Voice and Style

How to Write

When writing for Levelset, use the following messaging check-list. Make yourself a reminder card, and refer to it constantly when writing and publishing blog posts, emails, web copy, and other content.

1. Did you bury the lead? Start with the lead. Put what’s most important first.
2. Is the language simple? Write at a 5th grade reading level, and keep sentences short. Don’t try to be fancy about it. We don’t want to be pedantic, intellectual, or abstract.
3. Is the language concrete? Avoid abstract or analytical language. Stick to what’s tangible.
4. Are you being empathetic? Put yourself in the audience’s shoes.
5. Are stories specific & emotional? Tell a specific story, about a specific person’s specific experience. Tap into emotions, and avoid speaking in generalities.
6. Are you showing that we fight for our audience? Make sure our audience knows we’re on their side. Don’t be to intellectual or distanced.

Want more? See Scott’s language manifesto: We don’t say the wrong things, we speak the wrong language.

Cheat Sheet

Tone: Our voice does sound: helpful, informative, reliable, trustworthy, approachable, human, genuine. Our voice does not sound: pedantic, vague, abstract, generic, lawyery.

Useful, valuable information: Avoid fluff and unnecessary words and jargon.

Point of View: 3rd person (he / she / they) is the default, but occasionally it is ok to use the 2nd person (you) when referring to the reader.

Casual Language: Abbreviations and hyphenated word phrases (force-to-be-reckoned-with) are good. So are contractions.

Ready to Levelset your payments? Question prompts engage readers right out of the gate.

Grammar, punctuation, and all that jazz

Follow Associated Press (AP) best practices. Here are some specific tips and tricks to make it easy.

Contractions

Use them whenever possible. Why? Contractions help make us sound more conversational and approachable. Don't they?

Good Examples: won't, don’t, can’t, you’ve, you’ll, etc.

Ampersands

& is not a replacement for “and”. It can be used for compound subjects, like

Good Examples: “Press & Media” and “Team & Investors”

Bad Examples: He ordered a lien & asked about notices.

Commas

Use the Oxford Comma. This means that when you write a list, you should include a comma before the “and” and final list item.

Good Example: Levelset helps construction companies save time, reduce stress, and get paid what they earn.

Bad Example: Levelset helps construction companies save time, reduce stress and get paid what they earn.

Emojis

Emojis are a good option to use in personal communications via email. It's okay to use them from time to time in bulk communications like marketing emails and on social media, but be sensitive of overuse. Don’t use emojis on website pages or in the product.

Bullets

Bullets are a great tactic for making information clear and easier to digest. Avoid using periods at the end of bullet points unless each item is a complete sentence. Stay consistent within a section, i.e. all bullet points are complete sentences with periods, or none are.

Emphasis

You can emphasize a certain word of phrase with italics or bold. Don’t make something bold and italics at the same time. (this is a bad example)

You can also use a different font color to emphasize text. If text is emphasized with another font color, it should also be bold.

DON’T use capitalization for emphasis!

Never underline text for emphasis because it is perceived as a hyperlink. Underlines may be used for hyperlinks.

Limit use of emphasis to 2 types of emphasis per setting (paragraph, webpage, blog post, etc.). For example, it is ok for me to bold this for emphasis, and also make this italics if I want to emphasize them for different reasons, but then I have to stop.

Exclamation points (!) can be used in personal communications like messages and emails from the support team. When writing for web pages or mass communication, use exclamation points sparingly. Don’t drop an exclamation point at the end of a sentence in a desperate attempt to punch up otherwise dull verbiage! <-- forced

Headline Capitalization

Use Title Case Capitalization for Important Headlines

What is title case capitalization?

In titles, capitalize the first word, and important words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs). Unless it is the first word of the title, don’t capitalize articles, conjunctions, or short prepositions (at, by, from).

Don’t capitalize the following unless it’s the first word: an, the, but, a, in, out, over, under, this, that, those. Shortcut: If it answers “which one” or “where is it”, don’t capitalize (like this one, or the one in the other room)

Note that “is” is a verb! It should be capitalized in title case

When to use title case capitalization?

Use title case for major titles, like website pages.

Good Examples

• How to File a Mechanics Lien in Minnesota
• What Is a Certificate of Occupancy? (note that "is" is a verb and should therefore be capitalized)
• Try Scout Research for Free

Bad Examples

• How To File A Mechanics Lien In Minnesota ("to" and "a" should not be capitalized)
• What Is A Certificate Of Occupancy? ("a" and "of" should not be capitalized)
• Try Scout Research For Free ("for" should not be capitalized)
• Get what you earn on every job with our free tools ("what", "you", "earn", "every", "job", "our", "free", and "tools" should all be capitalized)

Use Sentence Case Capitalization for More Casual Headlines

What is sentence case capitalization?

Sentence case capitalization is when you treat text like a sentence. You capitalize the first word and proper nouns, but nothing else. Sentence case is more casual and approachable, and definitely simpler as a rule to follow.

When to use title case capitalization?

Use title case for more casual places like: blog post titles, headers within blog posts, community post titles, FAQs on resource pages

Good Examples

• How to file a mechanics lien in Minnesota
• What is a certificate of occupancy?