OCHA Editorial Style Guide (Third Edition) - September 2015

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the third edition of the OCHA Editorial Style Guide – the informative resource that helps to clarify many of the grammar and style issues that often cause confusion, such as capitalization, punctuation and spelling.

OCHA is under constant pressure to provide detailed, up-to-date information via a range of products. But whether it’s a press release, an internal memo, a donor report or an annual report, the information needs to be clear, succinct and free of jargon. Regular use of this guide will help you to achieve these goals. The OCHA Editorial Style Guide is now divided into 10 sections. A new section titled ‘Keep it simple’ explains how to shorten commonly used phrases in OCHA documents, and a new section on capitalization provides detailed advice on a range of words. The guidance in each section is presented alphabetically, along with details of where information is cross-referenced in a separate section. The guide also provides updated information on UN writing style. All organizations and publications have individual style rules, and the UN is no exception. This guide will help you understand UN-specific rules, such as when to capitalize Secretariat and Government, and how to write the plural of forum. The guide also includes simple but effective rules that should be followed in any organization, such as allocating time for proofreading. This can help avoid embarrassing errors, such as referring to the humanitarian chief as the humanitarian chef. To complement this publication, the OCHA Reporting Unit has also produced training modules on style and grammar that are available on OCHAnet. See page 59 for more details. We hope this revised OCHA Editorial Style Guide informs, educates and becomes a permanent fixture on the desks of OCHA offices worldwide.

OCHA Reporting Unit

New York

September 2015