Writing conventions
First vs. second. vs third person
Ideally, avoid personal pronouns. Propel is an app and a company. Propel shares content from state governments, nonprofits, and Marketplace ads.
All of these entities can make it confusing when we’re thinking about who’s who!
However, if we do use personal pronouns, we use the first-person, and refer to Propel as “we” and “our”. For Marketplace specifically, partner ads are not allowed to use first-person for this reason.
Acronyms & initialisms
Avoid acronyms and initialisms whenever you can.
If necessary, introduce the full name or phrase with the acronym or initialism in parentheses (e.g. "Child Tax Credit (CTC)") upon first use. Then, use the acronym or initialism throughout the rest of that flow, email, etc.
Bulleted lists
Only use punctuation if a bullet has two sentences. Make sure bulleted lists have parallel structure (e.g., they all start with nouns). Use 3 bullets max.
- Protection for up to 6 pets
- Unlimited 24/7 text or video vet care
- $3,000/year for bills
- Protection for up to 6 pets
- Get unlimited 24/7 text or video vet care
- It’s been 60 years of SNAP
- Fourth bullet
Italics. vs. bold vs. underline
Do not use italics. If you want to emphasize something, use the “BodyEmphasized” type style. Use the “Link” text style for in-line links. This will underline them automatically.
Your Providers Card is not an EBT card
Visit propel.app for more
Your Providers Card is not an EBT card
Visit propel.app for more
Contractions
Use common contractions most of the time.
Don’t use contractions when we want to stress a critical distinction.
You’re, we’ll, can’t, don’t, isn’t
It’s (it is), its (possessive)
They’re (they are), their (possessive)
Should've, could’ve, mustn’t, it’ll
Your Providers Card is not an EBT card.
Time & time stamps
Use lowercase am/pm. For time ranges, use an en dash (–) (Option, -) without spaces.
Use ET, MT, CT, and PT. Don’t use “D” or “S” in the middle.
9–11am / 9am–12pm
11am ET
The SSA office is open from 9am–5pm
9 AM to 5 PM
5 PM EST
The SSA office is open from 9 - 5 PM daily
Hawaii: HST
Alaska: HST in winter, HDT in summer
Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico: AST
Guam: CHST
Numbers
Using numerals vs. spelling out numbers is somewhat contextual. Generally, for UI content, stick with numerals. It saves space. Use “K” for “thousand” and “M” for “million”.
The 1st of the month
I have 4 children
Updated 4 days ago
$40K
The first of the month
I have four children
Updated four days ago
$40k
Three women live there. (starts a sentence)
Third-party data (phrase or idiom)
Take the first step (phrase or idiom)
Dates
There are various ways to display dates depending on the surface you’re writing for and how much space you have. Shorten months as follows: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec. Use shorthand MM/DD/YYYY. Shorten “month” as “mo.”
Thursday, August 5
August 5-9, 2024 (range)
Thurs, Aug 5 (limited space)
12/01/1994
12/1/94 (limited space)
Thursday, August 5th
August 5th - 9th, 2024
Thurs, Aug. 5th
Phone numbers
10-digit: (XXX) XXX-XXXX (use a hyphen)
3-digit: XXX
(914) 123-4567
911
914 123 4567
914-123-4567
9-1-1