Clarity and concision‍

All text should be written concisely, in a bright, cheery, welcoming style. Captions should be short, simple and informative.

Always consider the audience, avoid jargon and write at a Grade 8 level.  

Short, clear sentences are best. Shorter sentences are better than longer. Shorter paragraphs are better than longer.

Separate ideas and topics into paragraphs.

Voice, tone and style 

Our voice is an expression of our brand values and personality. It employs:

• rhythm and pace;
• vocabulary;
• tone, which varies, depending on the audience and purpose of communication.

How you use your voice in different situations:

• adds flavour based on audience, situation, and channel;
• voice is unique, but you can use it with many different tones.

Style covers: 

• specific standards for the grammar and mechanics of writing;
• how to handle contractions, hyphenation, abbreviations, times and dates, etc.

When to use “we”, “I” or “The Trust”

In the communication of policies, protocols, etc, should use “we” or “the Trust”.

The first person plural (“we”) makes writing feel friendlier and more inclusive.

Grammar: grammar is very important. Proofread your written communications in all forms. 

‍Nomenclature

Our name‍

How we style our name in writing is important. “Trust” is always capitalised when referring to our organisation, but use lower case when referring to a trust generally as a type of organisation. 

Use: introduce “Crystal Palace Park Trust” in full, for clarity, within any instance of communications, clearly and at a high level. Thereafter the shortened form “the Trust” may be used for concision. Not: CPPT, The Crystal Palace Park Trust, the Park Trust, CPP Trust, CP Park Trust, etc.

Areas of the park

Use: “Crystal Palace Park” when describing the geographic location. Thereafter, do not to capitalise “park”, unless you are using the full name, which makes us seem less formal, less stuffy. As it appears so frequently in our texts, capitalisation highlights it unnecessarily. So: “Crystal Palace Park”, but “the park”.

Say: “Terraces” and/or specify “Palace Terraces” and “Italian Terrace” 
Not: “Top Site”

Say: “Crystal Palace Bowl” when referring to the geographic location as distinct from the physical entity of the Platform
Not: “Concert Bowl”

Say: “Concert Platform” when referring to the structure, or events specific to it, rather than the Crystal Palace Bowl
Not: “Platform”; “Rusty Laptop”, unless informal, with explanation

Say: “Transmitting Station”
Not: “Tower” 
Remember: “The Transmitter” is our newsletter, not to be confused with the above‍

Time‍

We use standard time for all Trust communications. Communications from partners that we have input into should be updated to show the correct format (community engagement letters, etc).

Yes: 13:00
No: 5pm