Why

Writing content in a way that is clear, neutral, and inclusive ensures the audience feels welcome and respected as a part of the UW–Madison community. Using inclusive language conveys sensitivity and respect. Writing out acronyms and using correct terminology ensures the reader knows what you mean.

Specific Guidelines and Examples

• Acronyms: Write out the full name, with the acronym in parentheses. Do this on every tab, even if the acronym has been spelled out elsewhere on the same degree/major/certificate page. 

How-to Guides

• Program Proposal: Four-Year Plans (Table Help) KB
• Website Scanning (WAVE)

Further Reading

• Inclusive Communications Guide 
• Inclusive Language Guide (Terminology)

Why

Consistent punctuation across Guide creates a cohesive experience for students and staff and underscores the authority of the publication. This also makes it easier for multiple editors to maintain consistency across pages. Finally, punctuation has some unique functional implications within Guide that need to be managed closely. The guidelines below emphasize functional uses of punctuation within Guide. General guidance on the preferred grammatical use of punctuation can be found in the further reading below.

Specific Guidelines and Examples

• Parentheses and Brackets
  • Do not duplicate governed content that is found elsewhere in Guide in parentheses or brackets.
• Periods (.)
  • Do not use periods in acronyms, including degrees.
    • Ex. BSE instead of B.S.E.
• Lists and outlines
  • Use HTML lists, ordered or unordered, to improve the accessibility of your content.
  • Avoid using lists in paragraphs where there are more than three items in a list.
• Footnotes 
  • Footnotes within the vendor's software are not accessible. Because of this, footnotes should be used extremely sparingly and generally not within Curriculum or Requirements in Lumen Programs. See the University Guidelines for Specific Tabs kb for more information.
  • If using footnotes, only use numbers and not Roman numerals or special characters.
• Spacing and returns
  • White space is important to the readability of content visually and the underlying HTML markup is important for screen readers. 
  • Do not “soft return” (shift + enter) between lines. Instead, use the regular “enter” to maintain the structure of the content for accessibility.

UW-Madison list of degrees we offer/approved by UW-System

Further Reading

• Reference Chicago Manual of Style Online (CMOS) for the following:
  • Apostrophe (‘)
  • Colon (:)
  • Commas (,)
  • Quotation marks(“ “)
  • Slashes (/)
• Reference University Marketing’s Editorial Style Guide for the following:
  • Hyphens (-)
  • En Dashes (–)

Why

Capitalization impacts the readability of your content. The proper mix of uppercase and lowercase letters helps ensure readers are able to parse words effectively. In the context of Guide, capitalization can also change the meaning of your content to refer to official titles or general references.

Specific Guidelines and Examples

• Use sentence case for headings, capitalizing only the first word and proper nouns.
  • Do not use all caps in your headings or throughout your text.
  • NOTE: This is a change in the UW-Madison brand to be implemented in the June 2024 publication of Guide.
• Capitalize departments and office names when used as a proper noun; otherwise use lowercase.
  • Ex. Department of Art History; art history department.
• The following should be lowercase unless referring to the official designation or using at the beginning of a sentence.
  • Honors
    • Correct: “Students may apply to the honors program.” 
    • Incorrect: “Students may apply to the Honors Program.” 
  • General education designations, including communications A & B, quantitative reasoning A & B, ethnic studies

Further Reading

• Reference University Marketing’s Editorial Style Guide for the following:
  • Capitalization
  • Titles and honorifics

Why

Text styling provides an important navigational function within Guide. Utilizing consistent and cascading heading styling provides an outline of your content for users. Excessive and incorrect use of italics and boldface throughout your paragraph text lessens the utility and can be challenging to read and distracting, especially for users of screen readers.

Specific Guidelines and Examples

• Cascading headers
  • Cascading headers means you utilize headings in a numerical order, i.e. utilize header 1, then header 2, then header 3, etc. Do not skip a heading, especially to select a header that you prefer the look of.
  • The page title is a Header 1.
  • All tabs must start with a header 2 duplicating the name of the tab. Some exclusions apply, see the University Guidelines for Specific Tabs kb or this Google Sheet.
•  Bold
  • Reserve the use of bold text to provide visual emphasis, direct users to actively interact with a screen element, or press a keyboard key. (https://kb.wisc.edu/kbGuide/112389) 
  • Do not boldface headers
• Italics
  • Only allowed for book titles or publications. Any other use is not allowed.

Further Reading

• How to Create Accessible Documents KB
• WebAIM: Semantic Structure: Regions, Headings, and Lists

Example

Why

Allows end users to quickly find what they need, understand what they find, and use what they find to meet their needs. Too many words reduces the likelihood that users will fully read a page. Guide is heavily utilized by prospective, new, and continuing students and it’s important to write for these audiences as the primary consumer.

Specific Guidelines and Examples

• Write for the web: expect users to skim and scan; only read about 18% of a page.
• Don’t use jargon or technical terms. 
• Place the main idea before exceptions or conditions.
• Write short sentences.
• Use plain language.

Basic Guidelines of Plain Language

• Write for your audience
  • Organize the information
  • Choose your words carefully
  • Be concise
• Use an active voice.
  • Bad: “The following information must be included in the application for it to be considered complete.”
  • Good: “You must include the following information in your application.”
• For each message, consider the following questions: 
  • Who is the audience in each message? 
  • What do they need to do? 
  • Why is it important to them? 
  • How could you rewrite this message to address the individual members of your intended audience?
• Omit unnecessary words (prepositions, redundancies, modifiers)
  • Example: “a number of” (bad) vs “several”, “few”, “many” (good); “Their claim was totally absurd.” (bad) vs “Their claim was absurd.” (good)

Further Reading

• Writing content
• https://www.grammarly.com/blog/active-vs-passive-voice/ 
• https://www.plainlanguage.gov/guidelines/web/ 
• Register for Plain Language training.

• Using Alt-text for photos that need additional context
  • The majority of photos (including all thumbnails) will have an alt-text value of null - “”
  • Photos that add value to the page and are not considered decorative, will have descriptive alt-text provided by the department or
  • school/college communications team. Examples follow:
    
    • Theatre certificate photo of students performing in a play will have descriptive alt text
    • Business major photo of students in a classroom will have null alt text
• Coordinating the revision of tables with the vendor to be as accessible as possible.
• Reducing the amount of text on a page - writing in plain language

• Make it accessible
• Developing accessible websites
• Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1