Defence style guide

This style guide is specific to the Ministry of Defence to help make our language clear and consistent for all our users. Refer to the GDS style guide for style, spelling and grammar conventions across GOV.UK.

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A

Across Defence:
Instead of pan-Defence

A MOD thing:
Not ‘an’ MOD thing

armed forces:
Do we use Armed Forces rather than Armed Services (as in JSP 101)? No, we follow GDS style guide which is lowercase.

back to top

B

Battlespace:
is one word

back to top

C

Changelog:
One word (GOV.UK style guide)

Cloud:
MODCloud - Defence team
‘Cloud First’ is a strategy
Lower case when talking about ‘the cloud’, public cloud or private cloud

Commercial software:
Not “third-party software”. Also use “commercial” for types of software, for example “commercial word processor”.

Crown servant vs civil servant:
The term ‘crown servant’ should remain as it has currency and is well understood. It covers both civil servants and military folk + ALB civilian staff who may not be civil servants. It is also well defined in law in the Official Secrets Act Crown Servant

back to top

D

Dates:
Describe differences with GOV.UK, for example shortened version for internal apps

Deployed:
Deployed is working in a different role away out of your normal location, more than likely abroad for an extended period of time usually 4-6 months.

Dashes (en-dash vs. em-dash):
See also the entry for “hyphens”, but c.f. the Guardian style guide Guardian and Observer style guide: D | | The Guardian

Digital Foundry or Foundry / The Foundry?:
First mention Defence Digital Foundry, then the Foundry

back to top

E

Extant:
Use ‘current’ or ‘existing’ as simpler alternatives

back to top

F

Frontend:
Not “front-end” or “front end” (GOV.UK style guide)

Fractions:
Should we follow the GOV.UK style guide and spell out the most common fractions (like one-half)

back to top

M

Military units:
Military unit names should be written with Arabic numbers, for example ‘2 RIFLES’ rather than ‘two rifles (JSP 101)

MODNET:
Intranet platform - not MoDNET, MoDnet or MODnet.

back to top