Overview
Guides
Welcome to the Sprinthub Content Style Guide
This style guide was created for Sprinthub employees, but we hope it’s helpful for other content and communications teams too. If you work at Sprinthub This is our company style guide.
Copyright and Trademarks
Copyright is a bundle of exclusive legal rights that vary depending on the type of work. A copyright owner can grant some or all of those rights to others through a license.
Creating Structured Content
At Sprinthub, we write 2 kinds of content: structured and unstructured. Most of our technical and educational documents are structured, following standardized content templates. These templates make both writing and reading easier.
Further Reading
We love these style guides: 18F Content Guide Buzzfeed Style Guide A List Apart Style Guide If you’re working on your own style guide, these resources were helpful to us:
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.
TL;DR
The Sprinthub Content Style Guide goes into depth on many subjects. It may be more information than you need. Here are the most important things to know. Principles Good content is:
Voice and Tone
One way we write empowering 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 Sprinthub.
Web Elements
Every piece of content we publish is supported by a number of smaller pieces. This section lays out our style in regards to these web elements, and explains our approach to the tricky art of SEO.
Word List
Standardized spellings These words can be slippery. Here’s how we write them. (If it’s not on this list, defer to the AP Style Guide.) add-on (noun, adjective), add on (verb) back end (noun), back-end (adjective) best seller (noun), best-selling (adjective) beta brick-and-mortar checkbox coworker click-through rate (CTR) cost per click double-click drop-down (noun, adjective), drop down (verb) e-commerce (the industry) ePub email (never hyphenate, never capitalize unless it begins a sentence) To name From name Reply-to name Subject line Cc, Bcc emoji (singular and plural) front end (noun), front-end (adjective) geolocation hashtag homepage integrate internet (never capitalize unless it begins a sentence) login (noun, adjective), log in (verb) Like (the social media activity) multichannel nonprofit OK omnichannel (use sparingly) online (never capitalize unless it begins a sentence) opt-in (noun, adjective) , opt in (verb) pay-per-click (PPC) pop-up (noun, adjective), pop up (verb) pre-sale product-market fit signup (noun, adjective), sign up (verb) sync third party (noun), third-party (adjective) tweet, retweet username URL website WiFi Words to use carefully We use plain language, which means avoiding industry jargon.
Writing About People
We write the same way we build apps: with a person-first perspective. 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.
Writing Blog Posts
Sprinthub blog posts are written by people from all over the company, not just those with “writer” or “marketer” in their job titles. We love having experts from around the company blog about their work.
Writing Email Newsletters
We send a lot of emails. But as devices shrink and the inbox evolves, our oldest tip is still the most important: Only send when you have something to say.
Writing for Accessibility
We’re always working to make our content more accessible and usable to the widest possible audience. Writing for accessibility goes way beyond making everything on the page available as text. It also affects the way you organize content and guide readers through a page.
Writing for Social Media
We use social media to build relationships with Sprinthub audience and share all the cool stuff we do. But it also creates opportunities to say the wrong thing, put off customers, and damage our brand.
Writing for Translation
Sprinthub shares content to thousand of subscribers in hundreds of countries and territories, not just the Nigeria. As our user base grows, it becomes more and more important that our content is accessible to people around the world.
Writing Goals and Principles
With every piece of content we publish, we aim to: Empower. Help people understand Sprinthub by using language that informs them and encourages them to make the most of our products.
Writing Technical Content
At Sprinthub, technical content appears primarily in our engineering blog, though the marketing lead may decide to move a technical content to our main blog. This section will lay out the guiding principles of technical content, discuss the main types of technical content, and outline the process of writing and editing technical articles.