Claromentis Design
Copy Style
Copy Style
Purpose of this guide
Copy style guidelines are a set of standards that formalise best practises for writing, so that all copy is consistent, represents our brand, and reflects the Claromentis “voice”.
Claromentis voice and tone
A company voice is the personality of a business, in written form. It describes how things are said or written rather than what, and ultimately captures everything that makes a business unique, such as its people, culture, and values. A company voice should give readers a feeling about the business, ie that it's fun, engaging, inspiring, supportive, and so on. If a company doesn't have a distinctive voice, it can leave people feeling, well, nothing!
The Claromentis voice should be consistent in all copy. A voice is the steady and familiar personality of Claromentis in writing form, whereas tone adjusts the Claromentis voice based on the context and audience. For example, you may use an eductional and informative tone when writing a user guide, and a casual and promotional tone in a blog about a new feature.
A company voice is one of the many factors that contributes to a wider marketing strategy, that aims to help interested parties and leads make an informed buying decision.
Claromentis voice
| Always refer to Claromentis the company as “our”, “we”, “us” |
|---|
| Always refer to the audience as “you” |
| We're friendly and familiar, but always professional. It's fine to use normal words like "give", "ask", or "fix", in comparison to their formal counterparts like "provide", "request", or "resolve". That way we sound more approachable, rather than distant |
| We’re experts on intranets and digital workplace, so we’re confident when we write. But we’re not patronising – always be clear and helpful, and don’t use technical jargon without an explanation (unless it’s well-known to our audience) |
| We're human, honest, and genuine. If you need to share some bad news, try to frame it in the active rather than passive voice, as it shows we're transparent, empathetic, and not robots. For example, don't say: "This bug will be fixed in the next release.". Do say: "We will fix this bug in the next release". Feel the difference? |
| We're also individuals – let your personality shine through |
| Don't be afraid to use emojis where appropriate (but don't go adding them to every sentence either) 👍 |
Tone
Using the right tone will depend on the platform and audience. Think about who you’re writing for, their needs and emotions, and where they will read it. For example, the tone of a Facebook post about our company culture will be very different from the tone of a technical user guide.
More information
For more details on Claromentis copy style, including how to use it in social media posts, see our guide on CodeDev.
For details about how to use the Claromentis voice in customer communications, see our guide with examples on CodeDev.
Grammar
Acronyms and initialisms
If there’s a chance your reader won’t recognise an acronym or initialism, spell it out the first time you mention it. For example:
- First time: Document Management System (DMS)
- Second time: DMS
If the acronym or initialism is well known, like API or HTML, you can use it without spelling it out.
Active voice
Use the active voice. Avoid the passive voice.
In the active voice, the subject of the sentence does the action. In the passive voice, the subject of the sentence has the action done to it.
- Yes: Marti logged into the account.
- No: The account was logged into by Marti.
Words like “was” and “by” may indicate that you’re writing in passive voice. Scan for these words and rework sentences where they appear.
Capitalisation
When writing the headline for a blog or page, capitalise all words except for articles, prepositions, and conjunctions (for example, “a”, “the”, “in”, “to”, “and”).
- Yes: What’s the Difference Between Intranets and Extranets
- No: What’s The Difference Between Intranets And Extranets
When writing subheadings, only capitalise the first word in the sentence. Proper nouns should always be capitalised regardless of their position in a sentence (for example, “John Smith”, “Claromentis”, “Learning Management System”, “Active Directory”).
- Yes: Extranet areas for charity stakeholders
- No: Extranet Areas for Charity Stakeholders
- Yes: Discover more about our Learning Management System
- No: Discover more about our learning management system
Emojis
Emojis can be used freely but appropriately in Twitter and Facebook posts. However, limit usage of emojis in LinkedIn posts.
Commas
When writing a list, use the Oxford comma.
- Yes: Polly likes cats, dogs, coffee, and tea
- No: Polly likes cats, dogs, coffee and tea If in doubt, read the sentence out loud - where you find yourself taking a breath, use a comma.
Ampersands
Use the full word “and” rather than ampersands (&), unless it forms part of a well-known set phase or title.
- Yes: Polly likes cats, dogs, coffee, and tea
- No: Polly likes cats, dogs, coffee, & tea
- Yes: Pages is a drag & drop feature
- No: Pages is a drag and drop feature
Pronouns
If your subject's gender is unknown or irrelevant (because it's an object, for example) use "they," "them," and "their" as a singular pronoun. Also be mindful to use these pronouns in cases where the individual identifies as non-binary, and use "he/him/his" and "she/her/her" pronouns where appropriate. Don’t use “one” as a pronoun – this sounds very old fashioned!