Buckinghamshire New University style guide

Keep it as natural as possible
Writing he or she, he/she or (s)he can look clumsy. Use ‘they’ to cover both
genders, just as you would if you were speaking.
Example:
Before a student comes to an interview, they [not he or she] may find it
helpful to visit our website for directions.
introduction
Examples of poor written English
1 "I would not ever want to say
there are not people on our
campus that at first in the
classroom are not hard to
understand, at least until
students get used to them,"
Watkins said.
Keep it friendly
It is quite acceptable to use the second person, especially when communicating
with students. Call readers you, even if there are lots of them. For the University or
your directorate, use we.
Example:
We have an exciting new portfolio of courses starting in January. You will find
more details on our website.
When you are writing formal reports or documents, you may need to be more
formal, and use the University or the Dean, for example, rather than we.
2 Operationally, teaching
effectiveness is measured by
assessing the levels of
agreement between the
perceptions of instructors and
students on the rated ability of
specific instructional behaviour
attributes which were employed
during course instruction.
3 In our endeavour to ensure
guest safety at all times, can
visitors please note that fire bell
testing is carried out every
Monday at 9.30am.
See page 41 for suggested
improvements.
Buckinghamshire New University Style Guide 3