# Ward 7 Rules Checklist

**Source documents:** Ward7 House Style.docx (March 2026 revision), Ward7 References Style.docx
**Status:** Canonical. Built from actual source content on 19 May 2026.
**Loaded by:** ward7-proof-check-lambda via `get_skill_reference(filepath: "Ward7 Rules Checklist.md")`.

---

## How to use this file

This is the canonical list of rules the Ward 7 Proof Check skill walks against every document. Each rule has a stable `rule_id` that must be cited verbatim in proof-check output (both in items' cited-rule lines and in the audit appendix).

The skill does not extract rules from `Ward7 House Style.docx` or `Ward7 References Style.docx` at runtime. Those documents are the source-of-truth for human authors who maintain this checklist. The skill consumes this file directly.

**Yellow-highlighted [PROPOSED] sections in the source are not enforced.** They are draft additions not yet adopted by the team. Only rules listed below are enforced.

---

## Abbreviations

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-AB-001 | Keep use of abbreviations to a minimum. Consider target audience and format of communication. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-002 | Abbreviations must always be spelt out on first mention (exceptions: DNA, RNA). | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-003 | Abstracts, tables and figures considered separate documents for first-mention purposes. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-004 | If first mention is in the header, spell out in the header and at first mention in the body text. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-005 | No full stops in abbreviations or initials: `ie`, `eg`, `UK`, `BSc`, `CNS`, `IV`. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-006 | Words ending in the last letter of the full word do not require a full stop: `vs`, `Mr`, `Dr`, `Prof`. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-007 | Drug-dose abbreviations (UK style): `td` (three times daily), `bd` (twice daily), `od` (once daily). Spell out if room. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-008 | Plural abbreviations: lower-case `s`, no apostrophe (e.g., HCPs, not HCP's). | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-009 | Do not define SI units or chemical symbols. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-010 | Avoid two-letter abbreviations. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-011 | Avoid abbreviations of single words. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-012 | Avoid abbreviations not accepted by international bodies. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-013 | Avoid abbreviations in titles, headings and keywords. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-014 | Avoid abbreviations of dosing in titles/headings. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-015 | `eg` and `ie` acceptable only in parentheses, figures, and tables. Not in body text. | Ward7 House Style, Abbreviations |
| HS-AB-016 | Flag duplicate words ("in in", "the the", etc.) as plain typographic errors. | Ward7 House Style (general) |

---

## Brackets, bullets

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-BR-001 | If a complete sentence falls within brackets, a full stop should be included inside. | Ward7 House Style, Brackets |
| HS-BR-002 | House style use of brackets: `([()])`. | Ward7 House Style, Brackets |
| HS-BP-001 | No full stop on bullets. | Ward7 House Style, Bullet points |
| HS-BP-002 | Main bullet points: Wingdings circles at 100% of text. | Ward7 House Style, Bullet points |
| HS-BP-003 | Sub-bullets: en-dash at 100% of text. | Ward7 House Style, Bullet points |
| HS-BP-004 | Each bullet point starts with a capital letter. Sub-bullets may start with lower-case if forming part of a phrase or list. | Ward7 House Style, Bullet points |
| HS-BP-005 | Punctuation should not be used to split bullets (colons, full stops between them). | Ward7 House Style, Bullet points |
| HS-BP-006 | Within posters specifically, bullets use punctuation (full stop at end of each bullet, colons etc). | Ward7 House Style, Bullet points — Special case |

---

## Fonts and spacing

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-FT-001 | Word body copy: Arial 11 pt. | Ward7 House Style, Fonts |
| HS-FT-002 | Word footnotes: Arial 10 pt. | Ward7 House Style, Fonts |
| HS-FT-003 | PowerPoint body copy: Arial 16–18 pt. | Ward7 House Style, Fonts |
| HS-FT-004 | PowerPoint references: Arial 10–12 pt. | Ward7 House Style, Fonts |
| HS-SP-LINE-001 | Word documents: 1.5 line spacing, 6 pt space before and after paragraphs. | Ward7 House Style, Spacing |
| HS-SP-LINE-002 | Footnotes: single line spacing, no space before/after paragraphs. | Ward7 House Style, Spacing |
| HS-SP-LINE-003 | Scientific documents (manuscripts, abstracts, posters): double spacing. | Ward7 House Style, Spacing |

---

## Footnotes

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-FN-001 | Asterisks should be used as footnotes to denote statistical significance only: `*p<0.05`, `**p<0.01`, `***p<0.001`. | Ward7 House Style, Footnotes |
| HS-FN-002 | For non-statistical footnotes, use superscript symbols in this order: `†, ‡, #, §`. | Ward7 House Style, Footnotes |
| HS-FN-003 | If more than four footnotes, use superscript letters (a, b, c, d, etc.) after `§`. | Ward7 House Style, Footnotes |
| HS-FN-004 | Footnote definitions (non-standard abbreviations): use house style format `BMD, bone mineral density; PET, positron emission tomography.` | Ward7 House Style, Footnotes |
| HS-FN-005 | Footnotes should be left-aligned (or aligned with y-axis labels of a figure or with the left-hand side of a table). | Ward7 House Style, Footnotes |

---

## Grammar — apostrophes, plurals

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-AP-001 | Apostrophes must NOT be used with pronouns: its, theirs, ours. | Ward7 House Style, Apostrophes |
| HS-AP-002 | Use the form "4 days' treatment" (apostrophe after the s for plural possessive) — or reword (e.g., "after treatment for 4 days"). | Ward7 House Style, Apostrophes |
| HS-AP-003 | Decades: `1980s`, not `1980's`. | Ward7 House Style, Apostrophes |
| HS-AP-004 | Singular possessive: apostrophe before the s (e.g., Newton's law of motion). | Ward7 House Style, Apostrophes |
| HS-AP-005 | Plural possessive: apostrophe after the s (e.g., Newspaper Publishers' Association). | Ward7 House Style, Apostrophes |
| HS-AP-006 | Never put trade names into possessive case (avoid "Seroxat's excellent record" — reword). | Ward7 House Style, Apostrophes |
| HS-PL-001 | Company names treated as singular nouns ("Novartis is..."). | Ward7 House Style, Plurals |
| HS-PL-002 | Treat as plural: data, media, criteria, phenomena, symposia. | Ward7 House Style, Plurals |
| HS-PL-003 | Plurals of abbreviations have no apostrophe: `1980s`, `HCPs`. | Ward7 House Style, Plurals |

---

## Hyphenation

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-HY-001 | Hyphenate compound adjectives before a noun ("ill-informed patient", "long-term treatment", "double-blind trial", "side-effect profile"). | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |
| HS-HY-002 | No hyphen when compound adjective appears after the noun ("a fact that is well known", "a patient who is ill informed"). | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |
| HS-HY-003 | No hyphen after an adverb ending in `-ly` ("echocardiographically determined hypertrophy"). | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |
| HS-HY-004 | Use suspended hyphens only when absolutely necessary ("once- or twice-daily treatment"). | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |
| HS-HY-005 | Hyphens with numerals only, not with spelled-out numbers: `14-fold`, `tenfold`. | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |
| HS-HY-006 | Hyphens with prefixes (anti, pre, post): generally only when the next word starts with a, e, i, or to avoid a double letter. Exception: `pre-treatment` always hyphenated (matches `post-treatment`). | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |
| HS-HY-007 | Use the canonical Ward 7 forms: audiovisual, inpatient, dose-limiting toxicity, outpatient, email, proactive, endpoint, side effects (but side-effect profile), evidence-based medicine, website, follow up, wellbeing, half-life, worldwide (but World Wide Web), healthcare, X-ray. | Ward7 House Style, Hyphenation |

---

## Italics, genus and species

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-IT-001 | Italicise all Latin words except `et al.` (e.g., `in vitro`). | Ward7 House Style, Italics |
| HS-GE-001 | Italicise when genus and species are used together (e.g., `Staphylococcus aureus`). Genus + species always singular endings. | Ward7 House Style, Genus and species |
| HS-GE-002 | Genus alone: lower case, normal font (e.g., `streptococci`) — unless specifically referred to (e.g., `organisms of the genera Streptococcus`). | Ward7 House Style, Genus and species |
| HS-GE-003 | Order names: initial capital, normal font (e.g., `Enterobacteriaceae`). | Ward7 House Style, Genus and species |
| HS-GE-004 | Genus in italics, `spp` not in italics (e.g., `Streptococcus spp`). | Ward7 House Style, Genus and species |

---

## Numbers and units

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-NU-001 | Write out numbers one to nine; use numerals for 10 and higher. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-002 | Always use numerals with units of measurement (cm, years, mL), whether abbreviated or not. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-003 | Number and unit separated by a non-breaking space (e.g., `5 mg`). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-004 | Use words at start of sentence (avoid where possible). Numerals acceptable at sentence start in slides, posters, infographic layouts. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-005 | Hyphenate numbers between twenty-one and ninety-nine. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-006 | In a sentence with both small and large numbers, use all numerals (e.g., "measurements were taken 2, 4 and 12 weeks after treatment"). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-007 | Use a comma in four-figure numbers and above (1,000; 12,543) — except reference page numbers and dates. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-008 | Do not use commas for international audiences (some languages use commas as decimal separators). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-009 | Large numbers may mix numerals and words (e.g., `6.7 million`). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-010 | Use `500–600 mg`, not `500 mg to 600 mg`, unless using `from` (e.g., `from 500 mg to 600 mg`). En-dash, no spaces. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-011 | Do not elide numbers in ranges (e.g., `1240–1248`, not `1240–8`). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-012 | Write out years in full (`1990s`, not `90s`). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-013 | Use 0 before decimal points for numbers less than 1. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-014 | Close up spaces around `<`, `>`, `=` etc. | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-015 | Hyphenate fractions (e.g., `two-thirds`). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-016 | Always use a unit with a number (`aged 22 years`, not `age 22`). | Ward7 House Style, Numbers |
| HS-NU-017 | Use SI units consistently. | Ward7 House Style, Units |
| HS-NU-018 | Always include a unit in tables (ideally in column or row headings). | Ward7 House Style, Units |
| HS-NU-019 | Be careful with case for units (e.g., `100 nm` not `100 nM`; `10 mL` not `10 ml`). | Ward7 House Style, Units |

---

## Time, date, statistics, age

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-TI-001 | Preferred time style: 12-hour clock with am/pm (`7 pm`, `7.15 pm`, `7–8 pm`). | Ward7 House Style, Time |
| HS-DA-001 | Dates in UK style: `24 February 2014`. | Ward7 House Style, Date |
| HS-ST-001 | `p` values: `p<0.0001`. Lower case, no space around `<`, `0` before decimal point. | Ward7 House Style, Statistics |
| HS-ST-002 | 95% CI values separated by an en-dash (e.g., `95% CI 5.4–6.7`). | Ward7 House Style, Statistics |
| HS-ST-003 | Standard deviations and SEM should always be defined; appear in brackets after the number; no `±` symbol. | Ward7 House Style, Statistics |
| HS-AG-001 | Always use a unit for age. Patients are `aged 22 years`, not `aged 22`. | Ward7 House Style, Age |
| HS-AG-002 | Hyphenate compound age adjectives (`four 2-year-old girls`). | Ward7 House Style, Age |
| HS-SY-001 | Use `≥` and `≤` rather than underlined `>` and `<`. | Ward7 House Style, Symbols |

---

## Punctuation — commas, semicolons, colons, full stops, quotes, slashes

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-CM-001 | Insert commas between adjectives of equal weight not linked by `and`. | Ward7 House Style, Commas |
| HS-CM-002 | Use the Oxford comma: where more than two items occur in sequence, a comma should precede the `and` (e.g., "headache, hypotension and hypertension" is wrong; "headache, hypotension, and hypertension" is correct per Oxford comma rule). | Ward7 House Style, Commas |
| HS-SC-001 | The semicolon marks a longer pause than a comma. Separates clauses of equivalent importance or items in a compound list. | Ward7 House Style, Semicolons |
| HS-CL-001 | Whereas the semicolon links equal/balanced clauses, the colon marks a step forward. What precedes the colon should be a complete sentence. One space after the colon. | Ward7 House Style, Colons |
| HS-FS-001 | The full stop is always followed by one space. | Ward7 House Style, Full stops |
| HS-FS-002 | Full stop within brackets if the sentence is complete inside the brackets. | Ward7 House Style, Full stops |
| HS-QU-001 | If punctuation is part of the quoted statement, place it inside the quotation marks; otherwise outside. | Ward7 House Style, Quotes |
| HS-SL-001 | In Word and PowerPoint, no spaces around slashes (e.g., `and/or`, not `and / or`). | Ward7 House Style, Slashes |

---

## Spelling

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-SP-001 | Use English (UK) spelling with `-ise` and `-yse` endings, unless specifically requested by a client/journal. | Ward7 House Style, Spelling |
| HS-SP-002 | If US spelling is requested, make this clear upfront so anyone working on the document knows. | Ward7 House Style, Spelling |
| HS-SP-003 | Set the dictionary to English UK in Word/PowerPoint. | Ward7 House Style, Spelling |
| HS-SP-004 | Exceptions: `fetus`/`fetal` spelt the same in UK/US; `sulphur` is the UK standard spelling. | Ward7 House Style, Spelling |
| HS-SP-005 | Use the US spelling `program` (not the UK spelling `programme`). This is the single explicit exception to UK spelling. | Ward7 House Style, Spelling |
| HS-SP-006 | UK preferences include: acknowledgement, adrenaline, aesthetic, aetiology, ageing, anaemia, anaesthetic, analogue, analyse, behaviour, calibre, catalogue, centre, colour, defence, enrolment, fulfil, grey, haematology, ischaemia, labelled, leucopenia, litre, metre, noradrenaline, neurone, oedema, oestrogen, oesophagus, paediatrics, per cent, sceptical, skilful, traveller, tumour. | Ward7 House Style, Spelling |

---

## Figures and tables

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| HS-FI-001 | Figures must have a title in sentence case. | Ward7 House Style, Figures |
| HS-FI-002 | Include `Adapted from Surname Initials. Year.` where the figure is redrawn from a published figure. Not required where a figure was created from published data. | Ward7 House Style, Figures |
| HS-FI-003 | Footnotes related to a figure appear under the figure. | Ward7 House Style, Figures |
| HS-FI-004 | All abbreviations in a figure must be defined in a footnote. | Ward7 House Style, Figures |
| HS-FI-005 | Axes labels are centred on the axes. Both axes have labels and units. | Ward7 House Style, Figures |
| HS-TA-001 | Tables must have a title. Cite in numerical order. | Ward7 House Style, Tables |
| HS-TA-002 | Tables should not repeat information in the text. | Ward7 House Style, Tables |
| HS-TA-003 | Alignments: left-align left-hand column; centre all other columns; align column headings at the bottom; column headings bold; numbers centred (not decimal-aligned). | Ward7 House Style, Tables |
| HS-TA-004 | Paragraph spacing in tables: 3 pt above and below, if space on page. | Ward7 House Style, Tables |
| HS-TA-005 | Always include units in tables; where possible take units out of body and put in column or row headings. | Ward7 House Style, Tables |

---

## References — in-text citation

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| RS-IN-001 | Use house style unless client prefers otherwise. | Ward7 References Style, Key points |
| RS-IN-002 | Use `draft` house style until final stage before layout or finalisation/approval. | Ward7 References Style, Key points |
| RS-IN-003 | Draft stage: reference citations as `[author year]` (e.g., `[Jones 2012]`) after the punctuation in the text. Reference list appears in alphabetical order. | Ward7 References Style, In-text citation — Draft |
| RS-IN-004 | Final stage: numbered references in the text as a superscript appearing after the punctuation mark. Reference list appears in numerical order. | Ward7 References Style, In-text citation — Final |
| RS-IN-005 | Inline citation numbers appear in ascending numerical order within a citation cluster (e.g., `1,2,5` not `2,5,1`). | Ward7 References Style, In-text citation |
| RS-IN-006 | Footnote letters and reference numbers must not be combined in a single superscript string (e.g., `c2,5,1` is not permitted). | Ward7 References Style, In-text citation |

---

## References — reference list format

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| RS-R-001 | Journals (more than two authors): `First-author-surname Initials et al. Journal Abbrev Year; Vol: pages.` Example: `Johnston M et al. J Clin Pharmacol 1992; 4: 215–220.` | Ward7 References Style, Journals |
| RS-R-002 | Journals (two authors): `Surname1 Initials1, Surname2 Initials2. Journal Abbrev Year; Vol: pages.` Example: `Johnston M, Smith D. J Clin Pharmacol 1992; 4: 215–220.` | Ward7 References Style, Journals |
| RS-R-003 | Use the abbreviated form of the journal title as it appears in PubMed. | Ward7 References Style, Journals |
| RS-R-004 | Spaces follow the semicolon and colon in journal references (`Year; Vol: pages`). | Ward7 References Style, Journals |
| RS-R-005 | Do not elide page numbers in references (e.g., `215–220`, not `215–20`). | Ward7 References Style, Journals (matches HS-NU-011) |
| RS-R-006 | Books (person as author): `Surname Initials. Title. Edition. City: Publisher, Year: pages.` | Ward7 References Style, Books — person as author |
| RS-R-007 | Books (editor or chairman): `Surname Initials, eds. Title. City: Publisher, Year: pages.` | Ward7 References Style, Books — editor |
| RS-R-008 | Book chapter: `Author. Chapter title. In: Editor, eds. Book title. City: Publisher, Year: pages.` | Ward7 References Style, Books — chapter |
| RS-R-009 | Data on file: `Data on file. [Company name].` Period after company name only. No location, no date. Example: `Data on file. SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals.` | Ward7 References Style, Unpublished data |
| RS-R-010 | In press: `Surname Initials. Title. Journal Year; in press.` | Ward7 References Style, Unpublished data |
| RS-R-011 | Websites: must include author, title, URL, date accessed. Use main website address if URL is long. | Ward7 References Style, Websites |
| RS-R-012 | Website format: `Surname Initials. Title. URL (accessed DD Month YYYY).` Example: `Smith A. Coronary heart disease — risk factors. www.cardiology.com (accessed 14 April 2023).` | Ward7 References Style, Websites |
| RS-R-013 | Downloadable items: `Organisation. Year. Title. Available at URL (accessed DD Month YYYY).` | Ward7 References Style, Websites |

---

## Reference integrity tests

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| RS-INT-001 | Marker-to-reference-list match: every footnote marker, superscript, and inline citation in body copy has a matching entry in the reference list. | Integrity test |
| RS-INT-002 | Reference-list-to-marker match: every entry in the reference list has a matching marker somewhere in body copy. | Integrity test |
| RS-INT-003 | Reference number sequence: numbered markers appear in ascending sequence with no gaps and no duplicates. | Integrity test |
| RS-INT-004 | Footnote symbol sequence: symbolic markers appear in the Ward 7 documented order (`†, ‡, #, §`, then letters). | Integrity test |
| RS-INT-005 | Reference list presence: if body copy contains citation markers, a formal reference list section exists in the document. Document-level Medium item if absent. | Integrity test |

---

## Dictionary — Approved Terms

| Rule ID | Statement | Source |
|---|---|---|
| DICT-001 | Brand names, drug names, ingredients, diseases, and clinical terminology are rendered exactly as specified in the loaded brand-specific Approved Terms file. Includes capitalisation, hyphenation, and trademark symbol (®, ™) usage. | <Brand> Approved Terms.md (Kesimpta, Kisqali, etc.) |

---

## Notes for maintainers

This file is built from the actual content of `Ward7 House Style.docx` (March 2026 revision) and `Ward7 References Style.docx`. Sections in the source that are yellow-highlighted with `[PROPOSED]` (Patient dignity and inclusive language, Phrases and clichés to avoid, Trade names, Word usage, Preferred terms glossary) are not included here — they are draft additions not yet adopted by the Ward 7 team.

If the team adopts a proposed section, add the relevant rules to this checklist with new `rule_id`s and update the Last updated line above. Stable rule_ids matter — historical proof-check reports cite specific IDs.

If a rule is deprecated, do not delete its row. Mark it deprecated and add a replacement:

```
| HS-XX-NNN | [DEPRECATED YYYY-MM-DD — replaced by HS-XX-MMM] | — |
```