Styleguide

This is the Freja’s style guide. It helps us write clear and consistent content across web pages and other channels.

Audience

Our main audience is:

  • people with endometriosis, PCOS, PMDD, fibroids, infertility and other reproductive health conditions

Our secondary audiences include:

  • healthcare professionals

  • people who support those with reproductive health conditions.

Goals

With every piece of content we publish, we aim to:

  • empower - help people with reproductive health conditions share their stories 

  • engage - tell stories about reproductive health in an engaging, interesting way

  • educate - help people understand what it’s like to live with a reproductive health condition

  • encourage - people with reproductive health conditions by helping them understand that they aren’t alone

In order to achieve these goals, we make sure our content is:

  • clear and jargon-free

  • accessible and inclusive, so no one is excluded

  • in the storyteller’s own words as much as possible

  • focused on storytelling rather than medical advice.

Medical language

We do not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Stories can talk about someone’s personal experience in the medical system, but they shouldn’t instruct others about what they should do. If advice is shared, it has to be made very clear that this is the storyteller's personal view only.

Stories may need to include medical terms - for example, the names of conditions.  If we use a medical term, we should link to the definition of that term in the glossary. We should avoid using complex medical language whenever possible.

Inclusive language

We recognise that reproductive health conditions impact people differently depending on their social and cultural background, sexuality, gender identity and disability. We have an ongoing commitment to represent this diverse community, both in our storytelling and in how we build and grow Freja’s.

Age

When referring to older people, avoid biased terms such as ‘elderly’, ‘senior’, or ‘the aged’. Instead, use terms like ‘older person’ or ‘older adults’. 

Disability

If you are writing a story about someone with a disability, always check with them to see what terms they prefer. For example, if they prefer person-first language (‘they have a disability’) or identity-first language (‘they are disabled’).

There are some terms that you should generally avoid:

Avoid: the handicapped, the disabled. Instead use: Disabled people

Avoid: afflicted by, suffers from, victim of. Instead use: Has [name of condition]

Avoid: confined to a wheelchair, wheelchair-bound. Instead use: Wheelchair user

Avoid: mentally handicapped. Instead use: With a learning disability

Avoid: The blind. Instead use: Blind people

Avoid: able-bodied. Instead use: non-disabled

Avoid: mental patient, insane, mad. Instead use: Person with a mental health condition

You should also avoid disability-related idioms like:

  • blind leading the blind

  • falling on deaf ears

  • lame

  • turning a blind eye

Gender and sexuality

Avoid gender-biased expressions or expressions that reinforce gender stereotypes, such as:

  • man-made

  • man-up

  • guys (to refer to a group of people)

  • girls (to refer to adult women)

  • workman

When writing about a person, use their communicated pronouns. When in doubt, just ask or use their name. It’s OK to use ‘they’ as a singular pronoun.

Race

When we write about a culture or ethnicity, we capitalise the name. For example, we capitalise Black as it refers to people in the African diaspora while we keep white lowercase since white refers to the colour of a person’s skin and not a group of people.

Warriors

It is common within the online reproductive health communities to utilise the term warrior. Freja’s has made the decision to not include this term in our communication. If an interviewee includes the term when talking about themselves or a community they are part of, it can be included in a direct quote, but should otherwise be avoided. 

Stories

Each story should start with:

  • First name, age, job title, social media handle (if relevant)

Job titles should be capitalised.

For example:

  • Jane, 34, Marketing Assistant, @jane123

  • Susan, 22, Law Student, @susanjones

Story structure

Long blocks of text are hard for people to read online. You should use short paragraphs and sentences to break up the text.

You can also use headings to break up longer stories to make them easier to scan. Headings should be clear and concise. They should be in sentence case (This is sentence case) instead of camel case (This Is Camel Case). This is because sentence case is easier for people to read.

For example:

  • Getting a PCOS diagnosis

  • Seeing a fertility specialist

  • Recovering from surgery

Quotes

Stories should include the storyteller’s own words as much as possible. Use quotes whenever you can.

Use single quotation marks when starting a quote. If the quote goes over more than one paragraph, use an opening quotation mark at the start of each paragraph, and only use a closing quotation mark when the quote has finished. 

Full stops should go outside the quotation marks.

Don’t use italics for quotes, because italics can be hard to read. 

Other style guidelines

Active voice

Use active voice wherever possible. For example:

  • Active: Alice took her medication.

  • Passive: The medication was taken by Alice.

Abbreviations

If there’s a chance that someone may not recognise an abbreviation, explain it the first time that you use it. For example, ‘She found out that she had polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)’.

Dates

Generally, spell out the day of the week and the month. 

Do not use a comma between the month and year: 4 June 2017.

Links

Links should provide information on the associated action or destination. Try to avoid ‘click here’ or ‘read more’. For example, instead of ‘Read more’, you could say ‘Read Becca’s endometriosis story’.

Links should not open in a new window.

Numbers

Write out numbers in numerals. For example:

  • She saw 5 doctors before she got a diagnosis.

Instead of:

  • She saw five doctors before she got a diagnosis.

For numerals over 999 - insert a comma for clarity: 9,000

Semicolons

Try to avoid semicolons. They usually support long, complicated sentences that could easily be simplified. Try an em dash (—) instead, or simply start a new sentence.

Time

Don’t use the 24 hour clock when writing times. For example, use 5:30pm, not 1730hrs. 

Don’t capitalise ‘am’ or ‘pm’.