Copy Rules

• General Guidelines
• UX Writing Voice and Tone
• Point of View
• Our Brand Names
• URLs
• Dates
• Phone numbers
• Time
• Ages and Grades
• Abbreviations & Numbers
• Quotes, captions, and attributions
• Punctuation

General Guidelines

These are the big ideas that help writers create more effective, compelling user experiences and user interactions in collaboration with product teams.

Consistency wins. Consistency within a single element, page, or product takes precedence over individual style rules. For example, if a bulleted list contains full sentences and sentence fragments, all items in the list should get punctuation to appear consistent.

Less is more. The fewer words, the better. The less punctuation, the better. The less capitalization, the better. Avoid underline and all-caps. Use italics sparingly and only for emphasis.

Respect the hierarchy. When writing for web, consider the page type and user flow of the piece you're creating before organizing your content. To help identify and establish an information hierarchy, create short, scannable headlines that summarize the key takeaways of your body copy. Add CTAs strategically and for a specific purpose -- one that answers a user need.

UX Writing Voice and Tone

Web copy exists to guide, delight, and empower users. Whether you are creating an alert for website maintenance or simple headers that help users navigate down a page and explore deeper content, the copy should align with the following messaging principles:

CLEAR

Be clear first. Be compelling second. Use direct, easy-to-understand words that align content with functionality and brand message. Avoid double negatives and jargon.

CONCISE

Be concise and useful. Communicate strategically and with the user journey in mind. Be concise and consistent with your structure: The content sections on the same page or within the same design element should, whenever possible, use parallel constructions to minimize confusion.

USEFUL

Be specific and actionable. Use active words and phrases that create intrigue, convey information, and inspire trust. Begin sentences with the objective whenever possible. Help users avoid roadblocks and errors by specifying instructions, and help them recover quickly if blocked.

Point of View

Establishing a clear point of view ensures direct and human communication. It's an opportunity to bring personality and warmth into microcopy such as help text, buttons, and other CTAs.

Overarching POV: This is your interface (and we're here to help).

Focus the primary message on what the user needs to know. Headers, introductions, product descriptions, and other user-facing marketing messages should generally be written in second person. Third person is acceptable if you need to create a distinction between audiences on a global page, such as: "Educators: find tips and tools here. Parents: hear what teens have to say here." In general, strive for less "We do …" and more "You can …" (Or, sometimes, "We can help you achieve …")

When to use "you": Use you or your when your product is asking questions, giving instructions, or describing things to the user. Just imagine what a personal assistant might say.

When to use "me": Use I, me, my, or mine when the user is interacting with the product, like clicking a button or selecting a checkbox. But only add these words if you absolutely need to for clarity.

When to use "we": Use we or our when selling people-powered services, such as new reviews, advice, or research. Do this when it's important to establish an emotional connection with users to put them at ease.

Our Brand Names

Common Sense is our master brand that contains core properties, programs, strategic initiatives, campaigns, products, and projects. Maintain consistency and avoid brand dilution by keeping branded terms on the same line, and using consistent punctuation and capitalization.

See full brand organization and naming guidelines here.

URLs

Remove extra link formatting wherever possible. Website is: commonsense.org

Dates

Dates should always be expressed consistently and clearly across the site.

Phone numbers

(415) 555-1234

Time

Time is always expressed as a numeral. Use an en-dash, not a hyphen, to indicate spans of time.

Ages and Grades

Common Sense style is to always use numerals.

Examples: An 8-year-old She is 8 years old. 8- to 10-year-olds sixth grade through 12th grade (try to avoid: grade 6)

When labeling grade bands, use this format (en-dash):

Examples: pre-K (This is a hyphen.) pre-K–12 (First is a hyphen; second is an en-dash.) K–2 3–5 6–8 9–12

Abbreviations & Numbers

Abbreviations can save space in a user interface, but they can be confusing if users don’t know what they mean. It is therefore important that we use abbreviations consistently.

Correct: ZIP code

Correct: U.S. (with periods)

Percent: Spell out in all cases except headlines and art (then "%" OK).

Minutes or mins.? Preferred format is to use "min." or "mins." for labels, tags, etc. Spell out "minutes" only when used in a full sentence (in body text).

Example 15 mins. 1 hr. 2 hrs. Runtime: 91 mins. Warm Up: 15 mins.

Timestamps are written without "mins."

0:53

Other:

50B+ 50+ years of experience 50M 50K

50,000 (no space) p<0.5 +/-3 percentage points

Quotes, captions, and attributions

• Keep quotes fairly short (to four lines or less).

• Photo captions should be no more than one line.

When attributing a quote, this is the preferred format:

— Wren Brennan, Your Friend, California

• Use Straight quotes everywhere for consistency vs. curly quotes (headlines, text over images, pull quotes, etc).

Correct: "These are not curly quotes." Incorrect: “These are curly quotes.”

Punctuation

Formatting Punctuation that's part of a complete thought takes formatting.

Example: Check out these edtech tools. (The period takes the formatting that precedes it.)

Punctuation that is not part of a full thought does not take formatting.

Example: Check out these edtech tools: tool 1, tool 2, tool 3. (The colon does not take the bold formatting.)

Hyphens and dashes

• Use hyphens (-) to create a single idea out of two or more words. Don’t add a space before or after the hyphen.

• Use en dashes (–) for ranges, like numbers (e.g., 1–9) and dates. Don’t add a space before of after the en dash.

• Use em dashes (—) to set related — but separate — thoughts off from each other. Add a space on either side of the em dash.*

  *Note about drupal: On web, em dashes must be left unformatted ( -- ) due to an error in the code.

• Do not use hyphens as style elements (only acceptable to join two words in a compound word or phrase). Hyphen ≠ bullet point; they also are not used for emphasis.

Ellipsis We use AP ellipsis style, with a space on both sides.

For in-text ellipses:

Correct: Read more … on the next page. Incorrect: Read more...on the next page.

For forced text break:

Correct: Five Books to Read with Your … Incorrect: Five Books to Read with Your…

Semicolons Avoid semicolons; make a shorter sentence, or use an em dash.

Ampersands Use only when it's factually accurate (e.g., company names, branded offerings).