Voice & Tone

Grammar

Following the rules of grammar help to make our copy clear, consistent, and easy to understand. Proper grammar also avoids embarrassment and loss of trust from our users.

Active voice vs. passive voice

When possible, always use the active voice. When in active voice, the subject of the sentence performs the action. When in passive voice, the subject of the sentence has the action performed to it. Active voice is direct, shorter, and oftentimes clearer to read. Passive voice is a softer and more round-about way of saying things.

Active voice

Jane deployed the email.

Passive voice

The email was deployed by Jane.

When passive voice is acceptable:

  • To avoid referring to yourself, the system, or Epsilon / PeopleCloud
  • When the action is more important than the subject who is performing it
    • For example; when stating that an email is approved, the action of approval is considered more important than the approver (the subject)

Contractions

Our tone is professional, but matter-of-fact. Using contractions allows for a more conversational tone and keeps our products from seeming too formal or robotic. Contractions also save space and reading time.

Avoid awkward or antiquated contractions such as:

  • mustn't
  • shan't
  • that'll
  • you'd
  • would've
  • you'd've
  • needn't
  • who've
  • gotta
  • gonna
  • should've
  • it'd

Punctuation

Punctuation is a small but important part of proper language. Without consistent punctuation patterns, our product copy would look unprofessional, sloppy, and amateurish.

Oxford (serial) comma

Always use the Oxford comma when writing lists of three items or more.

Do

Without consistent punctuation patterns, our product copy would look unprofessional, sloppy, and amateurish.

Don't

Without consistent punctuation patterns, our product copy would look unprofessional, sloppy and amateurish.

Hyphens and ranges

Use hyphens when writing about ranges of things.

Example

  • Monday-Friday
  • 9am-5pm

Em dashes

Use em dashes to link two separate thoughts or pieces of information together in one sentence. Em dashes are used both in sentences and also in labels, if a label requires extra related information. Always insert a space before and after the em dash.

Example

Last three months — May 1-Aug 4, 2020

Ellipses

Use ellipses sparingly. They should only be used to signify a text overflow.

Example

This is an example of a description that is too long and overflows…

Periods

Use periods to end sentences. Use a single space between the period and the first letter of the next sentence.

Exclude periods in these situations:

  • Inline error messages that are one sentence
  • List items that are one sentence
  • Option descriptions that are one sentence
  • Helper text in certain situations

Case Guidelines

We use two cases when writing for Epsilon products. Knowing which case to use depends on the situation. One thing's for sure, though, never use all caps.

Title case

Title case is the case that is least used out of the two. In general, use the following rules when writing in title case:

Capitalize

  • The first word in the title
  • The last word in the title
  • The important words in the title
  • Adjectives (tiny, large, etc.)
  • Adverbs (quietly, smoothly, etc.)
  • Nouns (tablet, kitchen, book)
  • Pronouns (they, she, he)
  • Subordinating conjunctions (as, so, that)
  • Verbs (write, type, create)

Do not capitalize

  • Articles (a, an, the)
  • Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for)
  • Short words (less than 5 letters)
  • Prepositions (at, by, from)

When to use title case:

  • Button text
  • Field and dropdown text
  • Titles
  • H1 and H2 headers
  • Tab text

Sentence case

Sentence case is the most used case. It is the easiest case to scan quickly. When writing in sentence case, only capitalize the first letter of the sentence.

When to use sentence case:

  • H3 and H4 headers
  • Placeholder text
  • Checkbox options
  • Radio button options
  • Select options
  • All other ancillary text