There are people who think that publishing on the Web is an excuse to ignore style considerations and throw caution to the wind, but we at NowPublic disagree. We're not naive enough to think you'll pour over this with a fine-tooth comb and observe every letter of the law, but we can't help ourselves - we have to try. So, in the name of grammarians and typo-busters everywhere, here goes.

Abbreviations

First mention: Unless the abbreviation/acronym is commonly known, spell out the complete term the first time it appears in the text, then show the abbreviation or acronym within parentheses. Example: The Department of Transportation (DoT) is responsible for roads and highways. The DoT’s budget was slashed this year.

Periods: Do not use periods in acronyms.Example: NATO, UNESCO, RCMP, US, UK, NY, etc.

Plural: To form the plural of an acronym, use a lowercase “s” without an apostrophe. Example: One DVD, several DVDs.

Bolding

Bolding should be used in subheadings only. Do not bold keywords or other random words in copy.

Capitalization

Title case: Use title-case capitalization (capitalize everything but prepositions, conjunctions, posts and forms of to be) for article titles, subtitles and subheadings. (See: Capitalization under Adverbs/Prepositions/Conjunctions)

Nouns: Do not capitalize random nouns in body copy.Example: INCORRECT – The Government office was never open. CORRECT – The government office was never open.

Italics

Titles: Use italics to highlight titles of books, magazines, CDs, movies, video games, song titles and report titles. Put article titles in double quotations marks.

Links

Anchor text: Always embed links in anchor text. Use the globe and chain icon on the toolbar to embed URLs.

Example: INCORRECT -- No wonder Zürich was named the city with "the best quality of living" and "the wealthiest city in Europe" for the third year in a row at http://www.monocle.com/Magazine/volume-3/Issue-25/. CORRECT -- No wonder Zürich was named by Monocle Magazine as the city with "the best quality of living" and "the wealthiest city in Europe" for the third year in a row.

Lists

Bullets and Numbers: Render bulleted and numbered lists using the icons on the NowPublic upload form body window toolbar. The first word in all list items should be capitalized if the line is a full sentence, otherwise lowercase. List items should only end with a period if they comprise a complete sentence, otherwise a semi-colon. End the last item in the list with a period regardless.

Voice

Avoid first-person point of view (“I,” “we” or “our”) and instead use the third-person voice.

Avoid using the passive voice whenever possible and instead rephrase so the subject comes before the verb. Example: ACTIVE: You can divide your documents into as many sections as you want. PASSIVE: Your document can be divided into as many sections as you want.

British/Canadian vs American Spelling

Use local spelling of words according to a writer’s country of residence (ie: favour vs. favor).