Language plays an important role in defining our identity as a brand. The way we speak to our audience tells a lot about who we are and how we support them.

Tone of voice

At Anglicare, our voice reflects our commitment to care, compassion and advocacy. We emphasise our dedication to making a difference through our actions, use our voice to highlight our values of love, care, hope and humility, and our belief in the power of knowledge, compassion and action to create a more loving, just and inclusive society.

To ensure consistency in our brand and message, we need to consider the tone in which we represent ourselves. If Anglicare were a person, it would be our personality. We want our audience to feel like they’re having a conversation with us. The language we use to influences our tone of voice.

As a brand, we are:

  • friendly and caring
  • supportive and respectful
  • strong and reliable
  • optimistic
  • authentic and understanding
  • experienced, knowledgeable and intuitive

We are warm and caring

Anglicare’s tone is warm, caring and approachable, aiming to make the audience feel valued and understood.

We communicate this by:

  • writing in first person, where possible and using inclusive language like ‘we’, ‘yours’ and ‘ours’.
  • using contractions, where possible. ‘Let’s’ instead of ‘let us’; ‘it’s’ instead of ‘it is’; and ‘we’re’ instead of ‘we are’.
  • being friendly, but not casual. Conversational, but not disrespectful.
  • referring to clients in a person-first manner, for example, ‘a person experiencing …’; or ‘a person with …’
  • being empathetic and understanding how the client may be feeling.
We are professional and friendly

The tone is professional yet friendly, ensuring clear and informative communication while being welcoming and reassuring.

We do this by:

  • being empathetic. Always put the client first and consider how they may be feeling.
  • knowing what’s important to our clients. Have a solid understanding of what our clients are interested in or need to know. What can Anglicare do for them? What questions do they need to have answered?
  • speaking the language of our customer – actionable, informal, clear.
  • speaking to them as an equal. We are informative and take care to use plain English, but do not ‘dumb down’ our communication
  • speaking with confidence. We are experienced and dependable, and provide our clients a sense of strength when they are feeling vulnerable in uncertain times.

We are inspirational and thought-leading

The tone is also inspirational and thought-leading, encouraging the audience to join Anglicare in its mission to make a positive impact.

We communicate this by:

  • staying positive in language and tone and always providing solutions as to how we can support them to achieve whatever it is they need.
  • using a mix of short and longer sentences. It adds energy and character to written communication, which results in greater engagement.
  • using positive language. Use words like ‘can’ and ‘support’, and avoid words like ‘don’t’ and ‘no’.
  • cross-referencing other services that Anglicare provides, highlighting our ‘all-of-life’ support and commitment to caring for everyone in the community.
  • sharing our clients’ success. Showing, and celebrating, our clients’ achievements shows we care about them and can support them through their challenging times.
  • being knowledgeable but personable. Use sources or ‘subject champions’ to add knowledge and experience to the services we offer. Be mindful to use everyday language in doing so.
  • explaining jargon. If they must be used, take the time to explain specific industry or legal terms in clear language.
  • being intuitive. Anticipate the needs of our customers and clients.

When creating messages consider:

  • the final audience
  • the clarity of the brand message

Remember

If in doubt, send it through to the Marketing and Communications Team at [email protected] and we will provide guidance and feedback. No piece of work is too large or too small to ensure we are speaking consistently and representing the brand and our services in the best possible way.

Language

When it comes to our written content, consistency is key. Every piece of content that we publish or write is a representation of the Anglicare brand, so it’s important that it remains consistent with our established style.

The following guide has been developed to assist you when writing for and about Anglicare and our services. It includes information specific to our organisation and services, guides to planning and structuring content, and guidelines for consistent use of punctuation and grammar.

Purpose

With every piece of content, we aim to:

  • support our target audience(s)
  • respect their individual needs and circumstances
  • educate them about their options and our services
  • be clear when explaining options and services.

Inclusive language

Writing for accessibility

Writing for accessibility affects the way you organise content and guide your readers through the material. We write for a diverse audience who interact with our content in a wide range of ways, so we must ensure that readers can navigate and digest our content with ease.

As you write for external readers, it’s important to consider the following questions:

  • Would this language make sense to someone who doesn’t work here or who is unfamiliar with Anglicare and our services?
  • Is the information clearly presented and logically structured?
  • Could someone quickly scan the document and understand the material?
  • Is the message still clear to readers who can’t see the colours, images or video?

 

Writing about people

Anglicare communicates to and about a wide variety of people, groups and cultures on a regular basis. When we write about people, we do so in the same way we would speak: respectfully, conversationally, and from a person-first perspective (unless user-research indicates an individual or community’s preference for identity-first language, such as ‘an autistic person’). 

When referring to people aged 60+, they should be referred to as ‘older Australians’ or ‘older Queenslanders’. Avoid references to old, frail, aged or elderly, unless specifically referencing our ‘aged care’ services.

Mentioning disability, medical condition or circumstance only when it is relevant to the content. When referring to a person with disability, medical condition or circumstance, show respect for the person or people you are writing about and emphasise the person first (unless identify-first language is preferred by the individual or community to which you are referring), for example:

  • use ‘a person with disability’, rather than ‘a disabled person’
  • use ‘a client living with dementia’, rather than ‘a dementia patient’
  • use ‘a person experiencing homelessness’, rather than ‘a homeless person’

Grammar and punctuation (A-Z)

Abbreviations

When required, the following abbreviations are acceptable in Anglicare Southern Queensland written materials:

  • P (phone)
  • M (mobile)
  • F (facsimile)
  • E (email)
  • W (website)

Where appropriate, these letters can be bolded to highlight and separate from the listed number/address.

No introduction to the address is required. In an address field, Queensland may be abbreviated to ‘Q’.


Acronyms

Write out the name in full, in the first instance and include the acronym in brackets. Use the acronym after the first instance, where appropriate. For example:

  • National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
  • Internet service provider (ISP)
  • Quality assurance (QA)

Acronyms should not be used to reference internal Anglicare services and programs, such as HAC, CYF, YiC.

 

Addresses

Post and street addresses within blocks of text should be written as follows with a comma separating the addressee and the address. For example: Anglicare Southern Queensland, PO Box 10556 Brisbane Q 4000

Where the address is a standalone call to action, it should be written as follows with no punctuation:
Anglicare Southern Queensland
PO Box 10556
Brisbane  Q 4000


Ampersands (&)

Except for proper nouns (program names, or titles), do not use an ampersand as a general substitute for ‘and’ between two lower case words. For example: ‘Anglicare provides counselling services for Family & Relationships, Alcohol & Other Drugs, and Domestic & Family Violence.’

 

Apostrophes

The most common use of apostrophes is to show possession and to indicate letters omitted from a word or contraction. For example:

  • Our team’s support (the support of our team, the team owns the support it provides)
  • You’re NOT you are
  • Dickens’ novel

Add ‘s’ but no apostrophe when writing about decades or indicating acronyms. For example:

  • The 1990s
  • CEOs
  • BBQs

 

Capitalisation

Use minimal capitalisation in headings and text and use capitals throughout text, sparingly, but appropriately. Capitals should not be used to add importance to particular words. 

Sentence case should be used for all titles and headings. Headings should NOT end with full stops or exclamation points (advertising campaigns excepted). Question marks can be used in headings where appropriate. All caps may NOT be used for headings, sub-headings or blocks of text.

Use capitals in the first letter of proper nouns and names or titles of specific people, places and organisations. For example:

  • Department of Health
  • National Disability Insurance Scheme
  • Secretary to the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
  • Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs

‘The’ can be part of the name of an organisation or included in the proper noun. For example:

  • The Glebe independent living units
  • The University of Queensland

Use capitals in the names of religions, nationalities and languages:

  • Christianity
  • Islam
  • Turkish
  • Australian
  • English
  • First Nations people


Colons and semicolons

Colons (:) may be used to introduce examples, quotations and lists. For example:

  • The program had three main areas: funding, process and delivery.
  • There were three factors: time, cost and resources.

Semicolons (;) are used to link two related ideas that could also be two separate sentences. They are also used to separate clauses or phrases containing commas. For example:

  • The project required five engineers; two site managers, one who needed local experience; and 10 general staff.
  • Harry leaves behind his loving wife, Nancy; his children, John, Michael and Susan; and his two brothers, Edward and Russell.

 

Commas

Commas are used to separate items in a list. Do not use a comma before or after ‘and’ in a series of three or more items, except where this would provide clarity. For example:

  • The manager had a supervisor, manager and team leader.
  • They ordered a new car with plenty of boot space, bells and whistles, and doors.

Dashes and hyphens

The following dash and hyphen may be used in Anglicare copy:

  • En dash (–)
  • Hyphen (-)

Anglicare uses an en dash with a space on either side of it in most body copy. A dash may be used in body copy in place of a comma or semi-colon to draw greater attention to the phrase or isolate the idea.

An en dash with no spaces may also be used to indicate a range of numbers, or span of time. For example:

  • 2001–04
  • pages 10–15

Do not replace ‘from’, ‘to’ or ‘between’ with an en dash in body copy. Copy should read, for example:

  • from Sydney to Melbourne
  • between Sydney and Melbourne
  • from 1975 to 1999.

Anglicare uses a hyphen with no spaces when indicating linked bodies, or where a prefix is attached to a word. For example:

  • ninety-nine
  • one hundred and twenty-four
  • Australia-China research program
  • long-term unemployed
  • non-English speaking client.


Lists

If there is a lead-in fragment that precedes the list, or you are simply listing simple points such as names or services:

  • use initial lower case for each bullet without a full stop, except where the capitalisation rules override this
  • ensure parallel phrasing structure (don’t start this bullet with ‘ensuring’ unless the first bullet started with ‘using’)
  • place a full stop at the end of the last bullet.

If the lead-in sentence is a full sentence the list would start with a capital letter:

  • It can seem inconsistent from a user’s perspective, though, so avoid using both list styles in the same document.
  • The bulleted lists now become full sentences since they don’t follow on from the lead-in sentence.
  • A full stop is used at the end of each bullet.

Bulleted lists do not require a semicolon, comma or full stop, except for on the final point. For example:

  • list item 1
  • list item 2
  • list item 3.


Quotation marks

Single quotation marks are used for quoting text from another source and quoting or citing titles of reports/articles within the text. For example:

  • The report announced ‘positive returns’ following ‘an extended period of limited growth prospects’.
  • The article ‘Care options for Queensland Seniors’ was accepted for publication in the Australian Care Review.

When quoting direct speech, double quotation marks must be used. Where a direct quote forms part of a sentence or is a standalone sentence, the closing quotation mark appears after the comma or full stop. For example:

  • “Thank you all for coming,” she said.
  • “Thank you all for coming.”


Text alignment and wrapping

Left justify all text to the page, or column. 

Do not wrap words across lines (break the word into two parts, separated by a hyphen). Instead, move the whole word to the next line.


Web addresses

Websites should always be written without the ‘http://www.’. For example:

  • anglicaresq.org.au
  • myagedcare.gov.au

Where the web address is part of a call to action or contact information, do not end the web address with a full stop. 

Dates, times and numbers

Date format

Do not include ‘st, ‘th’, or ‘nd’ after the date. For example:

  • 1 July, NOT 1st July
  • 22 April, NOT 22nd April

Write dates as ‘day month year’. Do not use a comma to separate either the day or the month from the year. No comma is necessary, even when including the name of the days as part of the date. For example:

  • March 2017
  • 31 March 2017
  • Wednesday 31 March 2017

 

Numbers

Numbers one to nine should be written in full, for example: one, two, three, etc.  Numbers 10 and above should be written numerically, for example: 11, 20, 35,000.

Note: this rule does not apply to dates, years, percentage figures or dollar amounts.

 

Telephone numbers

Phone numbers should be written in full, including the area code (do not include brackets). Use spaces to group numbers and make them more digestible. For example:

  • 1300 610 610
  • 07 1234 5678

 

Time

When referring to a time of day, use a full stop to separate the hours from the minutes. There should be no space between the time and the am/pm. Full hours should be written without minutes. If you are citing a span of hours this should be separated by an unspaced en dash. For example:

  • 9.15am
  • 4pm
  • 11am–3pm

 

Money

When referring to money, these should be displayed in dollars and cents. Where there are no cents, a whole number is fine. For example:

  • $10
  • $1 million
  • $53,000
  • $75.60