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Writing.

Style guide

The below guidelines are provided to help with clear, consistent and concise writing. It’s important to review the below guidelines for best copywriting etiquette.

Voice and tone overview

The Jardy voice is a reflection of the personalities and individuals behind the company. We strive to produce inclusive, captivating and informative content that is clearly communicated. While we typically maintain a formal tone, you may occasionally see some elements of humor or wordplay.

Copywriting principles

Our copywriting principles are as follows:
  • Be clear. Keep your copy simple so your audience will understand.
  • Be concise. Keep sentences short and to the point.
  • Be consistent. Keep terms the same to avoid confusion.
In any circumstance, offensive, demeaning, rude, unprofessional, or inappropriate language is never acceptable. This encompasses political comments, slang, profanity, name-calling, or any content unsuitable for a company-wide email.

In general, it’s best to be kind and respectful towards all.

Emojis

While Emojis can be used to help enhance social posts or marketing materials, we find that they should be used sparingly. Emojis should never be used to substitute words or phrases within sentences.

Dates

When presenting dates, we use the following:
  • The American date format is used when displaying dates
  • Use the mm-dd-yyyy format when presenting dates. / or - symbols can be used to break numerals (05/01/2023)
  • When written, the month can be spelled out while the day and year should be numerals (May 1, 2023)
  • If month and year are used, no comma is needed (May 2023)
  • Avoid using “last”, “next” and “final” when referring to dates

Times

When presenting times, we use the following:
  • Always capitalize “AM” and “PM”
  • Do not use :00 for times at the top of the hour
  • For time spans, use an en dash
  • For default display, follow numbers with a space
  • When used in a sentence, the same applies

Job Titles

When presenting job titles, we use the following:
  • Always capitalize job titles
  • Abbreviate CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, VP, Sr.
  • Don’t abbreviate uncommon job titles, like Chief Technical Operations Officer
  • Capitalize Founder and Co-Founder

Punctuation

In running text, we use standard punctuation (though we avoid using exclamation points). Phrase-length headers, sub-headers, buttons, and links should not have any punctuation. Headers and sub-headers that form full sentences should use punctuation. Unconventional punctuation (e.g. periods at the end of a phrase, “Meet Jardy.”) are sometimes acceptable within marketing materials. We never use punctuation within buttons or links.

Symbols and Special Characters

When using symbols or special characters, we use the following:
  • We do not use ampersands (&) or plus signs (+) in place of "and.”
  • Em Dashes (—) are sparingly used but can be replaced by commas
  • En Dashes (-) are to be avoided and rarely used, if at all, except when presenting times
  • Hyphens are used for compound nouns and prefixes and suffixes

Pronouns

When using pronouns, we use the following:
  • 1st person plural (we, us, our, ourselves)
  • 1st person singular (I, me, my, mine, myself): These pronouns should only be considered for use in communication directly from an individual member of the team
  • 2nd person singular (you): “You” is an acceptable way to address readers in our copy
  • 3rd person plural (they, them, theirs, theirselves)