Rules
Below are rules for how we use common words and phrases. The bold term shows the accepted form (capitalization, hyphenation, punctuation), with accompanying text explaining usage.
- BIA employees, BIA team members, or BIA staffers.
- ages, avoid hyphens in ages unless it clarifies the text. For example, a group of 10 18-year-old White House tourists.
- agile
- a.m.
- back end, back end development
- Congress refers to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
- congressional is lowercase unless part of a proper name. For example, Congressional Record
- DC, not D.C.
- DevOps
- digital coalition
- drop-down when used as an adjective. For example, drop-down menu. drop down when used as a noun. For example, an option from the drop down. Never dropdown.
- email, not e-mail
- executive branch
- federal, unless part of a proper noun. For example, Federal Bureau of Investigation
- federal government, not Federal Government or Federal government
- fiscal year is lowercase. It’s okay to abbreviate as FY on the second reference.
- front end, front end developer
- GitHub
- government, unless part of a proper noun. For example, Government Printing Office
- homepage
- human-centered design
- info is an acceptable shortening of information. In formal situations, use the full word.
- internet
- JavaScript
- kanban
- login when used as noun, for example, I forgot my login name and password, or when used as an adjective, for example Make sure the login page is 508 complaint. log in when used as a verb, for example, Log in to access your calendar.
- open source, open source software
- percent is preferred more than the % symbol. For example, 10 percent of respondents.
- p.m.
- README
- Scrum should be used to refer to the set of practices for the agile method. We don’t use that term for the daily meetings and instead use daily standup.
- single sign-on
- sitemap
- startup
- tech is an acceptable shortening of technology. In formal situations, use the full word.
- to do (noun) and to-do (adjective). For example, your to dos or your to-do list.
- United States government or U.S. government, not U.S. Government
- URLs should be lowercase, even when they appear at the start of a sentence. For example, notalone.gov launched today.
- U.S., not US or USA
- user-centered design
- U.S. Web Design Standards on first use and Standards on subsequent references
- Wi-Fi
