Language choices | Digital Standards

Active vs. passive voice

Use active voice, not passive voice, whenever possible. Active voice is clearer about who or what is performing an action.
- The mayor recommends that city residents take shelter before the winter storm.
Passive voice describes a sentence that doesn’t state who or what is responsible for an action, or puts the “do-er” later in the sentence than the thing being done.
- It is recommended that city residents take shelter before the winter storm.
- A recommendation was made by the mayor to take shelter before the winter storm.
While readers usually prefer active voice, passive voice can be useful. This includes times when the acting person or thing is unknown, or when you want to draw attention to the object being acted upon.
- The motorcycles were stolen late last night.
- Not: Someone stole the motorcycles late last night.

Figurative language

Avoid figurative language. It can make your writing less clear. People who don’t speak English fluently may not understand idioms, and they can make translation more difficult. Don’t use:
- Drive out (unless you’re talking about cattle, use get rid of)
- Going forward (unless you’re giving directions)
- In order to (extra words that usually mean the same thing as to)
- One-stop shop (we’re the government, not a big box store)

Inclusive language

The City of Philadelphia works to use language that is inclusive, accessible, and welcoming.

We have provided principles, resources, and specific suggestions for writing about diverse groups of people, but this page is not exhaustive.

Key principles

Do your research. Actively seek out resources to inform your writing. Give preference to resources created by the people and communities you’re writing about.
Use self-identification. Refer to people and communities using the terms they identify with. If you aren’t sure, just ask.
Use people-first language. Everyone is a person, first and foremost. People-first language uses identities and traits as adjectives, not nouns. For example, “woman with multiple sclerosis.”

General resources

Age

Avoid referring to someone’s age, unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing about.

For example, it’s helpful to refer to ages when describing benefits that are available to people of certain ages.

Disability

Only refer to a person’s disability when necessary. Use terms that are accurate and specific. When in doubt about how to discuss disability, ask someone from the community you’re writing about.

When writing about people with disabilities, we usually use people-first language.
- Children with cerebral palsy have benefited from the program.
We also make sure that any disability is correctly identified.
- The program serves over 3,000 individuals who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.
- Not: The program serves over 3,000 bipolar people.

There are exceptions to the people-first approach. For example, many people with impaired vision or hearing prefer disability-first language.

Hearing and vision — exceptions to people-first language

Use deaf to describe people with acute hearing loss. Use partially deaf or hard of hearing for people with moderate hearing loss.
Use blind to describe someone without vision. A person with some vision can be legally blind or have low vision.

For more information, refer to the Disability Language Style Guide or the Diversity Style Guide.

Gender and sexuality

Use gender-neutral language whenever possible.
When referring to a hypothetical person, use the singular they. Do not use he or she.
Use spouse instead of husband/wife. Use parent instead of mother/father.
Use neutral titles whenever possible. For example, use chairperson, firefighter, or police officer.

LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer)

Refer to the LGBTQ community using a single acronym.
Use the following as adjectives, but never as nouns:
- Bisexual
- Gay
- Lesbian
- Transgender
- Trans
- LGBT
- LGBTQ
When applicable, use they as a singular non-gendered pronoun.

For more information, contact the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs. You can also refer to the NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists Stylebook or the GLAAD Media Reference Guide.

Mental illness

You can use mental illness as a general term, but do not refer to an individual as mentally ill. Use person-first language and, when possible, specific conditions.

The Center was created to assist people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and severe depression.

Race, ethnicity, and religion

We follow the AP Stylebook’s guidelines on race.

Capitalize Black when using the term in a racial, ethnic, or cultural sense. Capitalize Indigenous when referring to an area’s original inhabitants.
Avoid using words, images, or situations that reinforce racial, ethnic, or religious stereotypes (even stereotypes that may appear to be positive). Avoid the term non-white and other terms that treat whiteness as a default.
When referring to a person’s race or ethnicity, use adjectives, not nouns.
- A Hispanic person, not a Hispanic
Don’t use the term minority on its own. Be specific. For example, write racial minority or linguistic minority.

For more guidance on race, ethnicity, and religion, see the following resources:

Plain language

Don’t use formal or long words when easy or short ones will do.
- Write about instead of approximately
- Write use instead of utilize

Plainlanguage.gov is a good resource and offers tips for making sure your writing is clear to all audiences.

We lose our readers’ trust when we use government buzzwords and jargon. Often, these words are too general and vague. They can lead to misinterpretation or empty, meaningless text. We can do without the following words:

Agenda (unless you’re talking about a meeting)
Combating (use “working against” or “fighting”)
Commit/pledge (we need to be more specific — we’re either doing something or we’re not)
Countering
Deploy (unless you’re talking about the military or software)
Dialogue (we speak with people)
Disincentivize (and incentivize)
Empower
Foster (unless it’s children)
Illegals/illegal aliens (say undocumented immigrants)
Impact (as a verb)
Initiate (use start or begin)
Land (as a verb, unless you’re talking about aircraft)
Leverage (unless you use it in the financial sense)
Overarching
Robust
Streamline
Strengthening (unless you’re referring to bridges or other structures)
Tackling (unless you’re referring to football or another contact sport)
Thought leader (instead, refer to a person’s accomplishments)
Touchpoint (instead, mention specific system components)
User testing (unless you’re actually testing the users – otherwise, write usability testing)
Utilize

Redundant phrases

Find alternatives to common redundant phrases.

Redundant	Revised
for the purpose of	to
for the reason that	because
future plans	plans
in excess of	more than
in order to	to
reason why	why
root cause	cause
widely diverse	diverse
advance planning	planning
assembled together	assembled
background experience	experience
completely eliminate	eliminate
component part	component
cooperate together	cooperate
end result	result
final end	end