These guidelines establish consistent rules for writing for and about De Gruyter – whether in a blog post, a tweet, a newsletter, a presentation, or an email. They serve as an introduction for new hires as well as a resource for quick reference. The guidelines are a living document, so if you feel something is missing, please let the Communications Team know.
Voice and tone
Like a person, De Gruyter always speaks with the same voice. Our tone, by contrast, can change depending on the context.
Think about how you might use one tone when having dinner with your friends, but a different one when meeting with a client for the first time.
Voice
De Gruyter's voice is professional and polite. It conveys our academic expertise and seriousness, but it is not conceited or stiff. It says: we are traditional but not stuffy.
Ideally, our voice is that of the professor you meet at a party who leaves a lasting impression not by bragging about her accomplishments, but by displaying sharp wit and understated elegance.
Tone
Because many of our customers are academics the best tone to use in most situations is sober and matter-of-fact. Avoid hyperbole and buzzwords. (Academics, skeptics by training, tend to bristle at advertising lingo). Don’t be shy about promoting a great new title, but stick to the facts and focus on communicating the value that our services and products have for our customers.
While we are serious, we don’t have to take ourselves seriously all the time. Depending on the context, we can let our sense of humor shine through, like we would in a direct conversation with an author or customer. Our humor should never feel forced or inappropriate.
General rules and advice
In general, use American English in international contexts.
When communicating with audiences in the United Kingdom or the Commonwealth, British English is an acceptable alternative.
Our preferred general style guide for external communications is the Associated Press Stylebook. Please consult it when in doubt. For a useful summary, please visit the following page on Associated Press Style.
WRITING ADVICE
- Use active voice. Avoid passive voice.
- Avoid slang or jargon. Write in plain English. It is ok to use academic language where appropriate, but always write as clearly as possible.
- Give examples and be specific. Provide compelling, vivid details. Show; don’t tell.
- Avoid chains of nouns; they are too dense to comprehend easily.
Writing for the web
People read texts on digital devices differently than they do print materials. Typically, digital users have a specific task in mind and scan for particular information. Studies estimate that on average people read no more than 28% of the words on a web page.
When developing site content, keep your users’ tasks in mind and write to ensure that you are helping them accomplish those tasks.
Make sure to stick to these rules:
- Use the words that users do.By using the keywords that users do, you help them understand the content while also optimizing it for search engines. For more on keyword optimized copy, see the following guide to SEO Copywriting.
- Chunk your content.Chunking breaks your content into sections and makes it easier to scan.
- Put the most important information first.Use the journalism model of the inverted pyramid. Start with the most important facts, and then provide the details.
- Use short sentences and paragraphs.The ideal standard is no more than 20 words per sentence and five sentences per paragraph.
- Use bullets and numbered lists.Don’t reserve these only for long lists—one sentence and two bullets are easier to read than three sentences.
- Use clear headlines and subheads.This helps users quickly find what they are looking for.
For more, see Writing for the Web.
Inclusivity and diversity
We use inclusive language to create an open culture that fosters diversity and communicate in a way that respects each individual’s experience.
Openness, mutual respect and esteem shapes the way we think and act. We see diversity as an essential component of a vibrant company culture.
De Gruyter Company Values
Gender
To be as inclusive as possible, use gender-neutral language and avoid language that assumes readers’ gender identity whenever possible.
Do not use “he” to refer to an unspecified single person.
Do: “All students completed the survey.”
Don’t: “Each student completed his survey.”
In newsletters, use gender neutral salutations whenever
possible.
Do: “Dear author” / “Dear Professor XY”
Don’t: “Dear Sir or Madam” / “Dear Ms. XY”
Grammar, punctuation, formatting
Please refer to the Associated Press Stylebook for questions related to issues that are not discussed in the following.
Abbreviations and acronyms
In general, avoid abbreviations and acronyms.
For common acronyms, first spell out the words followed by the acronym in parentheses. Then use the acronym in subsequent instances.
Write acronyms in all caps and without periods between the letters: USDA, not U.S.D.A.
Use “and” rather than “&” unless there is a compelling reason, such as when an ampersand is an official part of a proper name.
Bullet Lists
Treat all bulleted lists within a document consistently in terms of capitalization, punctuation and sentence structure. Do not use periods after each item in a list if the items are not complete sentences.
Capitalize the first word for each item in a list. Leave the rest in lower case.
Capitalization
Avoid unnecessary capitalization. Use lower case as much as possible.
Resist the tendency to capitalize words simply because they are deemed important.
In headlines, use sentence case.
Do: “Why digital archives matter to scholars and librarians”
Don’t: “Why Digital Archives Matter to Scholars and Librarians”
In texts, capitalize nouns that are specific.
Do: He works at the Faculty of Education.
Do: She works at a faculty of education.
Capitalize months and days of the week.
Do: This year my birthday, March 3, was on a Thursday.
Use capital letters for positions, job titles and degrees.
Do: “She is Senior Marketing Manager at De Gruyter.” “Bachelor of Science, Master of Arts”
Don’t: Capitalize academic disciplines, unless the discipline is part of an official degree title.
Do: “The collection includes perspectives from cultural studies and mathematics.” “She received her Master of Public Health from the University of Wisconsin.”
Do: “He holds a Ph.D. in history.”
Academic titles: Capitalize and spell out titles like professor, vice president, etc., only when they precede a name.
Do: Associate Professor John Smith.
Do: John Smith is an associate professor of chemistry.
Commas
Do not use a serial comma in simple series of nouns or noun phrases.
Do: Red, white and blue
Don’t: Red, white, and blue
Use a serial comma before the terminal conjunction in a complex series or in cases where the comma provides clarity and improves readability.
Do: De Gruyter publishes excellent books and journals for academic readers around the world, focuses on the humanities and social sciences, and is an early adopter of open access publishing.
Dates
Use the British English date format.
Do: 28 September 2020
Numbers
All numbering should follow the Associated Press Stylebook. Spell out whole numbers up to nine except when referring to purely numerical measures (e.g., 6 percent, $8). Use Arabic numerals for whole numbers greater than 9 except when they are located at the beginning of a sentence.
Hyperlinks
When adding hyperlinks, try to make the hyperlinked text descriptive of its destination and/or purpose. Use unique link titles for each destination. Provide only as many links as is necessary for users to complete their tasks rather than providing too many link options.
Do: Learn more on our digital events page.
Don’t: Learn more at:
https://cloud.newsletter.degruyter.com/DigitalEvents.
Don’t: To learn more about our digital events, click here.
Common Terms
A
APC, article processing charge
a.m., p.m. (lowercase with periods; include a space after the numeral: 10 a.m.) author focus
C
call for proposals
D
De Gruyter, not de Gruyter
E
email (not: e-mail)
ePub (not: e-pub)
eBook (not: e-book)
eJournal (not: E-Journal or ejournal)
F
flipping, journal flipping
G
gold open access
green open access
I
in-house memo
M
multi-volume edition/work
O
open access (not: Open Access) (not: open-access)
OA (not: oa)
P
Publisher Partner, Publisher Partner Program
R
reference works
W
Walter de Gruyter
Walter de Gruyter Foundation