C

No need to capitalise and they’re both one word.

These don’t mean the same thing. One means you don’t have to, for example, ‘you can not eat if you don’t want to’. The other means something is impossible (or forbidden), for example, ‘you cannot eat porridge with a knife’ or ‘you cannot play on the grass’. Only cannot can be replaced with ‘can’t’.

Canvas is the material artists paint on. People canvass during an election when they try to get support for something (or someone).

Some words (such as Scouts and Friday) are always capitalised. Others (such as autumn or hiking) aren’t capitalised. ‘Scout’ words often have their own rules. We’ve included some of the most common examples below; if the word you’re looking for isn’t there, check for an individual entry in this guide.

Also, remember that we use sentence case for titles and headings – all words should be lowercase, except the first letter of the first word and words that are always capitalised (for example, Cubs or Tuesday).

Please capitalise:

• Scouts (or The Scout Association on the very rare occasions you need to call it that)
• Scout nouns such as Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers, Activity Badges, Wintercamp, and so on
• Specific, official job titles outside Scouts (for example, ‘Head Teacher Sam’, but ‘head teachers’ in general)
• The first word of HQ teams (for example, Creative team, Data protection team)
• Days of the week and months
• Main book titles (but not subheadings separated by a colon), for example, ‘Scouts: a history’
• Names of people and places (proper nouns, if we’re being grammar nerds)
• Ethnic groups, for example, ‘White staff felt… in comparison, Black staff felt’

Please don’t capitalise

• Leaders (though we should be calling them volunteers in most cases)
• Seasons of the year
• Activity titles (for example, hillwalking, climbing)
• Generic references to activity centres
• Compass directions – north, east, south, and west are only capitalised if they’re part of a proper noun or commonly used title for an area (for example, South Africa or Western Australia) or if they’re referring to an official Scouts’ geographical designation. If we’re talking generally about ‘the west of Scotland’, keep it lowercase. 

The region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands, and the surrounding coasts. Caribbean is also an adjective that means ‘relating to the Caribbean’. Either way, capitalise it.

If you’re using it generally, to talk about a situation you can’t escape from because of conflicting conditions, it’s lowercase. For example, it’s a catch-22 if you can’t get a job because you’ve no experience but you can’t get any experience because no one will give you a job (we’ve all been there – keep going!). If you’re specifically referring to the novel, capitalise it.

It depends. See Roman Catholic.

A CD is a disc, not a disk.

You don’t need to mess about with weird symbol menus, as Celsius is written without the little degree symbol (23C, -3C, and so on). It is capitalised, though. Don’t worry about converting it to Fahrenheit.

Feel free to shorten it to ‘cm’ (it’s usually easier to read) as long as there’s no space between the cm and the figure, for example, 15cm. If you’re using numbers to talk about fewer than 10cm, it’s best to write it out in full (for example, five centimetres).

It’s only capitalised if you’re talking about the annual Scouts Census.

Chair is a good substitute for chairwoman, chairman, or chairperson. It’s lower case outside of Scouts. It’s capitalised within Scouts, but beware: people are appointed to specific Chair roles, so the word should only be used for that appointment or role title.

Specific awards (and types of awards such as ‘Challenge Awards’) are capitalised: the words ‘badges’ and ‘awards’ are lower case when used generically. That’s the simple version, though. For the detail, see badges and awards.

Some people with additional needs may display challenging behaviours that are physical (such as hurting others or self-injury), verbal (such as offensive language or threats), or non-verbal (such as being destructive, stealing, or eating inedible objects). They’re not ‘naughty’ and their behaviour isn’t ‘bad’. The language we use should reflect that the person’s not necessarily intending to cause a problem – usually there’s a reason for challenging behaviours, for example, someone may be trying to communicate or cope with their environment. You can also talk about ‘behaviour that challenges’.

Capitalise it: the people of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, Herm, Jethou, Brecqhou, and Lihou will thank you. In case you were wondering, there are 12 uninhabited islands too.

The name of a Roman Catholic church.

The non-ministerial department that registers and regulates charities in England and Wales. Scotland has the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR).

Charities registered with the Charity Commission (England and Wales) and Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) get a unique number. Scouts’ registered charity numbers are 306101 (England and Wales) and SC038437 (Scotland). Always add ‘Incorporated by Royal Charter’.

If they’re a Trustee for Scouts or Girlguiding, it’s capitalised. If not, lower case please.

This is an offensive term: never use it.

All one word, please.

When referring to a Beaver Scout ‘Chew’.

Is one word.

As part of the new volunteer experience, this role title has changed. Please see Chief Volunteer.

There’s no need to capitalise this title, given to the recognised religious leader of a country’s or city’s Jewish community.

This title is given to the lead volunteer for UK Scouts. It’s Bear Grylls at the moment.

Don’t forget the apostrophe (and make sure you put it in the right place). These are the highest awards that Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts can earn – they need to complete all of their section’s Challenge Awards, plus a certain number of Activity Badges or Staged Activity Badges, depending on their section.

Chief Volunteers provide leadership and inspiration to other volunteers and manage Nation Leadership Teams. There's a Chief Volunteer of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Previous role name: Chief Commissioners.

(Nations only).

You can find the Child Protection Policy in Rule 2.3 in POR (Policy, Organisation and Rules). The ‘Young People First’ code of practice (Yellow Card) is the code of practice which supports this policy.

Call Scouts aged under 18 ‘young people’. It’s OK to occasionally use ‘children’ (but avoid ‘kids’) when referring to Beavers and Cubs. You can directly quote someone who’s said ‘kids’ or ‘children’.

Don’t forget the capital letters. It usually happens between 21 January and 20 February. 

We call the game ‘broken telephone’ instead. 

Capitalise these please.

Say ‘first name’ or ‘given name’ instead. Depending on what you’re writing, ‘given name’ may be more appropriate as in some cultures the given name comes after the family name.

It’s not Xmas or xmas.

Means something is long-lasting or keeps coming back, not that it’s severe (in fact, if it’s short but severe, it’s acute).

Church is lower case unless you’re talking about the Church of England, Church of Scotland, or Church of Ireland.

In other churches, including Methodist churches, Baptist churches, Presbyterian churches, Free Presbyterian churches, and Roman Catholic churches, the word church is lower case. 

Cisgender describes a person whose gender identity is the same as the biological sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a cisgender woman is someone who was assigned female at birth and now identifies as a woman.

Capitalise it if you mean the Scouts policy, otherwise leave it lower case.

Use this between two sentences (or two parts of a sentence) where the first introduces a proposition the second resolves (for example, ‘here’s a task for the new Beaver Scout Leader: get the Beavers to listen to instructions’). You can also use a colon to introduce quotations and lists.

Capitalise if you’re talking about a Beaver Scout Colony (the group of Beaver Scouts), otherwise it’s lower case (but think about if another word would work better instead).

No capitals, and don’t forget the hyphen.

We don’t use this phrase anymore; it’s now known as the Board of Trustees. 

We also have the National Scout Council, a body of between 300 and 600 people whose main role is to elect or appoint Scouts’ UK Board of Trustees and approve any changes to our governing documents. 

But just say ‘the house’ after you’ve said it in full the first time.

Generally, these are lower case, for example, public accounts committee, education select committee, and so on.

Capitalise it if you’re referring to the Commonwealth of Nations, the political association of member states that were (almost all) former territories of the British Empire.

Generally, they’re lower case (for example, the west of Scotland). Only capitalise them if they’re part of a county name, proper noun, commonly used title for an area, or official Scouts’ geographical designation. For example, the East End, North America, and East Sussex.

Write them exactly as the company itself does, capitals, ampersands (&) and all. It’s especially important if you’re talking about one of our partners (but you always double-check anyway, right?).

If something contributes to something else and improves it, it complements it. Think about two things getting on so well they complete each other, for example, custard complements apple crumble.

If you compliment someone, you’re congratulating or praising them. You may wish to compliment the writer of this style guide because it’s so well written, for example.

If something’s complimentary, you get it for free. This style guide is a good example (and it’s far more useful than the little chocolates you get in hotels).

There are some other uses too (we know, why are there always exceptions to the rules?). 

If you want us to be exact, a complement can also be the number of something needed to make a group complete (for example, a full complement of staff). It’s also a specific term in geometry, mathematics, physiology, or grammar – google it. Complimentary can also mean expressing a compliment, for example, if ‘Sam was complimentary about Aarav’s new haircut’, it means they said something nice about it.

Please see Internal Check.

When it’s used as a grammar word, this means dropping letters and replacing them with an apostrophe (for example, it’s, we’re, don’t, can’t).

Contractions are part of our tone of voice, and help us ‘write more like we speak’. We’re all over this so don’t be shy – you can’t have too many contractions. Stick to the common ones, though; don’t invent your own.

Note the lack or hyphen or space, please.

Note the hyphens – because we write company names like the companies themselves do.

There are seven continents. The word continent never needs to be capitalised.

You might hear people saying ‘the continent’ to mean Europe – we prefer ‘mainland Europe’, please.

When referring to the specific coronation of a monarch use 'Coronation'. For example: 'The Coronation of HM The King will take place next week'.

In a general sense use 'coronation'. For example: 'A coronation is a ceremony at which a king or queen is crowned'.

It’s OK to use coronavirus and COVID-19 (note the capital letters) interchangeably to talk about the virus, the disease, and the 2020 pandemic. It can be useful to use both to avoid repeating the same word.

See Areas, Counties, Regions, Districts.

As part of the new volunteer experience, this role title has changed. Please see County Lead Volunteer.

Capitalise this important volunteer role. The role looks a bit different for each County, but involves managing and supporting the Scout County so it becomes the best it can be for young people and adult volunteers.

As part of the new volunteer experience, this role no longer exists. County Advisers will now join a relevant new County team, based on their skills or interests.

For England and Northern Ireland - County Lead Volunteers provide leadership and inspiration to other volunteers and oversee the County Leadership Team.

Previous role name: County Commissioners.

For all things events, awards and activities, look no further than County Programme Team Members. They'll support Districts, and Section Teams, by running events at a County level, for example County-wide international trips. Their ultimate goal is supporting and enhancing the programme for young people.

Previous role name: some County Skills Instructors might now become County Programme Team Members.

It's all in the name, County Support Team Members carry out tasks to help Scouts run smoothly in their County. It could be looking after equipment and property, or helping to grow and promote Scouts. For this reason, they work closely with communities.

Previous role name: County Communications Manager - although other volunteers can take on this role too.

A member of the County Leadership Team who makes sure young people are represented at all levels of decision-making. They help put the YOU into youth shaped Scouts experiences.

Previous role name: County Youth Commissioner.

Is just for England and Wales. Scotland has the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, and Northern Ireland has the Countryside Code NI. Although their core values are similar, make sure your writing and activities include all three.

In England and Wales (and the Channel Islands and Isle of Man), they’ve been called Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) since 2012, so please make sure you use the right term.

When a volunteer joins Scouts, they'll need to have a criminal record check. This is part of our safeguarding checks, so we can keep all young people and volunteers safe. These will also need updating every five years while they’re still volunteering with us.

What a criminal record check is called, and the type of check, varies across the four nations of the UK, and each of our British Scouting Overseas countries. This is why we're now using the umbrella term criminal record check, rather than disclosures.

Never use this when talking about people. People are disabled (by society): they are never ‘crippled’ or ‘cripples’. There’s usually a better alternative to using it as a verb, too, for example, rather than being crippled, an economy could be ruined, damaged, or destroyed by debts.

If you’re talking about ‘a cafe’ or ‘the cafe’ then it’s lowercase. Cub Cafes are opportunities to show adults what Cubs is about and encourage them to lend a hand.

Call individual members Scouts whenever you can (including adults as well as young people). For example, you might say ‘Anika’s an eight year old Scout. Once a week, she goes to her nearest Cubs. This isn’t always possible, and it’s OK to refer to Cubs (and Beavers), but use Scouts where possible. At the end of the day, we’re all part of the same movement.

As part of the new volunteer experience, this role title has changed. Please see Section Team Leader.