Specific words and phrases

Rules

Below are rules for how we use common words and phrases. The bold term shows the accepted form (capitalization, hyphenation, punctuation), with accompanying text explaining usage.

  • BIA employees, BIA team members, or BIA staffers.
  • ages, avoid hyphens in ages unless it clarifies the text. For example, a group of 10 18-year-old White House tourists.
  • agile
  • a.m.
  • back end, back end development
  • Congress refers to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
  • congressional is lowercase unless part of a proper name. For example, Congressional Record
  • DC, not D.C.
  • DevOps
  • digital coalition
  • drop-down when used as an adjective. For example, drop-down menu. drop down when used as a noun. For example, an option from the drop down. Never dropdown.
  • email, not e-mail
  • executive branch
  • federal, unless part of a proper noun. For example, Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • federal government, not Federal Government or Federal government
  • fiscal year is lowercase. It’s okay to abbreviate as FY on the second reference.
  • front end, front end developer
  • GitHub
  • government, unless part of a proper noun. For example, Government Printing Office
  • homepage
  • human-centered design
  • info is an acceptable shortening of information. In formal situations, use the full word.
  • internet
  • JavaScript
  • kanban
  • login when used as noun, for example, I forgot my login name and password, or when used as an adjective, for example Make sure the login page is 508 complaint. log in when used as a verb, for example, Log in to access your calendar.
  • open source, open source software
  • percent is preferred more than the % symbol. For example, 10 percent of respondents.
  • p.m.
  • README
  • Scrum should be used to refer to the set of practices for the agile method. We don’t use that term for the daily meetings and instead use daily standup.
  • single sign-on
  • sitemap
  • startup
  • tech is an acceptable shortening of technology. In formal situations, use the full word.
  • to do (noun) and to-do (adjective). For example, your to dos or your to-do list.
  • United States government or U.S. government, not U.S. Government
  • URLs should be lowercase, even when they appear at the start of a sentence. For example, notalone.gov launched today.
  • U.S., not US or USA
  • user-centered design
  • U.S. Web Design Standards on first use and Standards on subsequent references
  • Wi-Fi