No matter what we communicate, our voice should always convey our brand’s values, a sense of curiosity and a genuine desire to share knowledge.
Tone
As a Faculty, our goal is to continually develop a bold, warm and inviting voice. We accomplish this by choosing words that inspire courage and excitement in our audience and avoid any exclusive or arrogant language.
Our voice does not keep people at a distance but instead, places them at the center of our message. While our audiences must clearly understand our professional perspective, they should also feel included in our process and inspired to share their own ideas.
We are
- Professional
- Inspiring
- Warm
- Bold
We are not
- Arrogant
- Distant
- Authoritarian
- Vague
Key UBC writing considerations
Be generous: Write for the readers
Imagine you are having a conversation. Does it feel like you are referring to yourself constantly? Turn the tables. Make it about the other person. Shorten the distance between you and the reader through inclusive language.
Speak directly: Keep it precise
Be confident, but avoid being boastful in your choice of language. Write to inform; make your point early in your communication piece. Write intelligently but keep your tone warm. Avoid jargon. Our language should be professional but not stilted.
Breath test: Read out loud
Any sentence you read should survive the breath test. If you find you are running out of breath, your sentence is too long. Writing is like music. Listen for how your words flow when you say them out loud.
Tell a story: Write to share
Anticipate how your audience will be consuming your words in today’s digital landscape. This will help you write more strategically for any given platform. Headlines in social media determine whether your content gets shared or not. Make them count.
Inspire: Be genuinely caring
At UBC, we care deeply about discoveries, teaching and connecting with our community. We want this to come through in our writing in a genuine way. Inspiring copy comes from focusing on how you care and why others should too. For this reason, we should place real people at the heart of all our stories.
For examples, visit the UBC Brand writing guidelines
APSC writing styles
Whether we communicate through tweets, announcements or proposals, we always write for the reader rather than ourselves. To ensure that our audiences feel interested and included, we use:
- consistent typography
- engaging headlines
- short paragraphs
- bullet points
Most importantly, we thoroughly research our stories, focusing on precise information and details. As writers, if we genuinely care about the words we use and the communities we speak to, our readers will hear it in our voice.
To maintain a unified and consistent brand voice, our Faculty follows the UBC writing guidelines, with a few exceptions. APSC also uses the Canadian Press (CP) Stylebook.
Common rules
Capitalization
| Use capitals for | Use lowercase for |
| only the first word of titles and headings* | subsequent words of titles and heading (i.e. sentence case)* |
| proper nouns and proper names e.g. UBC School of Engineering | referring to educational fields e.g. engineering student projects |
| full degree names | general references to degrees |
| “Faculty” when referring to the organization | “faculty” when referring to faculty members |
* Note: Pipeline Integrity Institute celebrates program milestone is correct. Pipeline Integrity Institute Celebrates Program Milestone is incorrect.
Punctuation
| Correct | Incorrect | |
| Do not use periods for degrees | BASc, PhD | B.A.Sc., Ph.D. |
| Do not use periods for provinces | BC | B.C. |
| Do not use apostrophes for time periods | 1990s | 1990’s |
| Avoid ampersands (unless it’s part of the official name) | faculty and staff | faculty & staff |
| Avoid terminal commas (except to avoid confusion when there are several “ands”) | faculty, staff and students | faculty, staff, and students |
| Add commas for 3-digit groups | 20,000 and $1,000 | 20000 and $1000 |
| Use periods for phone numbers | 604.827.4762 | any other punctuation |
| Use endashes “–” for lists (print-only) | – item 1 – item 2 – item 3 | – dashes — emdashes • bullets |
Resources
For more details on UBC writing guidelines, visit UBC Brand writing guidelines
Our full writing style guide is available on the APSC intranet (EAD\CWL login).