January 2019
Symbols, currency and abbreviations
This guide sets out how we write for data.govt.nz, and how we apply grammar and punctuation.
You can use, share and adapt this document and its contents under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 International licence.
CC-BY 4.0 international licence terms
The style guide is a living document and we’ll update it whenever testing and feedback tell us there’s a better way to present the content on data.govt.nz.
This guide is based on the Govt.nz style guide.
Govt.nz's style and design guide
Our goal is to make things as simple and clear as possible for you, to make it easier for you to interact with our site, open data, and NZ’s data system.
Please also refer to our content strategy, which has more on our tone and personality.
Content strategy for data.govt.nz
Our writing is:
We:
We tell you specifically and concisely what you can do or get.
When we use the word ‘we’ on any page, we make sure it’s clear who we’re referring to at the top of that page.
'You can apply for' – not 'you may be able to apply for'.
If we’re talking about a legal requirement, we use 'must' to give emphasis.
Active writing mentions the subject (the person or thing 'doing' the action) first in the sentence (for example, inflation pushed up house prices).
Passive writing mentions the object (the person or thing 'receiving' the action) first. Passive sentences often include 'by' (for example, house prices were pushed up by inflation).
Active writing is more direct and often simpler, and should be used most of the time. We’ll use short, clear sentences.
We don't use FAQs. If you keep asking us the same questions, we need to rewrite the content.
We make our content easy for you to read and understand by:
We use New Zealand English for our spelling (not US English).
We use these resources if we need help with spelling, grammar or punctuation issues not covered in this guide.
We don’t use:
We generally don’t add an extra 's' after nouns or names ending in 's'. Exceptions are okay where the alternative reads more naturally.
'The business’ work' – not 'the business’s work'.
'Department of Internal Affairs’ address' – not 'Department of Internal Affairs’s address'.
We don’t use an apostrophe for dates, numbers, or plurals of abbreviations.
1960s.
Boeing 767s.
TVs.
We rarely use bold – using too much will make it difficult for users to know which parts of your content they need to pay the most attention to.
To emphasise words or phrases, we:
We limit the use of brackets and avoid using them in the middle of a sentence.
We use square brackets for format and size details of files.
Algorithm assessment report – full report [PDF 10.1 MB]
We only use capitals for proper nouns, such as:
We use a capital letter for the Crown, and for Government and Parliament when referring to a specific government or sitting of the parliament in New Zealand. We use lower case for general references to government.
The Government introduced a new policy in 2012.
Fiscal responsibility is important for good government.
We don’t capitalise subject areas (for example, ‘open data’).
We only capitalise the first name of an official document, and then italicise it.
New Zealand has signed up to the Open Data Charter (ODC), which…
Stats NZ is responsible for the Open Government Data Programme (Open Data NZ).
Open Data NZ released its open data action plan in 2017, and regularly updates the accompanying implementation plan.
Open Data NZ released the Open data action plan in 2017.
We use the Oxford or serial comma only if it makes a list in a sentence clearer or easier to understand.
This includes things like the family home, cars, furniture, and money like superannuation and wages.
Contractions make text feel more conversational and friendly. They also make complex sentences easier to read – for native English speakers.
However, the punctuation can make sentences harder to read for some users. We rewrite sentences to avoid using contractions if it fits with the overall tone.
When we use them, we only use simple contractions:
We don't use complex or potentially confusing contractions like:
We don't use any contractions on pages that are aimed at people who might not speak English well.
We use a dash with a space on either side to separate thoughts in a sentence.
Scans of documents – for example meetings minutes – aren’t machine readable.
We use a dash without spaces to:
10–12 items.
New Zealand–Australia group.
We don’t use a dash when we’re using the words 'between' and 'from'.
Aged from 10 to 15 years.
Between 8pm and 6am.
We use sentence case so only the first letter is upper case.
Headings in any content adhere to the proper structural order: H1 > H2 > H3 > H4 > H5.
For example, we don’t follow an H1 with an H3 or an H2 with an H4.
We never link headings.
We sometimes hyphenate words to make sure their meaning is clear.
'8 year old children' could mean children who are all aged 8, or 8 children who are 1 year old.
'8-year-old children' means children who are all aged 8.
We don’t use brackets or '/s' to refer to something that could be either singular or plural. We use the plural instead, as this covers both possibilities.
‘Send your completed documents to Stats NZ’ – not ‘Send your completed document(s) to Stats NZ’.
We use double quotation marks for:
We use single quotation marks for:
We don’t use quotation marks around document or publication titles – we use italics to show words are part of a title instead.
We prefer to use sentence case for the titles of documents or publications. We use italics to separate document titles from their surrounding text, unless the title is a link.
The Community resource kit will help you hold a discussion with your whānau, workmates or members of a community you’re part of.
GOV.UK Verify and the government Design Standards
We link to:
We:
We’ve found links in sentences affect comprehension and encourage people to click away before they have read all the context.
Separating links from text also means they are easier to select on mobile devices.
These could include tutorials, code examples, interactives or anything else (appropriate).
NZ data examples GitHub repo (GitHub)
Maximizing the values of the link: Credibility, readability, connectivity
Experiments in delinkification
The web shatters focus, rewires brains
We:
We write our email addresses in full, in lower case, and link the entire address. We never link to personal email addresses.
About data.govt.nz – not www.data.govt.nz/about
We don't set links to open in a new tab or window. However, there are some exceptions which need to be decided case by case. For example, sometimes forms will work better in a new tab so that you can see both the context and the form.
Anchor links are links that take you to a different part of the page you're on, rather than a new page.
We often break our content up onto multiple pages so each page is focused on completing a single task or answering a single question.
In some cases, we may also use anchor links for long pages. More and more people are using our site on a mobile device, where very long pages are harder to scan and navigate. In this circumstance, anchor links would help you get to the information you need faster.
When we find broken links on our site, we try to update them.
If we can’t find the new link, we remove the link from the text.
When we link to documents or files, we:
Algorithm assessment report - full report [PDF 10.1 MB]
Algorithm assessment report - one-page summary [PDF 151 KB]
Guidance on linking to non-HTML files – NZ Government Web Standards
When we upload any files to data.govt.nz, we make sure the filenames of the documents:
algorithm-assessment-report-oct-2018.pdf
people-attending-open-data-day-wellington-2017.jpg
If uploads or embedded content are images, graphs or diagrams, we ensure there is descriptive text explaining the image, as part of accessibility best practice.
If uploads or embedded content are videos, we ensure there is a transcript of the video contained on the same webpage as the video, as well as on the video page itself on, for example, YouTube.
We make sure any documents we upload – such as PDFs – contain contact information and a date within the document itself.
We use lists to make it easier for you to:
Lists are always marked up with the correct html so they're accessible.
We use bulleted lists (coded as unordered lists) to list items or points, and numbered lists (coded as ordered lists) for processes where the order of steps is important.
We try to:
We use 2 types of bulleted lists – single-sentence lists and multi-sentence lists.
When we’re writing a single-sentence list, we:
Multi-sentence lists are introduced by a complete sentence.
We use numbered lists for processes, where steps need to be done in order.
There are 3 main options for managing more complex information in lists – for example, when there is extra information attached to some bullets and not others, or when points have nested bullets and others don’t. The main aim is to make the information as clear as possible to read.
Use dashes and colons to separate the information in a single-sentence list – although not grammatically correct, it is clear to read. If you're using a lot of dashes, you might need to consider one of the other methods.
Turn the list into a multi-sentence list.
Re-structure the content into headings and sub-headings.
In general:
Your child must start school by the age of 6.
1.8 million people voted in the referendum.
... the 10th flag in the list.
Freephone: 0800 101 996.
Phone: +64 4 123 4567.
We:
We use 'to' instead of a dash in date and time ranges as it’s easier for screen readers to read out.
12 December 2015.
5:30pm not 17:30hrs.
10am to 11am – not 10 to 11am.
Monday to Friday.
Friday, 23 November 2018.
10 November to 21 December 2016.
2016/17 for the financial year ended 30 June 2016.
We use:
We put both the currency code and currency symbol before any amounts of money we write, unless the amount is for NZ dollars only.
We don't use spaces between the code, symbol and amount.
Tomato prices fell 22% to $6.90 a kg in September.
If you’re a United States citizen, you pay USD$640.
If you’re an Australian citizen it costs AUD$890.
British citizens pay GBP£420.
Japanese citizens pay JPY¥550.
We expand all abbreviations when we use them for the first time on a page.
You need to contact the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA).
We use abbreviations when they're part of the name of a service or organisation.
Stats NZ collects data about New Zealand’s environment, economy and society.
B4 School Check is a free health check for 4-year-olds.
To make our content easier to read, we don't use:
These are replaced with appropriate phrases including:
Food hygiene regulations apply to food made and sold for fundraising, for example sausage sizzles.
We add an s without an apostrophe to make an abbreviation plural.
TVs.
We use both NZ and New Zealand in our content. We use NZ in headings where using New Zealand would make the title too long.
Because NZ is pronounced with a vowel sound (en zed) sometimes we will write 'an NZ'.
We use:
Use compared with, not compared to. ‘Compares to’ likens two things – for example, Wellington compares to San Francisco as a city.
Two-thirds of people with a plan had a three-day supply of water compared with 34% of those without.
Words considered to be part of NZ English do not need to be marked up in data.govt.nz as the Māori language.
The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary tells us which Māori words are considered to be part of NZ English.
These include:
We don't say:
We also avoid using jargon such as:
We always use freephone (rather than phone) for a freephone number (such as 0800, 0508).
If you just need some medical advice, you can call a registered nurse on Healthline, freephone 0800 611 116.
If it's a New Zealand freephone, always put '(NZ only)' after the number.
Freephone: 0800 611 116 (NZ only).
Use freefax rather than free fax.
We use cellphone, rather than cell-phone or cell phone.
We use TTY: as the label for any number that provides a text service for the deaf community.
TTY: 0800 111 113.
Unless they're used in the middle of a sentence, phone, freephone, email and website should always have a colon after them.
Phone: +64 4 456 2390.
Email: admin@zyxvw.co.nz.
We don't use bullets for lists of contact details.
Freephone: 0800 123 4547.
Email: alpha@beta.com.
Not:
We write phone numbers with non-breaking spaces between the groups of numbers (a non-breaking space keeps the whole number on 1 line – in HTML it's coded as '& nbsp ;'). We're flexible about how the numbers are grouped – we're guided by the agency's style.
We include the plus sign and the international country code with phone numbers.
+64 4 098 7654.
+64 21 857 345.
+49 89 31 76 07.
We don't include macrons in email addresses, even if the user does, because at this point in time most email clients can't cope with them.
We write Avenue, Corner, Drive, Road, Street, Terrace in full.
We use dashes without spaces between street numbers.
112–114 Lambton Quay.
For street names such as 'The Terrace', 'The Square', 'The Octagon' the 'The' is always capped.
We write a street address as:
[level or floor] [building name]
[street number and name]
[suburb]
[town or city]
We don't include New Zealand at the bottom of street addresses, but we do include the country name if the street address is in another country.
We use macrons in town or city names if the local council does. We are guided by the NZ Address and Postcode Finder for macrons on Māori street names.
NZ Post – Address & Postcode Finder
We use 'PO Box' or ‘Private Bag’ and then the number. There should be no spaces or punctuation in the number.
We use 'DX:' and then the number.
PO Box 234567 – not PO Box 23-4567 or PO Box 23 4567.
Private Bag 2922.
Every postal address must have:
NZ Post – Address & Postcode Finder
If there is any question around address styles, we refer to the Address Standards set out by NZ Post.