Tone of voice Nycomed

Language Style Guide

Version 1 / 31/03/05

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Don’t forget to email corporatecommunications@nycomed.com with your thoughts!

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Contents

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Introduction

Messages

Tone of Voice

01

02

03

Writer’s guidelines

Nycomed style dictionary

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05

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SECTION 00 : CONTENTS

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Introduction

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WORDS ARE POWERFUL Used correctly, words can inspire, create understanding, entertain, relieve and delight. This guide explains the Nycomed writing style. It describes how to do simple things with words such as use monetary symbols (€ or EUR) and more complex things like our company tone of voice. As such, the guide is both a short training course on how to write and a reference tool that will be regularly updated.

Writing has two basic elements: what we say (our message) and how we say it (our style and tone of voice). Both are covered in these guidelines but remember: these are just guidelines, the inspiration comes from you.

DISCLAIMER Collectively, we speak around 30 languages at Nycomed. While much of this guide can be applied to different languages, there will be exceptions.

Attentive readers will notice gaps in this information. It’s a living document, so don’t hesitate to make it even better. Email corporatecommunicatio ns@nycomed.com with your thoughts.

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SECTION 01 : INTRODUCTION

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Messages

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GOOD COMMUNICATION Communication is only possible when we are clear about what needs to be said. What are the key facts or points that must be communicated?

Developing key messages is a good place to start (and makes life easier—hurray!).

• • •

Good key messages are unambiguous. They say one thing and mean one thing Good key messages are short Good key messages are memorable. You’ve done the job properly if you can repeat the message from memory.

APPROVED MESSAGES These are the agreed messages to use when discussing Nycomed. Try working them into your documents. It’s fine to change the language a little, but don’t change the message!

• • • • • • • • •

Headquarters in Denmark Established in 1874 in Norway Focusing on Europe About 3,000 people working in 19 European countries including Russia/CIS Expanding across Europe Providing hospital products throughout Europe Providing GP and OTC products in selected markets Developing research companies’ innovations into products that are right for Europe About half a million Nycomed products are sold every day.

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SECTION 02 : MESSAGES

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Tone of Voice

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Our tone of voice is a vital part of our brand identity. The words we choose directly influence whether people understand our message and how they will react to it. It also has a big impact on how they react to us.

EXAMPLES

It’s a big mistake, but all too easy, to fall back on stale and bureaucratic language. We all hate it when we see it, and we’re all guilty of it. When writing, it’s important to remember this and make sure the correct tone of voice comes through.

Do write: “We’re keen to hear from you. If you have good or bad things to say, please get in touch by phone or email.”

HOW WE USE WORDS When writing we should always be...

Natural: We talk directly to the reader and never down to them. Our writing style is respectful but open and friendly.

Don’t write: “The office procedure for contacting Nycomed is by email. Your inquiry will then be processed and you will receive a reply in due time.”

Don’t write: “All corporate media enquiries should be directed to the Communications Department. Only they can act as, or provide, approved Nycomed spokespeople and materials.”

Do write: “If you are planning to write an article about Nycomed, email us by clicking the following link. We can supply you with press releases, pictures and anything else that you might need.”

Clear: We always use words that the reader will understand. Keep it short.

Compelling: We write in a lively, interesting way to keep the reader engaged, and will use expressive language if it helps to get our point across.

Honest: Our writing is truthful, balanced and believable. We don’t exaggerate or make outrageous claims.

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SECTION 03 : TONE OF VOICE

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Writer’s guidelines

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Good writing should inform. It does this by being simple, clear and logical. Sometimes it needs to do more. It has to excite and stimulate. Whether or not you are a confident writer, there are some basic steps that everyone can learn. Try some of the approaches below and see if they lift your writing to a new level.

Have a plan: Writing starts with thinking. Carefully consider what you need to say and write out a plan just showing the headings. You can then concentrate on writing each section without worrying about the whole article.

Write with your reader in mind: All effective writing begins with knowing the reader. Try to anticipate your reader’s questions, and concentrate on their specific needs.

Grab attention: First impressions count, especially when writing. Your first sentence should hook and draw in the reader.

Write for instant understanding: Journalists start with the important facts and then add additional information in descending order of importance. ‘Who, what, where, when, why and how’ should be covered early on.

Tell stories: Storytelling is a great way to get your message across. A single customer story can be more effective than masses of carefully researched customer data. Stories have a beginning, a middle and an end—remembering this will make them compelling.

Questions: Have you ever thought about the way questions can immediately involve the reader?

Alternatives: The comedian Dave Allen once said that he didn’t mind the prospect of growing older, particularly when considering the alternative.

Ask yourself, is this writing fresh and interesting?

Is there a better way to say this? Can this be said better?

Edit, edit, edit: Plan to have at least three editing rounds. Start early and give yourself plenty of time for this process. Share your documents with others for comment.

Read aloud: The best way to check your work is to read it aloud to yourself. This simple practice will kill off most examples of bad writing.

Write for ‘scannability’: Make it easy for your readers. Consider starting with a summary, dividing the copy into frequent paragraphs to refresh the eye, using helpful headings, sub-headings, bulleted lists, and highlighted words to catch the reader’s eye. These are elements that will grab the user’s attention during a quick scan, so they only need to read the parts that interest them.

Keep it short: Always look for over-long sentences and paragraphs. Can it be said more succinctly?

Am I using enough full stops?

Beware jargon: Jargon and highly technical language is best avoided but, if necessary, should always be explained.

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SECTION 04 : WRITER’S GUIDELINES

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Nycomed style dictionary

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affiliates Try to use ‘countries’ where possible.

Otherwise use ‘markets’ or ‘offices’.

Nycomed offices and regions have capital letters for clarity. The Nycomed Central Europe region is in central Europe.

a or an before h?

Use ‘an’ only if the ‘h’ is silent: an hour, an heir, an honourable man, an honest salesperson; but a hero, a hotel, a historian.

Drug indications and drug generic names are in lowercase when written in full, e.g. percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), Angiox (bivalirudin) (see ‘Upper case’ below).

Abbreviations Do not use full stops in abbreviations, or spaces between initials: BBC, US, mph, 4 am, lbw, PO Box, CJ Jensen, CEO, CFO etc.

Colons Do not underline a colon, especially not in headings. This is wrong: and this is right:

i.e. and e.g., however, do require full stops Spell out less well-known abbreviations on first mention. It is not necessary to spell out well-known ones, such as EU, UN, US, BBC, CIA, FBI, CD, Aids, Nasa.

Commas In most cases, English is flexible with commas, but not in all cases!

Use all uppercase only if the abbreviation is pronounced as the individual letters; otherwise spell the word out: the BBC, ICI, VAT, but Nato.

There is usually a comma after introductory clause of time or condition, e.g.: • ‘In most cases, English is flexible with commas.’

• ‘Last year, there were only three cases.’

Comma can go before “which” (and sometimes must), but should almost never go before “that”: • “The house that Jack had built, which was very large, stood on the hill.”

Write the word ‘approximately’ in full whenever possible, and otherwise abbreviate to ‘approx.’.

The US English custom of placing a comma before the last ‘and’ in a list is logical and makes good sense (also EU recommended).

Wherever possible, use ‘general practitioner’ rather than ‘GP’ in formal documents.

Acronyms in plural form are written: 70s, PPIs, GPs (see ‘Capital letters’ below).

Countries pan-European (small ‘p’).

And / & Do not use the ‘&’ sign in place of the word ‘and’ in normal text.

‘the Netherlands’ and ‘the Baltic States’. In sentences use a lowercase ‘the’ in all cases.

Russia/CIS (meaning Russia plus the Confederation or Commonwealth of Independent States).

Capital letters The use of capital letters sometimes depends on the context. Examples are business departments like Marketing & Sales, or marketing & sales, depending on the context (see marketing and sales).

Job titles are in uppercase: ‘Chief Executive Officer’, ‘Senior Vice President’.

Dates & time 2 April 2003 is the preferred form for writing dates.

Job descriptions are in lowercase: ‘the US president, George Bush’.

Times should be given in the 24-hour form, with a period between hour and minutes and no other description e.g. 22.15.

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Where space is limited or in tables and charts the following forms can be used: 31.12.02 or 1/1031/12.

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Discriminatory language To the best of our ability, we don’t discriminate based on gender, ethnic origins, religion, sexual orientation or similar. Our language should reflect, as a minimum, an even balance between genders, e.g.: • •

Wrong: “When visiting a general practitioner, remember to tell him about your symptoms.”

Right: “When visiting a general practitioner, remember to tell him or her about your symptoms.”

Drugs Avoid confusion and use ‘medical products’ or ‘medicines’.

English The company language is British English. American English can be used in documents aimed soley at American readers (see ‘–ize’ below).

Europe Europe is geographical. EU is political. Never confuse the two.

Europe always begins with a capital letter but the region within Europe should not be in uppercase, such as ‘eastern Europe’, ‘central Europe’.

Our company regions however, i.e. Western Europe, should have a capital letter.

A European country, never an European country.

Email Never e-mail.

Financial information Always use € for euro. The correct form to use is: € 10 billion, € 635.5 million. Please note the space following the € symbol.

The $ symbol should never stand alone because many countries use this symbol for their currencies.

The international symbol USD can be used for US dollars: USD 636.5 million.

Other currencies should be written out in full so they can be understood by all readers i.e. 150 million Norwegian kroner.

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Names of currencies are always written small, e.g. euro, dollars, yen, kroner.

In English, the decimal point is a period, and the comma denotes thousands. 17,100 means 17 thousand and one hundred, 17.100 means seventeen point one.

At the top, left corner of financial charts, the amounts should be defined, e.g. € millions or € thousands.

In tables, the minus sign is close up to the figure, e.g. -66.7.

Where there is no figure in a table, the place should be filled with ‘0’ if there is no result or a dash if it is not applicable.

In percentages, there is no space between the figure and the sign, e.g. 12.8%.

A sentence should NEVER begin with a number of any kind.

The best way to describe financial trends is to write ‘by from to in’ or ‘by from in to in’ with percentages directly following the associated figure, as follows: • “The gross profit increased by €12.5 million (4.1%) from € 306.7 million to € 319.2 million in 2003.”

• “Net turnover increased by 16.1%, from € 8.7 million in 2002 to € 10.1 million in 2003.”

Foreign words Foreign words and Latin words should be in Italics.

This is a wonderful help for the eyes, like in vitro testing, and the Danish health office Sundhedsstyrelsen.

Healthcare Healthcare not health care.

We are a healthcare company that provides medicines. We do not provide healthcare.

Headings The recommended heading style is with a single capital letter at the beginning or upper case letters throughout: • This is the title style • THIS IS THE ALTERNATIVE TITLE STYLE Headings do not require a period at the end.

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Hyphens Differentiate between hyphen (-) for separating words, endash (−) for connecting words or figures, and emdash (—) to connect parts of sentences.

Examples: • Hyphen, as in co-ordinate • Endash, as in 15−20% • Emdash — like here.

Marketing & sales Marketing & Sales department. marketing and sales expenses.

Nycomed Write Nycomed not NYCOMED. Use Nycomed wherever possible without any secondary words.

Linebreaks If possible texts should be written so that no words are separated.

When clarity is needed use the country suffix (Nycomed Austria) or write Nycomed Group.

Some words cannot be split, e.g. through, though, worked, good.

Suffixes with less than 3 letters cannot be separated, i.e. all forms with -ed, -er, -or, -ly.

Use Nycomed Group for international/corporate functions and when describing company structure e.g. Nycomed Christiaens SA/NV, part of the Nycomed Group.

Never divide a word so that only one letter stands at the end of the line, such as “a-nomalous”. But “al-together” is possible.

Use the correct legal term e.g. Nycomed Denmark ApS, Nycomed Pharma AS [Norway], Nycomed A/S when legally required.

Hyphenated words should be separated only at the hyphen, e.g. co-operation or pan-European.

People make decisions, or a vote is taken, but the company as such does not make decisions: • Write ‘the Nycomed portfolio’, not ‘Nycomed’s portfolio’ • Write ‘our calcium portfolio’, not ‘Nycomed’s calcium portfolio’

It is allowed to have a vowel at the beginning of a new line, if it begins a syllable, e.g. ‘hyphen-ate’ and never ‘hyphe-nate’, or ‘pack-age’ and never ‘packa-ge’.

Write Leiras Finland or Oy Leiras Finland Ab. Try not to break up names of people or companies.

Never separate day+month (month+year can be separated).

Never separate figure+unit, e.g. “50 mg” or “€ 123” (but words such as ‘million’ can be taken over to a new line).

TIP: A ‘holder’ or permanent space can be placed to keep words together (Shift+Ctrl, and then space bar; represented by a little round symbol when layout commands are made visible). Try it!

Listings Lists should also be as follows: • Colon introduces the list (see above) • Bullets indicate items • No commas at the end of lines • Period at the end.

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Numbers In normal text, we write one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, 12, 99, 1001.

Never start a sentence with a numeral.

Use numerals (1, 2, 3, etc) for financial information e.g. € 7 million.

In English, the decimal point is a period and the comma denotes thousands. Attention has to be given to that fact.

OTC Use the abbreviation following an explanation: over-the-counter. To a lay audience, consider using ‘pharmacy’ rather than OTC.

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Paragraphs A paragraph should almost always have at least two sentences, and best not more than five.

In columns, and page breaks, at least two lines of a paragraph should be forwarded. Sometimes a solution has to be found to keep these ‘orphan lines’ together in a section.

Pills Use the word tablets rather than pills.

Programme / progam Always use programme (except if it is software).

Quotation marks It is modern (and EU-recommended) to use the so-called ‘smart’ quotation marks, which are straight, not curled.

Use single quotation marks to highlight particular words or separate words in a sentence e.g. ‘smart’.

Telephone numbers Telephone numbers sequences should be written to follow local standards.

International dialing codes are always expressed using +XX (no zero).

Where space is at a premium you can use T to mean telephone number, D to mean direct number, and F to mean fax.

Upper case Fine in headings but be aware that THIS IS SHOUTING! (see ‘Capital letters’ above) While / whilst while, never whilst.

Ze Endings: use ‘-se’, eg emphasise, realise.

Use double quotation marks for quotations and speech. “Understood,” said Mary.

Use double quotes at the start and end of a quoted section, with single quotes for quoted words within that section. Place full stops and commas inside the quotes for a complete quoted sentence; otherwise the point comes outside: •

“Mary said, ‘Your style guide needs updating,’ and I said, ‘I agree.’ “

but: •

“Mary said updating the guide was ‘a difficult and time-consuming task’.”

When beginning a quote with a sentence fragment that is followed by a full sentence, punctuate according to the final part of the quote, e.g.: • The minister called the allegations “blatant lies. But in a position such as mine, it is only to be expected.”

For parentheses in direct quotes, use square brackets.

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