chasem.co

  • Sentence case by default.
  • When creating a link, don’t include the terminal punctuation.
  • When creating a link, ensure the text describes the action of clicking the link or the destination of the link.
  • Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks for complete sentences; otherwise it goes outside, in the UK style.
  • Oxford comma: This, that, and the other.
  • Em dashes: Format them—like this—with no spaces on either side.
  • En Dashes: Used to denote a range, such as January 10–16.
  • An affect is a cause (and a verb) and an effect is a consequence (and a noun). Affects create effects.
  • Bulleted lists
    • Introduce a bulleted list with a colon. For example, There are a number of things to keep in mind when writing a style guide: … Capitalize the first letter of the first word of each bulleted item. Bulleted items must be parallel in construction. End bulleted sentences with periods (not semicolons or commas), and do not punctuate the end of fragments.
  • If ‘however’ is used to separate clauses, then it needs to be preceded with a semicolon: “I planned to get work done before the concert; however, I didn’t have time.”
  • Titles of books, periodicals, movies, etc. in plain text rather than italics.

Common words and phrases

  • Email
  • E-book
  • Website
  • Web page
  • “In regard to”, not “in regards to”
  • Homepage
  • Cutting-edge as an adjective, cutting edge as a noun

Generally, a link should start its anchor with the verb that immediately precedes the main subject of the linked content and continue until the end of the clause.

✅ In his book on the stock market, Mr. Dreger wrote about the fall of the 2008 market.

✅ In his book on the stock market, Mr. Dreger wrote about the fall of the 2008 market.

Avoid linking to entire sentences or independent clauses. These run-on links are both aesthetically unappealing and sloppy markup.

❌ In his book on the stock market, Mr. Dreger wrote about the fall of the 2008 market.

❌ In his book on the stock market, Mr. Dreger wrote about the fall of the 2008 market.

In certain situations, especially when linking to definitions or individual works like movies, books, or music, anchor the link as closely to the subject as possible:

✅ While looking up dictionary terms, Mr. Dreger came across the term onomatopoeia.

✅ The reviews for “La La Land” are out.

FAQs

Should I use a comma between two modifiers?

This is wrong:

Render a simple, horizontal rule with the divider component.

If you flipped these around to “horizontal, simple rule” it wouldn’t carry the same meaning, so we know these aren’t actually two interchangeable modifiers—“simple” describes the whole phrase “horizontal rule”—so we don’t need a comma

Resources