Content Writing Guidelines

Purpose

Standardize the voice and presentation of Countable’s content writing.

Scope

Provides general guidelines, formal standards, documentation on voice and specifics for blog writing.

Content Writing

This document standardizes the voice and presentation of Countable’s content writing. This may include:

• Blog posts
• Proposal writing
• Copy writing on countable.ca
• Copy writing on various Countable sites and products

Formal Standards

To ensure professional presentation, all writing under Countable’s name must:

• Be checked for grammar and spelling (if you are unsure of your grammar, please have another team member proofread)
• Appropriately credit any work/images/references other than our own
• When referencing Countable, use the domain countable.ca. And, use our simple logo glyph where possible.

Countable’s Voice

Countable’s priority is to be professional, approachable, and above all, useful to our reader. This means we:

• Use clear and direct language
• Avoid use of industry jargon and acronyms; if they’re used, provide definitions
• Avoid a “ranty” feel- always go for a positive approach
• Fact check any assertions made, particuarly technical ones - it’s important we maintain a reputation of being experts in our field
• Avoid spammy messaging trying to coerce or trick our reader into buying one of our products: our products should speak for themselves
• Where appropriate, we can mention our products and their usefulness

In addition to these guidelines, we strive to present a perspective that is:

• evidence-based
• informational
• data-driven (if specifically writing a tutorial or drawing on our expertise it should be especially data-driven)

Blog Writing

When writing blog posts for countable.ca or one of our other sites, please remember to:

• Consider the site’s user(s) and write “to” them:
  • Who are they?
  • What do they do?
  • What are their needs?
  • How can we help them?
• Blog posts are ideally between 200-500 words
• The more pictures, the better. If you can illustrate your points or advice with an image/screenshot, please do. Credit others’ work accordingly (in most cases, a link to their site or where you found the image will suffice).
• A blog’s voice can be friendly and conversational, so feel free to add some (classy) humour, rhetorical questions, anecdotal experience, etc. You can include your own voice as well as the overall tone of Countable (see above).

Resources for blog writing

Finally

If you have any questions, or good resources/tutorials, please contact Julie.

Please send your first few articles to Julie for review before posting.