Content styleguide

Welcome to the TalentMAP content style guide. Here, you’ll find guidance on voice and tone, capitalization and punctuation conventions, how to use specific words and phrases, and more.

This style guide is a living document – add to it as often as you need to.

For guidance on topics not covered by this style guide, please refer to the AP Stylebook.

Voice and tone

Your organization’s voice is its unique personality — it’s what makes all of your content sound like it’s coming from the same place. Tone, much like tone of voice, is the emotional context of a given type of content. Your voice should remain constant across all of your content, while tone should shift based on content type.

TalentMAP should sound like the people working at the Department of State:

• Knowledgeable
• Professional
• Enthusiastic
• Welcoming

The tone you choose for a certain type of content should reflect your user’s emotional state at the time they’re accessing that content. For example, the tone of error messaging should be more serious and helpful than the tone of landing-page copy. For more on choosing appropriate tones, please refer to the 18F Content Guide.

Capitalization*

Consistent capitalization is key to building trust with your users. How you choose to capitalize also impacts how your users perceive your organization; title-case capitalization is viewed as more formal, while sentence-case capitalization is often viewed as more approachable and welcoming.

We recommend the following capitalization guidelines:

• Use title case for:
  • The names of racial, linguistic, tribal, religious, and national groupings of people
  • All titles including page titles and titles of sub-sections within a page, h1s, h2s, chart headings, and buttons
  • State Department specific nouns such position titles and skill code descriptions
• Do not capitalize:
  • Official titles unless they precede a name
  • The specific words federal or government
  • “The” before a proper noun (for example: the U.S. Department of State), unless starting a sentence
• Use sentence case for other headings and subheadings (h3-h4).

*Updated 4/17/2018

See the Specific words and phrases section for additional capitalization guidelines.

Punctuation

• Use the Oxford (serial) comma.
• Add a single space after each period.
• In bulleted lists, add punctuation after list items that are complete sentences; do not add punctuation after single words or sentence fragments.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Acronyms are a type of abbreviation; for simplicity, this guide will use only the term acronyms to describe abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms.

Whenever possible, avoid acronyms. They can confuse readers, especially those who may not be familiar with your site or the concepts it addresses.

In some cases, you won’t be able to avoid using acronyms. If you must use them:

• On first use, spell the full word and immediately follow it with the acronym in parentheses: the Family Liaison Office (FLO).
• On subsequent uses, use only the acronym: FLO.
• For acronyms that are used only once or twice on a page, or are very short, do not use the acronym.
• Do not include the definite article ("the") in front of abbreviated government agencies (use FLO, not the FLO).

Bureau names are the major exception to this rule. State Department employees often use acronyms to refer to bureaus and the areas they serve. If referring to a bureau in longer blocks of text, always include the acronym. In UI copy, we place the acronym before the full name, e.g. (WHA) Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs, to help readers quickly recognize meaningful letter combinations.

Exceptions

There is content on the site that is not representative of this style guide’s recommendations. Data coming into the site from DOS, seen in various places, cannot be formatted to match recommended styles. This data is seen within the search filters, on the homepage and favorites cards, and in the search results. Examples of this content includes, Skill code data is represented in all caps, Tour of Duty data yields unpredictable spacing between characters, and Language content is not always clearly spelled out.

Specific words and phrases

This section addresses specialized words and phrases used within the bidding process and so within TalentMAP. Each bold term shows the accepted form of the word (in terms of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation), with accompanying text describing meaning and usage.

As you continue to build out your site, add to this list.

6/8: Shorthand for a rule that Foreign Service officers get a waiver to serve more than five years continuously in domestic posts, and then another waiver after eight years. See HR/CDA PDF documentation.

A

assignments officer (AO): A State Department employee responsible for filling positions.

B

bid: An application for a position.

bidder: An employee who is applying for a position.

bid cycle*: The period of time in which a position is open for applications. Positions at different seniority levels have different bid cycles. Mid-career employees follow either a summer (typically open in winter) or winter (typically open in spring) cycle. The seasonal cycles are named for when positions within them are likely to be open. Other mid-career cycles include details and priority needs. At any given time, only one bid cycle per seniority level is open. Bureaus decide what positions to add to each bid cycle. At the close of a cycle, unfilled positions may be merged into the next one.

bureau: The organization sponsoring a position. Many bureaus oversee regional areas, such as Western Europe. Others, such as the Bureau of Consular Affairs, oversee functional groups. If referring to a regional bureau, include the acronym. State Department employees often use acronyms to refer to regional bureaus. In UI copy, put the acronym before the full name, eg: Bureau of Western Hemispheric Affairs (WHA).

C

cable: A secure text-based message sent from one State Department office to another.

career development officer (CDO): An employee responsible for helping others find and successfully bid for appropriate positions for their career goals.

career track: A chosen professional competency. Learn more. Sometimes synonymous with cone, but not always.

clearance: Shorthand. A medical authorization required for employees and their families to take foreign posts. Must be completed before time of estimated arrival. Official term: medical clearance.

❓ Should we use clearance or medical clearance in the UI copy?

cone: A cone is a colloquial synonym for a generalist or specialist functional field. Bids can be in cone (for a position whose skill code belongs to the bidders' specialization) or out of cone. Each cone has multiple associated skill codes. See all the cones]. Avoid using for UI copy.

Cost of living allowance (COLA): A salary increase to reimburse employees for prices at a foreign post that are higher than same costs in Washington, DC. The specific value of the allowance changes based on local prices. COLA is a colloquial shorthand for what is officially known as post allowance. Learn more about how post allowances are calculated.

curtail: To voluntarily leave a position before one’s tour end date.

D

danger pay: A salary adjustment to compensate for potential physical jeopardy.

❓ Danger Pay or danger pay? State Department documentation uses both.

decline: To reject a handshake offer before it goes to panel.

domestic: Describes locations in the United States. Use only as an adjective: e.g., domestic post.

E

F

fair share: A mandate that employees serve at posts with a significant hardship differential before serving at an in-demand post. The State Department periodically readjusts the percentage threshold necessary for a post to count as a fair share position. See post hardship differential.

Foreign Service Officer (FSO) Foreign Service Officers are also called generalists. There are six career tracks, or cones, within the generalist field.

Foreign Service Specialist (FSS): The Foreign Service has 19 professional career tracks that require very specific skills. Specialists stay within one track throughout their career. Learn more or see all the specialities]

G

generalist: See Foreign Service Officer. Also used as an adjective: e.g., generalist career track.

grade: The candidate’s expected seniority level for a position. (Find a full listing of grade levels, along with requirements to attain those grades, here.)

H

handshake: A tentative offer of a position granted by an AO. Handshakes are confirmed at panel. One bidder may have multiple handshakes per bidding cycle, but can only accept one.

hardship: A dangerous condition not present in Washington, DC. Hardships can include: political violence, poor medical care, and high local crime rates.

Home Leave: Mandatory time spent in the United States between foreign posts.

I

incumbent: The employee currently holding the position.

J

K

L

language: Shorthand for language requirement. The spoken or written fluency languages other than English needed for a position. See a list of State Department languages] tracked by the department.

M

N

O

P

panel: An in-person meeting of CDOs, AOs, and bureau representatives to decide who will get the position.

post: The geographic location of the position. Also, the local organization within a bureau that oversees the position. See a list of all the posts]

post hardship differential: A salary award compensating for dangerous conditions at the post, calculated as a percentage of salary: 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 or 35 percent.

pull back: To retract a bid from consideration before it moves to panel. Avoid. Instead, use withdraw.

Q

R

R&R: The often-used acronym for Rest & Recuperation, paid vacation travel granted to certain posts. The R&R location, or R&R point, is typically a relatively luxurious major city relatively near the post. For example, the R&R point for Phnom Penh, Cambodia is Sydney, Australia. Alternatively, the employee may choose to take R&R in the United States.

❓ Should we recommend an exception to the acronym rule and use R&R instead of the whole word?

S

service needs assignment

skill code: A four-digit numeric code associated with a position's functional duties. Colloquially, skill code also refers to the descriptive title associated with that code. In UI copy, always include both the four-digit code and the text description: e.g., 4400 Public Diplomacy. Skill code list here or on our wiki].

❓ For UI copy, how should we format the code + text combination?

specialist: See Foreign Service Specialist. Also used as an adjective: e.g. specialist career track.

T

time of estimated arrival (TEA): The date on which the bidder might arrive at a new position. Subject to change based on local circumstances and not visible within TalentMAP or FSBid. Equivalent to arrival date.

time of estimated departure (TED): The date on which an employee physically leaves their current post. Subject to change based on local circumstances and not visible within TalentMAP or FSBid. Roughly equivalent to tour end date and transfer eligibility date. Do not use within position description.

tour of duty (TOD): The duration and R&R schedule of the position. Posts have a standard TOD, but each Position can vary. Optional: shorten to tour. See all tours of duty].

tour end date (TED): The month and year during which the current incumbent's tour of duty ends. Equivalent to time of estimated departure and transfer eligibility date. Do not use for position description.

transfer eligibility date (TED): The preferred term in TalentMAP to describe the month and year at which another person might take up the incumbent's position. Often equivalent to tour end date and time of estimated departure. If the position is assigned to a bid cycle, use it instead of projected vacancy date.

U

V

W

waiver: Permission to set aside a position or career requirement.

withdraw: To remove a bid from consideration for a position before it moves to panel.

X

Y

Z

References

• Foreign Service Assignment Notebook: What do I do now? (PDF)
• Acronym list 1 (PDF)
• Acronym list 2 (PDF)