Style guide

CoverMyMeds’ preferred dictionary is merriam-webster.com. In MW, the first spelling of a word should generally be used (unless it appears in the Word List below or is preferred by the Associated Press Stylebook).

Our preferred style manual is the AP Stylebook. Generally, AP Style trumps MW, but any style point mentioned in this guide overrules those publications.

The following style guide callouts are where we might differ from MW or AP:

Capitalization

Capitalize proper names, geographic terms, historic episodes, and words derived from proper nouns.
Don't use ALLCAPS unless you are writing an acronym.
Use lowercase for cardinal directions.
Capitalize titles preceding names, but use lowercase after names.
Example: Marketing Manager Jane Doe; Jack Doe, marketing manager
Use lowercase for all job descriptions that are not exact titles.
Example: Engineering head Jackie Doe will be leading the meeting.
Use all lowercase when writing out an email address or website URL.
Capitalize the word "room" only when used with the number of the room.
Example: The panel will be held in Room 315.
Both inside and outside of quotations, Doctor, Governor, Representative, and Senator should be abbreviated.
Avoid capitalizing words like "federal" or "state" unless the word is part of a formal name.

Punctuation

Apostrophes

When making a possessive from a noun ending in -s, use only an apostrophe.
Pluralize an acronym by adding -s.
Example: These VIPs have early access.

Ampersands

Don't use an ampersand (&) unless it's used in a brand name.
Example: The top sponsor was PG&E.
Don't use '+' to mean 'and'.

Contractions

Use contractions for common phrases.
Example: Registration doesn't open until tomorrow.

Colons and semicolons

Use a colon (rather than ellipses, dashes or commas) when introducing a list, or when introducing two related phrases.
Use semicolons sparingly. Consider using an em dash or starting a new sentence.

Commas

Don't use the Oxford or serial comma when writing lists.
Example: We value strong communication skills, bias for action and experience in SaaS.

Dashes and hyphens

Use an em dash (—) to offset an aside.
Use spaces before and after em dashes.
Use a hyphen (-) to join together compound words or modifiers.
Example: Their go-to-market strategy was a huge success.

Ellipses

Don't use ellipses, except to indicate missing words in quoted text or to indicate hesitation in speech or thought.
Example: Hmm ... something went wrong.
Use spaces before and after the ellipses.

Exclamation marks

Use exclamation marks sparingly.
Don't use multiple exclamation marks.

Parentheses

Use parentheses to provide examples or introduce an acronym.
Example: The attendees were representative of the industry as a whole (marketers, engineers, designers, etc).
When using an acronym, introduce it in parentheses on first mention.
Example: Our most important metric is CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score).
Don’t introduce common acronyms (e.g. CEO).

Percentages

With numerals, use % instead of spelling out 'percent.'
Example: Let’s do this 100% of the time.

Periods

Don't use periods in headlines and headings, except in instances with two complete sentences.
Don't use periods at the end of subheads.
Use periods in common country acronyms.

Quotation marks

Use smart quotes instead of straight quotes.
Quotes in headlines and subheads should be enclosed by single quotation marks.
Nested quotes should be enclosed by single quotation marks.
Punctuation goes within the quotation marks when it's part of the quoted material.

Date & time

Currencies and money

For currencies, use the symbol-amount format without spaces in between.
Example: $10,000; €5.50
Don't use periods in currency abbreviations.
Example: USD, not U.S.D.
Write out million, billion, and trillion in full.
Example: $5 million
When writing out a monetary value, use commas to separate millions and thousands and decimal points to separate units and subunits.
Example: $1,000.50

Dates, months, and years

For short dates, use MM/DD/YYYY (without leading zeros).
Example: 12/25/1905 or 3/9/2019
For long dates, use Month DD, YYYY (without leading zeros).
Example: December 25, 1905
When including the day of the week in a date, place a comma after the day.
Example: Friday, December 25
Include the day of the week if using for events. Abbreviate only if there are space constraints.
Example: Christmas dinner will be Tuesday, December 25
To abbreviate days of the week, use longer abbreviations.
Example: Mon, Tues, Weds, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun
Don't use ordinal suffixes on dates.
Example: December 1, January 3, October 5

Time and timezones

Write A.M. and P.M. in lowercase, include a space after the hour, and use periods between the letters.
Example: 9 a.m.
For times on the hour, don't include minutes.
Example: 7 PM, not 7:00 PM
Always specify time zone when including a time.
Example: 'EST', 'CST', 'MST', or 'PST'
Spell out noon and midnight.
Example: Join our webinar tomorrow at noon PST.

Numbers, fractions, and units

Spell out a number when it begins a sentence.
Example: Twelve days are left until the end of the quarter.
Always spell out numbers 0-9.
Use commas to separate thousands and millions in large numbers (and periods to separate units from subunits).
Example: 1,000
For telephone numbers, use parentheses for area codes, and a hyphen between the final two sets of numbers.
Example: (415) 400-5299
Always use a country code with phone numbers.
For units of measure, don't leave a space between between the number and the unit, use lowercase letters, and don't use punctuation.
Example: 25kg
When writing a decimal, include a leading zero before the decimal point.

Social Media

Don't use 'at' before the @ symbol.
Example: Follow us @Writer.
Don't use the word 'hashtag' followed by the # symbol.
Example: Follow #contentai for best practices.
Use camel case in hashtags.
Example: #ContentStrategy