OECD Style Guide (Fourth Edition)

Reader’s guide

This new edition of the OECD Style Guide focusses on the rules and conventions used in OECD writing. It is designed to help OECD authors and editors quickly and easily find the information they need and to support them in creating clear, consistent content.

These rules and conventions apply to all OECD material, regardless of format or dissemination channel. Guidance on good writing, and on OECD publishing rules and processes, are now available to OECD authors and editors via an internal platform: the “OECD Communications Guidance Portal” (https://com-apps.oecd.org/com-guidance-portal/en).

New features

• “Do” and “Don’t” instructions for each topic covered.

• Tables illustrating “Key differences between English and French” usage for many topics.

Revised structure

Keen users of the OECD Style Guide: Third Edition will note that this new edition has fewer chapters than its predecessor. Some chapters have been merged into other chapters or removed, as explained below.

 

OECD Style Guide: Third Edition	OECD Style Guide (Fourth Edition)
Part I: Publishing at the OECD	Now covered in documents available on the OECD Communications Guidance Portal.
Breaks and hard spaces	Moved into the Punctuation chapter.
Disclaimers	Moved into the Country and territory names, codes and currencies, and territorial disclaimers chapter.
Foreign words and expressions	Removed. Advised to avoid these in the Spelling and usage chapter and the Translation and terms in other languages chapter.
Gender-neutral language	Moved into the Inclusive language chapter.
International organisations	Expanded and moved into The OECD and other international organisations chapter.
Notes	Moved into Bibliographical references, citations and notes chapter.
Personal pronouns	Moved into the Inclusive language chapter.

Format and updates

The OECD Style Guide is available as a webbook and a PDF. Minor updates will be made on an ongoing basis as needed and communicated to OECD staff. If major revisions are needed, a new edition will be published.

Updated March 2026 to correct formatting and typos.