Grammar and Mechanics

Adhering to certain rules of grammar and mechanics helps us keep our writing clear and consistent. This section will lay out our house style, which applies to all of our content unless otherwise noted in this guide.

Capitalization

• Subheadings are capitalized following AP standards (use Capitalize My Title)
• Capitalize proper names, geographic terms, historic episodes, and words derived from proper nouns.
• Don't capitalize the first word after a colon or semicolon unless it's a proper noun.
• Don't use ALLCAPS unless you are writing an acronym.
• Use lowercase for cardinal directions.
• Capitalize titles preceding names, but use lowercase after names.
• Example: Marketing Manager Jane Doe; Jack Doe, marketing manager
• Use all lowercase when writing out an email address or website URL.
• Capitalize the word "room" only when used with the number of the room.
• Example: The panel will be held in Room 315.
• Avoid capitalizing words like "federal" or "state" unless the word is part of a formal name.

Punctuation

Apostrophes

• When making a possessive from a noun ending in -s, use only an apostrophe.
• Pluralize an acronym by adding -s.
• Example: These VIPs have early access.

Ampersands

• Don't use an ampersand (&) unless it's used in a brand name.
• Example: The top sponsor was PG&E.
• Don't use '+' to mean 'and'.

Contractions

• Use contractions for common phrases.
• Example: Registration doesn't open until tomorrow.

Colons and semicolons

• Use a colon (rather than ellipses, dashes or commas) when introducing a list, or when introducing two related phrases.
• Use semicolons sparingly. Consider using an em dash or starting a new sentence.

Commas

• Always use the Oxford or serial comma when writing lists.
• Example: We value strong communication skills, bias for action, and experience in SaaS.

Dashes and hyphens

• Use an em dash (—) to offset an aside.
• Use spaces before and after em dashes.
• Use an en dash (–) to connect a range of numbers or dates.
• Use spaces before and after en dashes.
• Use a hyphen (-) to join together compound words or modifiers.
• Example: Their go-to-market strategy was a huge success.

Exclamation marks

• Use exclamation marks sparingly.
• Don't use multiple exclamation marks.

Parentheses

• Use parentheses to provide examples or introduce an acronym.
• Example: The attendees were representative of the industry as a whole (marketers, engineers, designers, etc).
• If the parenthetical is a complete sentence, place the punctuation inside the parentheses.
• When using an acronym, introduce it in parentheses on first mention.
• Example: Our most important metric is CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score).

Percentages

• With numerals, use '%' instead of spelling out 'percent'.
• Example: Let’s do this 100% of the time.

Periods

• Don't use periods in headlines and headings, except in instances with two complete sentences.
• Don't use periods in common country acronyms.

Quotation marks

• Nested quotes should be enclosed by single quotation marks.
• Punctuation goes within the quotation marks when it's part of the quoted material.

Date & time

Currencies and money

• For currencies, use the symbol-amount format without spaces in between.
• Example: $10,000; €5.50
• Don't use periods in currency abbreviations.
• Example: USD, not U.S.D.
• Write out million, billion, and trillion in full.
• Example: $5 million
• When writing out a monetary value, use commas to separate millions and thousands and decimal points to separate units and subunits.
• Example: $1,000.50

Dates, months, and years

• For short dates, use MM/DD/YYYY (without leading zeros).
• Example: 12/25/1905 or 3/9/2019
• For long dates, use Month DD, YYYY (without leading zeros).
• Example: December 25, 1905
• When including the day of the week in a date, place a comma after the day.
• Example: Friday, December 25
• To abbreviate days of the week, use longer abbreviations.
• Example: Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun
• Don't use ordinal suffixes on dates.
• Example: December 1, January 3, October 5

Time and timezones

• Write A.M. and P.M. in lowercase, don't include a space after the hour, and don't use periods between the letters.
• Example: 9am
• For times on the hour, don't include minutes.
• Example: 7 PM, not 7:00 PM

Numbers, fractions, and units

• Spell out a number when it begins a sentence.
• Example: Twelve days are left until the end of the quarter.
• Always spell out numbers 0-9.
• Use commas to separate thousands and millions in large numbers (and periods to separate units from subunits).
• Example: 1,000
• For telephone numbers, use parentheses for area codes, and a hyphen between the final two sets of numbers.
• Example: (415) 400-5299
• For units of measure, don't leave a space between between the number and the unit, use lowercase letters, and don't use punctuation.
• Example: 25kg
• When writing a decimal, include a leading zero before the decimal point.

Social Media

• Don't use 'at' before the @ symbol.
• Example: Follow us @Writer.
• Don't use the word 'hashtag' followed by the # symbol.
• Example: Follow #contentai for best practices.

Emoji

• Use emoji when appropriate.