OUR WRITING GOALS AND PRINCIPLES

With every email we write, blog post we publish, video we distribute, or message we post, we aim to:

• Empower. Help people understand the positions and values of Limestone County Democrats by using language that informs them and encourages active participation in our activities and the Democratic process.

• Respect. Treat readers with the respect they deserve. Put yourself in their shoes, and don’t patronize them. Remember that they have other things to do. Be considerate and inclusive. Don’t preach to people; communicate with them.

• Educate. Tell readers what they need to know, not just what we want to say. Give them the exact information they need, along with opportunities to learn more.

• Guide. Think of yourself as a tour guide for our readers. Whether you’re leading them through our Party’s positions or persuading them to take a specific political action, be sure to communicate in a friendly and helpful way.

• Speak truth. Understand the Democratic Party's place in their lives. Avoid dramatic storytelling or fear mongering. Save that for the other side. Focus on our real strengths, our real successes, our real solutions.

To achieve those goals, we make sure our content is:

• Clear. Understand the topic you’re writing about. Use simple words and sentences.

• Useful. Before you start writing, ask yourself: What purpose does this serve? Who is going to read it? What do they need to know?

• Friendly. Write like a human. Don’t be afraid to break a few rules if it makes your writing more relatable. All of our content, from splashy homepage copy to system alerts, should be warm, optimistic, and human.

• Appropriate. Write in a way that suits the situation. Just like you do in face-to-face conversations, adapt your tone depending on whom you’re writing to and what you’re writing about.

VOICE AND TONE

One way we write empowering and informative content is by being aware of our voice and our tone. This section explains the difference between voice and tone, and lays out the elements of each as they apply to the Limestone County Democrats.

What’s the difference between voice and tone? Think of it this way: You have the same voice all the time, but your tone changes. You might use one tone when you're out to dinner with your closest friends, and a different tone when you're in a meeting with your boss.

Your tone also changes depending on the emotional state of the person you’re addressing. You wouldn’t want to use the same tone of voice with someone who’s scared or upset as you would with someone who’s laughing.

The same is true for the Limestone County Democrats. Our voice doesn’t change much from day to day, but our tone changes all the time.

Voice

At the Limestone County Democrats, we’ve walked in our audience's shoes, and we know any political discussion can be a minefield of confusing labels, contradictory terms, emotionally driven phrases, and robotic talking points. That’s why we try to speak like the knowledgeable, thoughtful, and compassionate neighbors, friends, and family members we trust and whose opinions we value.

We treat every question and comment seriously. We want to educate people without patronizing or confusing them.

Using friendly humor and a conversational voice, we play with language to lighten an otherwise serious or difficult conversation. We prefer the subtle over the noisy, the wry over the sarcastic. We don't take ourselves too seriously, but we also don’t joke about serious subjects.

Whether people know what they need from us or don’t know the first thing about an important political issue, every word we say informs and encourages. We impart our opinions and our positions with clarity, empathy, and wit.

All of this means that when we write:

• We are plainspoken. We understand the world our local audiences are living in: one muddled by hyperbolic, emotional language and over-promises. We strip all that away and value clarity above all. Because people come to the Limestone Democrats to get information about serious issues, we avoid distractions like extreme political hyperbole and provocative plays on emotion.

• We are genuine. We get the real and authentic concerns of Limestone County residents, because we are real and authentic Limestone County residents. That means we relate to our community’s challenges and passions and speak to them in a familiar, warm, and approachable way.

• We are translators. On too many of our communication channels, unscrupulous actors and organizations try to cloud many of the issues by oversimplifying complex subjects. Our goal is to take the opposite approach. We want to demystify big, serious topics and actually inform and educate our audiences.

• Our humor is dry. Our sense of humor is straight-faced, subtle, and never mean. We’re weird but not inappropriate, smart but not snobbish. We prefer winking to shouting. We’re never condescending or exclusive—we always bring our customers in on the joke.

Tone

The editorial tone of the Limestone County Democrats is usually informal. When you’re writing, consider the reader’s state of mind. Are they relieved to be home from a long day at work? Are they confused and seeking our help on Twitter? Once you have an idea of their emotional state, you can adjust your tone accordingly.

The Limestone Democrats have a sense of humor, so feel free to be funny when it’s appropriate and when it comes naturally to you. But don’t go out of your way to make a joke—forced humor can be worse than none at all. If you’re unsure, keep a straight face.

Style tips

Here are a few key elements of with our voice. For more, see the Grammar and mechanics section.

• Active voice Use active voice. Avoid passive voice.

• Avoid slang and jargon Write in plain English.

• Write positively Use positive language rather than negative language.

Writing About People

Whether you’re writing for an internal or external audience, it's important to write for and about other people in a way that’s compassionate, inclusive, and respectful. Being aware of the impact of your language will help make the Limestone Democrats a better ambassador of the Democratic Party’s values in the world. In this section we'll lay out some guidelines for writing about people with compassion, and share some resources for further learning.

Age

Don’t reference a person’s age unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. If it is relevant, include the person’s specific age, offset by commas.

“The candidate, 16, just got her driver’s license.”

Don’t refer to people using age-related descriptors like “young,” “old,” or “elderly.”

Disability

Don’t refer to a person’s disability unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. If you need to mention it, use language that emphasizes the person first: ”she has a disability” rather than “she is disabled.”

When writing about a person with disabilities, don’t use the words “suffer,” “victim,” or “handicapped.” “Handicapped parking” is OK.

Gender and sexuality

Don’t call groups of people “guys.” Don’t call women “girls.”

Avoid gendered terms in favor of neutral alternatives, like “server” instead of “waitress” and “businessperson” instead of “businessman.”

It’s OK to use “they” as a singular pronoun.

Use the following words as modifiers, but never as nouns:

• lesbian

• gay

• bisexual

• transgender (never "transgendered")

• trans

• queer

• LGBT

Don’t use these words in reference to LGBT people or communities:

• homosexual

• lifestyle

• preference

Don’t use “same-sex” marriage, unless the distinction is relevant to what you’re writing. (Avoid “gay marriage.”) Otherwise, it’s just “marriage.”

When writing about a person, use their communicated pronouns. When in doubt, just ask or use their name.

Hearing

Use “deaf” as an adjective to describe a person with significant hearing loss. You can also use “partially deaf” or “hard of hearing.”

Heritage and nationality

Don't use hyphens when referring to someone with dual heritage or nationality. For example, use "Asian American" instead of "Asian-American."

Medical conditions

Don’t refer to a person’s medical condition unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing.

If a reference to a person’s medical condition is warranted, use the same rules as writing about people with physical disabilities and emphasize the person first. Don’t call a person with a medical condition a “victim.”

Mental and cognitive conditions

Don’t refer to a person’s mental or cognitive condition unless it’s relevant to what you’re writing. Never assume that someone has a medical, mental, or cognitive condition.

Don’t describe a person as “mentally ill.” If a reference to a person’s mental or cognitive condition is warranted, use the same rules as writing about people with physical disabilities or medical conditions and emphasize the person first.

Vision

Use the adjective “blind” to describe a person who is unable to see. Use “low vision” to describe a person with limited vision.

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. (We cover a lot of ground in this section—the search feature will help if you're looking for something in particular.)

Basics

Write for all readers. Some people will read every word you write. Others will just skim. Help everyone read better by grouping related ideas together and using descriptive headers and sub headers.

Focus your message. Create a hierarchy of information. Lead with the main point or the most important content, in sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages.

• Be concise. Use short words and sentences. Avoid unnecessary modifiers.

• Be specific. Avoid vague language. Cut the fluff.

• Be consistent. Stick to the copy patterns and style points outlined in this guide.

Guidelines

Abbreviations and acronyms

If there’s a chance your reader won’t recognize an abbreviation or acronym, spell it out the first time you mention it. Then use the short version for all other references. If the abbreviation isn’t clearly related to the full version, specify in parentheses.

• First use: Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)

• Second use: SPLC

• First use: Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)

• Second use: UTC

If the abbreviation or acronym is well known, like API or HTML, use it instead (and don’t worry about spelling it out).

Active voice

Use active voice. Avoid passive voice.

In active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action. In passive voice, the subject of the sentence has the action done to it.

• Yes: Paolo logged into the account.

• No: The account was logged into by Paolo.

Words like “was” and “by” may indicate that you’re writing in passive voice. Scan for these words and rework sentences where they appear.

One exception is when you want to specifically emphasize the action over the subject. In some cases, this is fine.

• Your account was flagged by our abuse team.

Capitalization

We use a few different forms of capitalization. Title case capitalizes the first letter of every word except articles, prepositions, and conjunctions. Sentence case capitalizes the first letter of the first word.

When writing out an email address or website URL, use all lowercase.

• communications@limestonedemocrats.org

• limestonedemocrats.org

Don't capitalize random words in the middle of sentences. Here are some words that we never capitalize in a sentence. For more, see the Word List.

• website

• internet

• online

• email

Contractions

They’re great! They give your writing an informal, friendly tone. In most cases, use them as you see fit. Avoid them if you're writing content that will be translated for an international audience.

Emoji

Emoji are a fun way to add humor and visual interest to your writing, but use them infrequently and deliberately.

Numbers

Spell out a number when it begins a sentence. Otherwise, use the numeral. This includes ordinals, too.

• Ten new employees started on Monday, and 12 start next week.

• I ate 3 donuts at Coffee Hour.

• Megan’s baby won 1st place in Limestone County’s Adorable Toddler contest.

• We hosted a group of 1st graders who are learning to code.

(Sometimes it feels weird to use "1" instead of "one." Just go with your gut.)

Numbers over 3 digits get commas:

• 999

• 1,000

• 150,000

Write out big numbers in full. Abbreviate them if there are space restraints, as in a tweet or a chart: 1k, 150k.

Dates

Generally, spell out the day of the week and the month. Abbreviate only if space is an issue in the app.

• Saturday, January 24

• Sat., Jan. 24

Decimals and fractions

Spell out fractions.

• Yes: two-thirds

• No: 2/3

Use decimal points when a number can’t be easily written out as a fraction, like 1.375 or 47.2.

Percentages

Use the % symbol instead of spelling out "percent."

Ranges and spans

Use a hyphen (-) to indicate a range or span of numbers.

• It takes 20-30 days.

Money

When writing about US currency, use the dollar sign before the amount. Include a decimal and number of cents if more than 0.

• $20

• $19.99

When writing about other currencies, follow the same symbol-amount format:

• ¥1

• €1

Telephone numbers

Use dashes without spaces between numbers. Use a country code if your reader is in another country.

• 555-867-5309

• +1-404-123-4567

Temperature

Use the degree symbol and the capital F abbreviation for Fahrenheit.

• 98°F

Time

Use numerals and am or pm, with a space in between. Don’t use minutes for on-the-hour time.

• 7 am

• 7:30 pm

Use a hyphen between times to indicate a time period.

• 7am-10:30pm

Specify time zones when writing about an event or something else people would need to schedule.

Abbreviate time zones within the continental United States as follows:

• Eastern time: ET

• Central time: CT

• Mountain time: MT

• Pacific time: PT

When referring to international time zones, spell them out: Nepal Standard Time, Australian Eastern Time. If a time zone does not have a set name, use its Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) offset.

Abbreviate decades when referring to those within the past 100 years.

• the 00s

• the 90s

When referring to decades more than 100 years ago, be more specific:

• the 1900s

• the 1890s

Punctuation

Apostrophes

The apostrophe’s most common use is making a word possessive. If the word already ends in an s and it’s singular, you also add an ‘s. If the word ends in an s and is plural, just add an apostrophe.

• The donut thief ate Sam’s donut.

• The donut thief ate Chris’s donut.

• The donut thief ate the managers’ donuts.

Apostrophes can also be used to denote that you’ve dropped some letters from a word, usually for humor or emphasis. This is fine, but do it sparingly.

Colons

Use a colon (rather than an ellipsis, em dash, or comma) to offset a list.

• Erin ordered 3 kinds of donuts: glazed, chocolate, and pumpkin.

You can also use a colon to join 2 related phrases. If a complete sentence follows the colon, capitalize the 1st word.

• I was faced with a dilemma: I wanted a donut, but I’d just eaten a bagel.

Commas

When writing a list, use the serial comma (also known as the Oxford comma).

• Yes: David admires his parents, Oprah, and Justin Timberlake.

• No: David admires his parents, Oprah and Justin Timberlake.

Otherwise, use common sense. If you’re unsure, read the sentence out loud. Where you find yourself taking a breath, use a comma.

Dashes and hyphens

Use a hyphen (-) without spaces on either side to link words into single phrase, or to indicate a span or range.

• first-time user

• Monday-Friday

Use an em dash (—) without spaces on either side to offset an aside.

Use a true em dash, not hyphens (- or --).

• Multivariate testing—just one of our new Pro features—can help you grow your business.

• Ken thought Sandy was the donut thief, but he was wrong—it was Lydia.

Ellipses

Ellipses (...) can be used to indicate that you’re trailing off before the end of a thought. Use them sparingly. Don’t use them for emphasis or drama, and don’t use them in titles or headers.

• “Where did all those donuts go?” Lloyd asked. Kyle said, “I don't know...”

Ellipses, in brackets, can also be used to show that you're omitting words in a quote.

• “When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, [...] a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.”

Periods

Periods go inside quotation marks. They go outside parentheses when the parenthetical is part of a larger sentence, and inside parentheses when the parenthetical stands alone.

• Sandy said, “I ate a donut.”

• I ate a donut (and I ate a bagel, too).

• I ate a donut and a bagel. (The donut was Ken’s.)

Leave a single space between sentences.

Question marks

Question marks go inside quotation marks if they’re part of the quote. Like periods, they go outside parentheses when the parenthetical is part of a larger sentence, and inside parentheses when the parenthetical stands alone.

Exclamation points

Use exclamation points sparingly, and never more than one at a time. They’re like high-fives: A well-timed one is great, but too many can be annoying.

Exclamation points go inside quotation marks. Like periods and question marks, they go outside parentheses when the parenthetical is part of a larger sentence, and inside parentheses when the parenthetical stands alone.

Never use exclamation points in failure messages or alerts. When in doubt, avoid!

Quotation marks

Use quotes to refer to words and letters, titles of short works (like articles and poems), and direct quotations.

Periods and commas go within quotation marks. Question marks within quotes follow logic—if the question mark is part of the quotation, it goes within. If you’re asking a question that ends with a quote, it goes outside the quote.

Use single quotation marks for quotes within quotes.

• Who was it that said, “A fool and his donut are easily parted”?

• Ken said, “A wise man once told me, ‘A fool and his donut are easily parted.’”

Semicolons

Go easy on semicolons. They usually support long, complicated sentences that could easily be simplified. Try an em dash (—) instead, or simply start a new sentence.

Ampersands

Don't use ampersands unless one is part of a company or brand name.

• Ben and Dan

• Ben & Jerry’s

PEOPLE, PLACES, AND THINGS

File extensions

When referring generally to a file extension type, use all uppercase without a period. Add a lowercase s to make plural.

• GIF

• PDF

• HTML

• JPGs

When referring to a specific file, the filename should be lowercase:

• slowclap.gif

• MCBenefits.pdf

• ben-twitter-profile.jpg

• ilovedonuts.html

Pronouns

If your subject’s gender is unknown or irrelevant, use “they,” “them,” and “their” as a singular pronoun. Use “he/him/his” and “she/her/her” pronouns as appropriate. Don’t use “one” as a pronoun.

For more on writing about gender, see Writing about people.

Quotes

When quoting someone in a blog post or other publication, use the present tense.

“Using Mailchimp has helped our business grow,” says Jamie Smith.

Names and titles

The first time you mention a person in writing, refer to them by their first and last names. On all other mentions, refer to them by their first name.

Capitalize the names of departments and teams (but not the word "team" or "department").

Marketing team

Support department

Capitalize individual job titles when referencing to a specific role. Don't capitalize when referring to the role in general terms.

Our new Marketing Manager starts today.

All the managers ate donuts.

Don't refer to someone as a “ninja,” “rockstar,” or “wizard” unless they literally are one.

Schools

The first time you mention a school, college, or university in a piece of writing, refer to it by its full official name. On all other mentions, use its more common abbreviation.

Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia Tech

Georgia State University, GSU

States, cities, and countries

Spell out all city and state names. Don’t abbreviate city names.

Per AP Style, all cities should be accompanied by their state, with the exception of: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston, Indianapolis, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Oklahoma City, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington.

On first mention, write out United States. On subsequent mentions, US is fine. The same rule applies to any other country or federation with a common abbreviation (European Union, EU; United Kingdom, UK).

URLs and websites

Capitalize the names of websites and web publications. Don’t italicize.

Avoid spelling out URLs, but when you need to, leave off the http://www.

Writing about Mailchimp

Our company's legal entity name is "The Rocket Science Group, LLC." Our trade name is "Mailchimp." Use "The Rocket Science Group, LLC" only when writing legal documents or contracts. Otherwise, use "Mailchimp."

Always capitalize the first “M” and lowercase the “c” in Mailchimp.

Refer to Mailchimp as “we,” not “it.”

Capitalize the proper names of Mailchimp products, features, pages, and tools. When referencing non-trademarked products like Pro, Snap, and Automation, include "Mailchimp" in the name on first mention.

Mailchimp Pro

Mailchimp Snap

Look What You Can Do

Writing about other companies

Honor companies’ own names for themselves and their products. Go by what’s used on their official website.

iPad

YouTube

Yahoo!

Refer to a company or product as “it” (not “they”).

Slang and jargon

Write in plain English. If you need to use a technical term, briefly define it so everyone can understand.

Mailchimp's ops team is constantly scaling our servers to make sure our users have a great experience with our products. One way we do this is with shards, or partitions, that help us better horizontally scale our database infrastructure.

Text formatting

Use italics to indicate the title of a long work (like a book, movie, or album) or to emphasize a word.

Dunston Checks In

Brandon really loves Dunston Checks In.

Use italics when citing an example of an in-app Mailchimp element, or referencing button and navigation labels in step-by-step instructions:

When you're all done, click Send.

The familiar A/B testing variables—Subject line, From name, and Send time—have now been joined by Content, and up to 3 combinations of a single variable can now be tested at once.

Don’t use underline formatting, and don’t use any combination of italic, bold, caps, and underline.

Left-align text, never center or right-aligned.

Leave one space between sentences, never 2.

Write positively

Use positive language rather than negative language. One way to detect negative language is to look for words like “can’t,” “don’t,” etc.

Yes: To get a donut, stand in line.

No: You can’t get a donut if you don’t stand in line.