DAS Writing Style Guide

Writing Style Guide Purpose

A writing style guide ensures written communications are clear, professional and consistent across a wide range of documents produced by many contributors. In cases where multiple “correct” writing options exist, the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Writing Style Guide provides a standard approach.

The guide is intended for all DAS employees and partners who create written content for internal or external audiences. It is based on the Associated Press Stylebook, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and Digital.gov. 

The guide also supports how we communicate with diverse audiences by offering direction on topics, such as capitalization, punctuation and inclusive language. 

All written materials, including emails, reports, posters and articles, should follow the guidance outlined in this guide.

This guide is dedicated to writing areas the DAS Communications Team commonly encounters errors in.

Use these links to jump directly to a specific section:

• A-Z Index
  
• Abbreviations and Acronyms
  
• Ampersand
  
• Apostrophe
  
• Capitalization
• Comma
  
• Dash
• Dates
  
• Hyphen
  
• Internet Terms
• Lists
  
• Numbers
• Phone Numbers
  
• Quotation Marks
  
• Slash
• Spacing After Punctuation
  
• Time
  
• Inclusive Language
• Best Practices
  
• Terms to Avoid and Alternatives
• Specific Groups and Identities

A-Z Index

Abbreviations and Acronyms

This section updated May 2026. 

Ampersand (&) 

This section updated May 2026. 

Apostrophe (‘)

This section updated May 2026.

Capitalization

In general, avoid unnecessary capitalization to increase readability. Over-using capitalization can cause distraction while reading and come across as shouting or adding unnecessary emphasis.

Informal names and terms should not be capitalized. These are some examples.

• agency
• policies
• human resources (versus Chief Human Resources Office)
• strategic plan

For an individual’s position or job title, only capitalize the title when it comes before someone’s name. 

• The DAS director 
• DAS Director Betsy Imholt
• Betsy Imholt, DAS director

The exception to this is the Governor. This is always capitalized when referring to Oregon’s Governor, whether there is a name attached.

• Governor Kotek signed the new legislation.
• The Governor signed the new legislation.

In formal document titles, headings and subheadings, use title case for capitalization. Formal documents include reports, memos, letters, slide decks, etc. For informal documents, such as emails, or editorial settings, like DASH, sentence case is accepted. 

• This is Title Case
• Agency Welcomes New Hires
• This is sentence case
• Agency new hires

Minimize use of "state of Oregon." The following choices will describe your meaning more accurately: state government, state agencies, Oregon. Also, if you do use state of Oregon, do not capitalize “state” unless it is part of a proper name.

These are additional examples of common things that come up at DAS and serve as a general guide to capitalization. Also review Internet Terms.

• state Department of Administrative Services
• state agency, agency, department, division, program, section, unit
• board, commission, committee, council, work group, team
• DAS exception: Capitalize Board and Commission for legislatively created Boards and Commissions
• Executive Branch, Legislative Branch, Judicial Branch (an exception to AP Style)
• DAS preference is to capitalize branches of government
• legislator, legislative
• Legislature (lowercase in generic uses, but capitalize when referring to the Oregon Legislature)
• the Kotek administration
• Governor, Governor's Office (an exception to AP style)
• the Secretary of State
• city of Salem
• Salem City Council
• Pacific Northwest
• southern Oregon
• the West
• The state enterprise
• zip code

Within a paragraph, capitalize the word after a colon if it is a proper name or if it begins a complete sentence. Also review Lists.  

• The following units are part of Enterprise Goods & Services: Procurement Services, Publishing & Distribution, Risk Management and Shared Financial Services.
• The equipment most hybrid- and remote-workers use in their home office includes: laptop, monitor, keyboard, mouse and cell phone. 

This section updated May 2026.

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Comma (,)

This section updated May 2026.

Dash (–) 

Also review Time Periods and Hyphens.

Use the em dash (--) sparingly in government writing. In most cases, other punctuation will work just as well. Uses include setting off a long expression that might otherwise be a parenthetical statement, or to introduce an abrupt change in thought.

• Issuing new rules — a process that some have criticized for its complexity — has occupied the new director's attention.

In most software applications, two hyphens automatically change to an em dash when typed between two words, with no spaces between the hyphens or the words. DAS adheres to the AP preference, which includes a space on either side of the em dash, as in the example above.

This section updated August 2025.

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Dates

Also review Time Periods.

Never add "st," "nd," "rd," or "th" after a date.

• Correct: May 5
• Incorrect: May 5th     

Do not abbreviate March, April, May, June or July in any case.

Do not abbreviate months with no specific date:

• We began operations in January 2015. 

When using only a month and year, do not separate them with a comma or “of”.

• Correct: We will complete the plan in August 2025.
• Incorrect: We will complete the plan in August of 2025.
• Incorrect: We will complete the plan in August, 2025.

Enclose the year in commas when naming a specific date:

• June 1, 2018, is our target date. 
  

This section updated May 2026.

Hyphen (-)

Also review Time Periods.

Hyphens are used to join information together to prevent ambiguity or to create a single idea from two or more words. When deciding whether a hyphen is necessary, choose what would make the information clearer to readers or consider rephrasing the sentence to avoid them.

Do not hyphenate words with prefixes or suffixes:

• nonprofit
• smallish

Exceptions: when the second element is capitalized, when the second element is a figure or to distinguish homonyms:

• post-1960
• re-create; recreate

If two or more words are used to modify another word, hyphenate them.

• at a high level; high-level job
• Bring me up to date; distribute an up-to-date report 
• He accepted the full-time job. He now works full time.

Compounds that begin with adverbs ending in ly are spelled open:

• highly complex procedure
• poorly designed form 

Use this structure for serial compound hyphenation:

• short- and long-term plans 

Commonly used hyphenated words:

• agency-wide (but statewide)
• co-worker (but coworking)
• diversity-related; technology-related; procurement-related
• in-depth
• state-owned
• web-based; fact-based
• year-end
• Enterprise-wide

Commonly used words that are not hyphenated:

• bar code
• help desk
• hotline
• online
• statewide

This section updated August 2025.

Internet Terms

Use the following formats:

• cybersecurity*
• e-government, e-commerce and other compounds in which e stands for electronic; but email. Uppercase only in titles or at the beginning of a sentence: The Oregon Electronic Government Program, or E-Government Program, provides online services; the state's E-Commerce program has grown significantly.
  
• email
• homepage
• internet
• intranet
• login, logon (noun); Example: I cannot access the login screen.
• log in, log on (verb); Example: I log in every day. Don't forget to log on.
• online
• URL
• user ID
• World Wide Web, the web, webpage, website, webcam, webcast, webmaster

*General reference to "cybersecurity" is one word; DAS uses two words for its program name, Cyber Security Services.

This section updated August 2025.

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Lists

Use parallel construction in all lists, which means structuring the bullets similar in format and phrase or sentence structure. Also, make the introductory statements that introduce the bulleted list a complete thought. Statements must make sense even if the reader ignores bullets or numbered items. 

Use the following format for bulleted lists:

• Indent bulleted lists as indicated here.
• Capitalize the first letter in the first word of each bullet.
• Use a closing period at the end of each item only when they form independent sentences. 
• Use a question mark at the end of each item if it forms a question.
• Do not use semi-colons or commas as the end of bullets, unless it is required for clarity in legal or regulatory language.
• When using sub-bullets, end the introductory statement with a colon, as in this example:
• First item in the series
• Second item in the series
• Last item in the series

Use numbered rather than bulleted lists in the following three circumstances: 

1. When the preceding text names a specific number of items in the list that follows.
2. When the listed items must follow a specific sequence.
3. When the list sets a chronology.

Use the following format for lists in paragraphs. Use numbers (1), letters (a) or neither according to the guidelines above. Use this format sparingly and only for short lists:

• The team reviewed the overall processes, including: (1) overall board structure and official charter; (2) board member appointments, including emergency appointments; (3) roles and responsibilities; and (4) daily operations.
• A semicolon is allowed in these paragraph-style lists because it adds clarity by acting as a sort of “super comma” when each item in a list might contain a comma or be more complicated phrases. 

This section updated August 2025.

Numbers

Whole Numbers

Starting Sentences

Decimals

Dimensions and Measurements

Cent Notations in Text

Dollar Notations in Text

Dollar Notations in Charts and Tables

Ordinal Numbers

Nouns with Numbers or Letters

Percent and Percentage

Two Numbers Together

This section updated May 2026.

Phone Numbers

Use hyphens to separate phone numbers, not periods or parentheses. Parentheses imply that the area code is optional when it is not.

• 503-378-4481 
• 800-777-9876
• 911 examples: 
• Dial 9-1-1 in an emergency. 
• She made a 911 call.   
  

Use a comma to separate phone numbers from extensions. Abbreviate the word extension with ext. not an x.

• 541-333-1234, ext. 456 

This entry updated May 2026. 

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Quotation Marks (“”)

Periods and commas always go inside quotation marks. 

• “Here is the report,” she said.
• “The committee will vote on that next week.”

Dashes, semicolons, colons, question marks and exclamation points are placed inside quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only. When they apply to the entire sentence, they go outside the quotation marks. 

• Do you believe he said “no way”? 
• Don’t tell me “I told you so”! 
• “Are you ready?”
• “I can’t believe it!”

Use single quotation marks only within quoted material or in headlines.

• “And then I said, ‘you did a great job on the presentation.’”
• Friday Photo Fun: ‘Oregon Coast Sunset’

This entry updated September 2025.

Slash ( / ) 

Avoid slashes. Avoid “and/or” statements; “or” is generally sufficient. 

• Use red or brown. 
• Use red, brown or both. 

Avoid overstating a point with a slash: 

• I am the manager/supervisor/boss. 
• We must develop/expand the program.  

This entry updated August 2025.

Spacing After Punctuation 

There should only be one space after punctuation at the end of a sentence. The two-space rule is obsolete. The one-space rule applies to all punctuation: periods, commas, colons, semicolons, exclamation points, question marks and quotation marks.  

This entry updated August 2025.

Time

Other Time and Date Spans

This entry updated May 2026.

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Inclusive Language

Words and tone matter. DAS values diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, and words that reflect bias or discrimination are contrary to those ideals. 

This section of the DAS Writing Style Guide supports inclusive language choices to ensure that all employees, partners and community members feel valued and respected in every form of communication. 

Best Practices

Make sure to ask how a person or group identifies themselves; do not assume that you know. Individual communities have unique identities.

Use people-first language. 

People-first language puts the person before the life experience or circumstances, physical or mental health condition and diagnosis. Refer to the National Institutes of Health Style Guide.

Here are some examples:

• A person who uses a wheelchair, rather than “wheelchair-bound”
• An individual with diabetes, rather than “a diabetic”
• People who are houseless, rather than “a homeless person”

While using people-first language is recommended, be aware of the context and community being represented. For example, if it’s clear the material is about disability pride or disability justice, identity-first language may be appropriate.

Use gender-neutral terms.

If pronouns and gender are not critical to a sentence, it is best to avoid them. 

Write statements that avoid gender bias. Some ways to do that include using the person’s name instead of a pronoun or using “their” even when referring to a single person. This helps avoid making assumptions about a person’s gender identity. Also, do not add unnecessarily binary language by using “his or her.”

Here are some examples:

• Preferred: Employees should use discretion.
• Correct: Employees should use their discretion. 
• Incorrect: Employees should use his or her discretion. 
• Incorrect: I want to recognize the great men and women in this profession.

Terms to Avoid and Alternatives

As language evolves, so must our use of it. The following list details words and phrases to avoid, reasons why we avoid them and alternatives to use.

• Stakeholder
• Use instead: "partners," "collaborators," "interested groups," "allies."
  
• The word "stakeholder" comes from a colonial origin, where people claimed land by putting stakes in the ground, often taking it from Indigenous communities. Using the term today can be seen as disrespectful and hurtful.
  
• Adjectives such as “marginalized groups,” “high-risk groups,” “at-risk groups,” “targeted population” or “vulnerable groups.”
• Use instead: "groups at higher risk of [outcome]," "groups experiencing disproportionate impact" and "underserved," or "under-resourced groups."
  
• These terms are vague and can imply that something is inherent to a group rather than the result of causal factors. 
• Blind spot
• Use instead: Something that has been "missed" or "not noticed."
  
• This is ableist language.
• Tone deaf
• Use instead: Insensitive or out of context.
• This is ableist language.
• Standing (as in, "person in good standing," "standing in solidarity” or “standing up a project”) 
• Use instead: "united in solidarity" or "starting a project"
• This is ableist language.
• Sunset or sunsetting (in reference to something ending) 
• Use instead: "ending" or "closing."
  
• These terms have racist origins with “sunset towns” or “sundown towns” that forced segregation.
  
• Grandfathered in or grandfathered clause
• Use instead: "exempted" or "excused."
  
• These terms have racist origins. 
  
• Pioneering
• Use instead: "innovative" or "new."
  
• This term has colonial origins. 
  
• Minority, minorities, political minority
• Use instead: state the specific community(ies)
• Communities should not be generalized or minimized. 
• Tackle or target
• Use instead: "engage" or "prioritize."
  
• These terms have a violent connotation.
• Preferred pronouns
• Use instead: "pronouns."
  
• This can imply that someone’s identity is less valid or that it has flexibility.
• Elderly, senior citizen
• Use instead: "older adults," "aging," or specify a numeric age group.
• These terms can imply frailty. 
  

This entry added May 2026.

Specific Groups and Identities

Indigenous, Native, Tribe

• Indigenous and Tribe are always capitalized. 
• Indigenous Peoples or Native Peoples is capitalized, but Indigenous people is not. This is because “people” indicates a general group of Indigenous people, but Indigenous Peoples indicates collectives of self-governing people who descend from the original inhabitants of this land before colonization.
• When possible, refer to a Tribe's full name instead of a general term of Indigenous or Native. Also, use a Tribe’s name without shortcuts or abbreviations. When in doubt, ask their preference.
• The Nine Federally Recognized Tribes of Oregon should be used when referring to these individual sovereign nations. Do not use “Oregon’s Nine Tribes” because it indicates inappropriate possessiveness.