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Published by The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body
SPICe Style and Writing Guide (Updated 2025)
Author: SPICe Research
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Published: Tuesday 08 Apr 2025 (SB 25-13)
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Overview
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Overview
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Writers' checklist
Before you start writing
Who are you writing for and what do they need?
How to manage deadlines
How to increase the impact of your briefing
What you need to consider as you're writing
Make your briefing accessible
Make sure your briefing is accurate
Check your statistical calculations are accurate
Be clear and understandable
Be impartial
Make your writing relevant and brief
Consider equality issues
Consider human rights
Consider the principles of sustainable development
Consider the impact of proposals on the climate and nature
Plain language writing techniques and tips
Aim for an average sentence length of 15-20 words
Use more active than passive verbs
What do active and passive verbs look like?
How to identify a passive verb
When it's OK to use passive verbs
How to avoid writing passively
Identify and liberate hidden verbs
How to identify a hidden verb
Avoid 'noun-noun-noun' constructions
Deal with jargon and business terms
Define at point of writing, in footnotes or in a glossary
Be harsher with business and political jargon
Be as specific and clear as you can
Be wary of fashionable phrases
Have the confidence to use everyday words and expressions
The problem with over-writing
Choose words which you'd use if you were talking to your reader
Abstractions may force readers to interpret
Euphemisms soften the tone but may erode impact or be inappropriate
Avoid inflating ideas
Prefer English when writing in English
Will figures of speech work?
Tips for helping readers navigate
Tips for writing online
Structuring online briefings
Use summaries to get to the point
Use bullet points and make sure sentences at the start of paragraphs are relevant
Use links, headings, sub-headings and bold text
Plain language writing techniques that work particularly well online
Explaining technical words and phrases in your briefing
Editing your work: grammatical and final checks
Adjectives: do you need them?
Apostrophes
Commas
Conjunctions: 'and', 'but' and 'because'
Infinitive: to split or not?
Prepositions: use carefully
Sentences and non-sentences
Slashes, and/or
Spelling: check, don't guess
Tenses: be consistent
Style guidelines
Parliamentary terminology
The Parliament
The Scottish Government
Sessions
Parliamentary years
Other time periods
The power to legislate
Bills and their passage
The Parliament's business programme
General formatting guidance
Layout
Use alt text to describe images and sound
Metadata
How to use our templates
Finding SPICe templates
Headings and styles in Microsoft Word
What size and type of font to use
Aligning text
How to copy and paste text without embedded formatting
Guidance for calculations
Checking your calculations
Types of briefings you may be working on
SPICe briefings
Committee papers
Petition briefings
Bill summaries
Material for debates
Image: Counting sentence length in Microsoft Word
Image: Use alt text to describe images and sound
Image: Use alt text to describe images and sound
Image: Finding the 'Title' field in Microsoft Word
Image: Finding Scottish Parliament templates in Microsoft Word
Image: Identifying passive verbs in Microsoft Word
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Last Updated: 21/2 6:55am
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