STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT GABAY SA ESTILO PARA SA GOBYERNO PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT PRESIDENTIALAND STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING OFFICEDEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICE RESIDENTIAL C OMMUNIC AT I ON DEVEL OPMENT AND ST RA TEGIC PLANNING OFFI C 1 STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT GABAY SA ESTILO PARA SA GOBYERNO PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICE 2 STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office ISBN 978-621-95495-0-9 All rights reserved. The content of this publication may be copied, adapted, and redistributed, in whole in part, provided that the material is not used for commercial purposes and that proper attribution be made. No written permission from the publisher is necessary. Some of the images used in this publication may be protected by restrictions from their original copyright owners; please review our bibliography for references used. Published exclusively by The Presidential Communications Developmentand Strategic Planning Office Office of the President of the Philippines 3/F New Executive Building, Malacañan Palace, San Miguel, Manila Website: http://www.pcdspo.gov.ph Email: [email protected] Book design by the Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office Published in the Philippines. 3 4 THE REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES BENIGNO S. AQUINO III President of the Philippines PRESIDENTIAL COMMUNICATIONS DEVELOPMENT AND STRATEGIC PLANNING OFFICE MANUEL L. QUEZON III Undersecretary of Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Officer-in-Charge JAN MIKAEL dL. CO Assistant Executive Secretary Senior Presidential Speechwriter and Head of Correspondence Office JUAN POCHOLO MARTIN B. GOITIA Assistant Secretary Managing Editor, Official Gazette GINO ALPHONSUS A. BAYOT Director V Head, Research Division JONATHAN F. CUEVAS MA. ROMMIN M. DIAZ Director IV Director III Technical Director Head Executive Assistant YOLANDO B. JAMENDANG JR. TERESITA L. MENDIOLA Director II Chief Administrative Officer Head, Message Crafting Division KATHERINE AIRA M. ESPINO MARK PHILIPPE P. LEGASPI KRISTINA D. JAVIER Institutional Memory Heritage Media Monitoring Official Gazette SASHA B. MARTINEZ CHRISTIAN F. SOQUEÑO ATTY. SARAH Q. SISON Social Media Citizen Engagement Legal Concerns Official Gazette 5 6 PUBLICATIONS DIVISION Presidential Communications Development and Strategic Planning Office MANUEL L. QUEZON III Editor in Chief POCHOLO GOITIA Managing Editor JONATHAN CUEVAS Technical Director CAMILLE ROSE DUFOURT Project Manager ALEXIS ABOLA ALVIN B. YAPAN RONALDO RECTO Writers CLAIRE CAPUL TYRON JUDES CASUMPANG MARIA EMANUELLE TAGUDIÑA Editors CHERIE LYNN TAN Graphic Designer JOSELITO ARCINAS COLINE ESTHER CARDEÑO FRANCIS KRISTOFFER PASION SARAH JESSICA WONG Contributors 7 CONTENTS Introduction 10 Plain language 11 Use simple vocabulary 11 Consider the reader’s point of view 11 Directly address the reader 12 Prefer the active voice to the passive 12 Be organized 12 Know the importance of brevity 12 Be direct 13 Use the present tense as default 13 Avoid the use of government jargon or unnecessary bureaucratese 13 Make quantitative information accessible 14 English conventions 14 Final note on writing for government 14 Usage 14 On foreign words and phrases 15 Italics 15 Contractions 16 Abbreviations 16 Capitalization 17 Pronouns 23 Nouns from prepositional verbs 26 Punctuation 33 Numbers How to write series 35 Writing press releases 35 Writing memos and other documents 37 Writing briefers 38 Writing messages 38 Writing speeches 40 Social media guidelines 42 Social media identity 43 Naming conventions 43 Coordination of online assets 43 Sourcing content 44 Promotion of content from your website/office website 44 Promotion of content not from your website or office 44 Voice and anonymity 45 Recommended format of posts 45 Cross-referencing original agency content 46 Interagency coordination 46 Public engagement 47 8 STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT Appendixes 47 A: list of Philippine presidents 47 B: list of government agencies 48 A to Z 60 STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT 9 1. INTRODUCTION The main purpose of government communications is to impart information to the citizen. It ascribes to the tenants that government has to be open and accessible, and that government writing must be in service to the people. The government must consider its information a public right and its handling a public trust. Information and public records must be made available and properly disseminated—instead of languishing in government archives or published discreetly in an obscure website. Government writing must reflect this philosophy, enforced by a voice that is clear, direct, and focused. The outward objective of informing the people is paired with the inward goal of fostering unity and a culture of coordination within all government offices and entities. This unity does not mean that the different branches and officers that represent the government must sound the same. Rather, they all must be driven by the same principles of effective communication, of which good writing is an integral component. Each department may take to its own style of prose, depending on their function and mandate (from lengthy briefers on the origin of a particular law, to short, succinct public advisories) but it is the effective use of language that fosters unity within government. And it is this unity that ultimately allows government writing to be both consistent and credible. This style guide was written to be different from other guides in that the main goal here is to develop a sense for good writing, rather than to enforce particular points on usage (although we do have a section for that in this book). Government writing is littered with awkward phrases that are, at times, not easy to spot. We have become accustomed to them, and so we don’t question the merit of the statement based on what makes the best sense or how a member of the public would read it. Consider this sentence: As part of its thrust to educate schoolchildren on disaster preparedness, the Department of Education (DepEd) and Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will introduce today a children’s storybook entitled “What Happens in Disasters” at Pasig Elementary School. Although we get a general idea of what the passage is trying to say, we get lost in the sheer amount of information dumped in the one sentence. Let us break it down: first we have the mission/vision of the department, we are also informed of a partnership between agencies (DepEd and JICA), the specifics of the project, and finally we see that the sentence also tells us where the book was launched. Though we cannot say the sentence is unorganized (because indeed, the sentence is grammatical), the way it comes together is clunky and unintuitive—as if the writer thought the more you could stuff into one sentence the better. But anyone (both inside and outside government work) can tell you, that is not how people speak. The distinction must be made between information and the act of informing. Information is numbers on the page; while the act of informing is what makes these figures understood by others. Returning to the sentence above, it would be better phrased this way: The Department of Education has released a children’s storybook on disaster preparedness. The book, entitled “What Happens in Disasters,” was a joint project with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The subtle difference in the two versions is in essence what this style guide is about: the responsibility of government to properly frame its actions through the use of plain language. 10 STYLE GUIDE FOR THE GOVERNMENT 2. PLAIN LANGUAGE Perhaps the most important aspect of government writing is the need for plain language. Much like government itself, the use of language must be geared toward providing information in a way that can be easily understood. In the same way that government extends basic services to the people, language used by government must be accessible. Simply put: Government writing should be easy to read and easy to understand. Plain language is not a “dumbing down” of language. Rather, it operates on this principle, popularly attributed to Albert Einstein: “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” It is smart writing if it ensures that the written material will be understood by as many people as possible, regardless of their background. The same applies to the different documents you may write, be it a press release or memorandum. All recommendations for writing for government fall under this general rule. What follows are some basic guidelines on the use of plain language. We will go over specific issues that can prevent ideas from being understood, such as vocabulary and word choice; and some habits to avoid, such as the excessive use of acronyms and bureaucratese. Use simple vocabulary Word choice is essential to plain language. Remember: Words do not simply mean, they also imply a world view. This double function can be observed when you isolate and single out the differences of words that would otherwise mean the same thing. For example, when you use the word “inhabit,” we get the image of a population of an animal species (birds, mammals, etc.). Such as in the statement: The monkey-eating eagle inhabits the northern jungles of the Philippines. Compare this to the word “live,” as in, The President of the Philippines lives in Bahay Pangarap. : To interchange the usage of the two words—though grammatical—would be wrong due to the (inappropriate) implications carried over by using the other word. If anything, the sentence The President inhabits Bahay Pangarap sounds off. Given then the choice between two words, pick the familiar word over the more obscure. Keep foreign words and phrases out of your writing unless they are unavoidable. An abundance of this kind of language can alienate your reader. Usually, the simpler the word, the clearer the idea. Just because a word is longer, or more complex, does not mean it is more meaningful.