At Five Star CAM, writing is an extension of our vision to create a seamless, enjoyable, and memorable user experience. These are the guidelines we’ve put together for copywriting at Five Star CAM.

Voice and Tone Overview

The Five Star CAM voice is an important part of our brand, and one that helps convey both personality and intent. Our goal is to create engaging copy and content which informs, guides, and relays information clearly and concisely. Our writing is an extension of who we are as a company, so it’s always direct, informative, and human. On occasion, we may include wit, puns, or satire. However, we always maintain a professional tone.

Copywriting Principles

These principles help us uphold Five Star CAM’s voice and tone, and align our copy across various channels. This ultimately leads to better, more cohesive experiences for those who interact with our brand. Our copywriting principles are as follows:

Be clear, leaving no doubt in the reader’s mind about what’s been said

Be authoritative, offering guidance and knowledge, where needed

Be human and approachable

Be professional and respectful of all readers

Be fun, where appropriate (we suggest reserving “fun” copy for marketing materials, social media posts, advertisements, newsletters, etc.)

It should go without saying, but it’s worth stating that offensive, demeaning, rude, unprofessional, or inappropriate language is never acceptable. This includes political comments, slang, profanity, name-calling, or anything else that would be unacceptable to send in a company-wide email

Emojis

Emojis should be used sparingly, and only in the right context. They could be thoughtfully included in customer emails, product emails, newsletters, social media announcements, or other customer communication in which something exciting is being shared or announced. They could even be considered for rare use in a product release or blog post. However, we never use an emoji in place of a word or phrase in a sentence.

The Five Star CAM Name

We avoid using our brand name, Five Star CAM, as a verb or creating words that include it because it's trademarked. For example, we don't say "Five Star CAMing” or "Five Star CAMmed.

Stylization

We most closely (but do not directly) follow the Associated Press Stylebook, and use the Oxford Comma. For spelling, use the first entry for a word in the Merriam-Webster online dictionary unless otherwise noted.

Dates and Times

Guidelines for how we present dates and times:

Always capitalize “AM” and “PM,” as in: 9:30 AM

Do not use :00 for times at the top of the hour: 9 AM | 11 PM

For time spans, use an en dash: 9:30 AM - 2 PM PDT

For default display, follow numbers with a space: 7 AM, 10:30 PM

In text, use the same format: Taking place on October 7 from 8:30 AM to 1 PM EDT

Job Titles

Guidelines for how we present job titles:

Always capitalize job titles

Abbreviate CEO, CFO, COO, CTO, VP, Sr.

Don’t abbreviate uncommon job titles, like Chief Technical Operations Officer

Capitalize Founder and Co-Founder

Punctuation

In running text, we use standard punctuation (though we avoid using exclamation points). Phrase-length headers, sub-headers, buttons, and links should not have any punctuation. Headers and sub-headers that form full sentences should use punctuation. Unconventional punctuation (e.g. periods at the end of a phrase, “Meet Five Star CAM.”) are sometimes acceptable within marketing materials. We never use punctuation within buttons or links.

Symbols

We usually write out "and" instead of using the symbols "&" or "+". Sometimes we may use these symbols in headings or footers. We use the Oxford comma in regular text, but only sometimes in headings and sub-headings. However, we recommend avoiding long headings that require the Oxford comma. Lastly, we always put punctuation marks like periods inside quotation marks. For example, we write "It just works.” instead of “It just works".

Example:

Instead of writing "I like apples & oranges", we write "I like apples and oranges".

In a regular sentence, we write "I bought apples, oranges, and bananas" instead of "I bought apples, oranges and bananas".

In a heading, we can write "Our Products: Apples, Oranges, and Bananas” or "Our Products: Apples, Oranges, and Bananas” (with or without the Oxford comma).

We write “He said, 'I like you.'" instead of "He said, ‘I like you'".

Em Dashes (—)

When using em dashes, we insert space around them to denote emphasis or drama. In most cases, em dashes can — and should — be replaced by commas. We sparingly use em dashes.

En Dashes (-)

We avoid using en dashes in nearly all writing. We use them sparingly, if at all. There is nearly always a better way to express a thought or sentiment without an en dash.

Hyphens

Guidelines for when we use hyphens:

For compound nouns that may not be read as one thought (e.g. merry-go-round)

For some prefixes and suffixes (e.g. ex-girlfriend)

To avoid confusion between cognates (e.g. He wants to re-create the mural at the recreation center)

I’m To avoid having two vowels in a

WeNo(e.g. anti-ice windshield)

For dates (e.g. January 22 - 25)

Typography

At Five Star CAM, we exclusively use the Raleway family of fonts.

Pronoun

An overview of acceptable pronouns for use within Five Star CAM’s copy:

1st person plural (we, us, our, ourselves)

1st person singular (I, me, my, mine, myself): These pronouns should only be considered for use in communication directly from an individual member of the team

2nd person singular (you): “You” is an acceptable way to address readers in our copy

3rd person plural (they, them, theirs, themselves)

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