Voice and tone

Written work published as SYPartners (excludes client work or personal writing, for example) should convey a consistent voice, of which the five most essential qualities are:


Human

We sound like a real person. For most audiences, we use simple language in favor of jargon.

Positive

We are optimistic and forward-thinking, despite the daunting challenges we may face.

Composed

We always present as calm. Though we may be emotional, we rarely use exclamation points.

Expert

We know what we’re talking about, and refrain from making comments when we don’t. We communicate confidently and professionally, and do not use slang. (Excludes social media.)

Helpful

We focus on the actionable, “so what?” takeaways in order to share knowledge.

 
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Grammar

SYPartners uses Chicago-style grammar rules and usage. (For client work, please adhere to your client’s editorial style.) Below are a few commonly confused guidelines:

  • Serial comma (aka Oxford comma) In a list of three or more, use a comma after every item unless it ends the sentence.

  • Possessive apostrophe SYPartners’ beliefs. Jonas’s pencil.

  • Periods on bulleted items Use a period if the bulleted text is a complete sentence.

  • The em dash “The em dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.” –The Elements of Style, William Strunk Jr.

    Make sure you’re using a true em dash—not an en dash, which should be used to denote ranges (e.g. January–May), or a hyphen, used to join two words in a compound (e.g. decision-making). Do not use spaces around the em dash.

  • Colons Use lowercase after a colon unless what follows consists of two or more complete sentences.

  • Sentence casing. In slide titles, in callouts, in bullet points, always use sentence-casing (capitalize the first word, and proper nouns, only.)

    Examples:
    (On a slide) “Our vision for 2020”
    (In a bulleted list) • Culture-change strategy