Workplace Communication & Professional Research Guide

Business Communication Style

Style guides help organizations use consistent approaches to details like abbreviations, numbering, and tables. Most companies and other large organizations require employees to follow a style guide.

Abbreviations

  • Avoid abbreviations, in general, as they can create confusion.
  • Use only abbreviations that will be clear to readers, such as postal abbreviations for states when preceded by city name (Madison, WI).

Acronyms and Initialisms

Spell out on first use and provide the acronym/initialism in parentheses; then use acronym or initialism as needed. An acronym is an initialism pronounced as a word, such as NASA, NIMBY, FOMO, AWOL, and NAFTA. An initialism is pronounced as a series of letters, such as DMV, CDC, MD, and SUV.

Example

The United States Department of Labor (DOL) publishes downloadable posters to alert employees of relevant laws and regulations. DOL posters are available in multiple languages.

Omit periods in initialisms (US, EU).

Examples

US, EU, FBI, DIY, FAQ, NBA

Note: If you are certain that your audience is familiar with an acronym or initialism—IRS or NASA for instance—you don’t need to spell it out in casual correspondence.

Capitalization

Capitalize

  • proper nouns
  • titles when used with names (President Schumann, Senator Wang, Professor Phipps, Doctor Martinez)
  • adjectives/adverbs derived from proper nouns (Parisian fashion, English toffee)
  • course names (Economics 100), department names (Department of Economics), and organization names (Women in Economics)

Do not capitalize

  • titles when they are not used with names (the senator thought, the professor wrote, the doctor prescribed)
  • adjectives, adverbs, or common nouns (standing desk, highly regarded employee)
  • academic fields (economics)

Note: Avoid ALL CAPS, which can suggest an aggressive tone. See the page on effective document design for tips on appropriate and professional graphic emphasis.

 

Editing

Proofread all work carefully to avoid common mistakes that spell check will not highlight, such as customers/costumers, managers/mangers, possesses/posses, wary/weary.

Pro-tip: Keep a list of words you frequently misspell. During your final edit, use the Find (or Find and Replace) function to catch and correct every instance.

Numbers and Symbols

Numbers

    • Spell out numbers from zero through nine.
    • Use numerals for larger numbers, starting with 10 (10; 253; 1,234).
    • Use numerals when combining a number from one through nine with a larger number (e.g., 8–137).
    • Spell out any number that begins a sentence (Twenty-five years after the company’s founding…)
    • Spell out common fractions (one-quarter, two-thirds).
    • Spell out ordinals (e.g., first, fourth).Use numerals in dates (April 10, 2024), addresses (675 University Ave.), and statistical/mathematical expressions (24.3 percent).

Symbols

    • Use a dollar symbol and a numeral for dollar amounts ($15,000).
    • Substitute “million” or “billion” for zeros for large amounts: $15 million instead of $15,000,000; follow this rule for other currencies as well (€, £, ¥, etc.).
    • Spell out “percent”: 15 percent (at the beginning of a sentence spell out the number as well: Fifteen percent…).

Punctuation

  • Put commas and periods that follow a quote inside the quotation marks; other punctuation (semi-colon, colon, dash) goes outside, unless it is part of the quote itself.
  • Avoid putting a colon at the end of headings or after an active verb.
  • Use single quotation marks (‘like this’) only to indicate a quote inside of another quote. For all other cases, use double quotation marks (“like this”).
  • Refer to a grammar or standard style guide for additional information about punctuation (APA, Chicago, Elements of Style, etc.).

Tables and Charts

  • Number (Table 1, Figure 2, etc.), with a title above the table/figure and with source hyperlinked (10-point) below the table/figure.
  • Adjust size in order to be legible without overwhelming the page.
  • Locate next to or after the data they illustrate.
  • Place large graphics in an appendix rather than in the text.

Table of Contents

  • Use word-processing software (such as Word) to generate. Do not create manually.
  • Include the executive summary, if applicable, the main body sections, and references and appendices, if applicable.
  • Confirm page numbers are accurate and consistent.
  • Review entries for clear heading hierarchy. A table of contents should provide a useful overview of a report’s main topics.