Our style

We use:

• plain, conversational language
• contractions, such as you’re, it’s, we’ll, can’t, isn’t
• the active voice, where possible ie the present tense, avoid ing/ed word endings particularly in bulleted lists as these are passive
• ‘you’ and ‘your’ when talking to you
• we, when talking about Oranga Tamariki
• respectful, gender-neutral language

 Writing needs to be: 

• human
• helpful 
• credible 

To do this:

• Keep sentences and paragraphs short – 3 lines for a sentence is too long. Remember, one idea per sentence.
• Use short/conversational words, such as ‘use’ not ‘utilise’; 'help’ not ‘assist’ or ‘assistance’.
• Avoid jargon or PR speak eg journey, reach out, learnings, deep dive and so on.
• Add frequent, descriptive headings – these need to meaningful and not just to break up text.
• Break text up with bullet points if there are several points of equal weighting or create a list.
• Put links on separate lines.

We use:

• macrons correctly in text and in headings
• a mix of tamariki and children
• for singular we use child
• a mix of rangatahi and young person (rangatahi can be singular and plural)
• tamariki not ‘our’ tamariki
• family or whānau, or whānau on its own
• Māori in upper case.