerals that include a decimal point or a fraction
use words for simple numerals from one to ten, except: in reference to pages: in percentages and sets of numerals, some of which are higher than ten (‘incidents from this cause in the past three years were 14.9 and 6.)
it is occasionally permissible to use words rather than numbers when referring to a rough or theoretical figure, for example – more than a thousand years

Figures

10% (not 10 percent, 10 per cent)

10 pence (not 10p)

£10 million (not £10million. £10m)

£10 (not ten pounds)

US$10 (not $10US)

US$10 million

(2011: 123,456) (when referencing previous year’s stats in the Annual Report)

12 – 15 (not 12-15)

Distances/weights/volumes (subsequent uses)

10 kilometres (10 km)

10 centimetres (10 cm)

10 cubic metres (10 cu.m)

10 square feet (10 sq.ft)

10 million barrels per day (10 mmbpd)

10 billion barrels per day (10 bnbpd)

10 million cubic feet per day (10 mmcfpd)

Spelling/hyphens/spacing

always use UK or US spelling (depending on market) and maintain that consistent style
the ampersand (&) should only be used in divisions and business unit titles, e.g. Engineering, Construction, Operations & Maintenance and Offshore Projects & Operations, and acronyms. In all other cases, the word ‘and’ should be used, e.g. oil and gas, job titles
the people we work for should always be referred to as our customers (not clients)
use ‘more than’ rather than ‘over’ or ‘in excess of’, e.g. more than 18,200 employees

Lower case spelling

adviser

dollars

sterling

internet

focused

focusing

Oblique

Do not add a space either side of an oblique e.g. yes/no

Spacing and hyphens

pro forma

worldwide

multinational

online

website

shareholders

subcontractors

reorganisation

demerger

life cycle

life of field

in line

reappoint

redevelop

roll-out (noun)

roll out (verb)

lump-sum

man-hours

co-operate

co-ordinate

write-off

interest-bearing

two-week

third-party

up-to-date

Group-wide

long-term (adjective)

tie-in

deepwater

Oilfield and oil field

oilfield (adjective)
oil field (noun) – e.g. The oil field produces more than 3,000 barrels of oil per day

Bullet points

bullets to be round and start with lower case, except when referring to the company, a person’s name, division/business unit or a city/country
bullets should never end with punctuation

Phone numbers

+36 1 209 0000 (Hungary example)

Quotes

reported speech to begin and end with double quotation marks
document titles should begin arid end with single quotation marks

Job titles

job titles should always be upper case
corporate titles such as Chief Executive, Managing Director and Vice President, can be simply CEO, MD. VP of whatever division/business unit/service line
governmental titles such as President, Prime Minister, Energy Minister and hereditary titles should be upper case
in printed materials where a person’s name is first introduced, use first name followed by surname (John Smith), thereafter use first name (John). As an exception, in press releases thereafter use surname (Smith). So John Smith becomes Smith, not Mr Smith
include a space between initials, e.g. J W Smith (not JW Smith or J.W. Smith)

Acronyms

where a plant or organisational name is routinely cut down to an acronym, spell out in full first followed by acronym in brackets.
the first mention of a business in external communications should be written in full thereafter business pages convention dictates abbreviation