These are common words we use and how we say them

• After school (not afterschool or after-school)
• User-generated content (not user generated content)
• You can say “UGC” after you’ve written it out the first time.
• Add-ons (not add ons)
• Drop-ins (not drop ins)
• Sawyer for Business (not Sawyer Tools). You can also say, in your Sawyer for Business portal.
• In help center articles, bold and capitalize the names of buttons or sections the user will click. For example: “Click on Semesters, then go to the drop down menu.”

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Here are some grammar rules when writing for Sawyer

• For titles, no initial capping (always use sentence case)
• No need to capitalize after a number when you start a sentence. For example: “100% this is okay.”
• Use they/them/their (not he/she or his/hers)
• Sawyer is smart software (not Sawyer has smart software)

When writing about families

• When discussing attendees for an activity, refer to children and adults (not parents)
• We use “children” or “little ones” (not kids)

When writing about providers

• We use the terms “customers” and “clients” interchangeably
• If you’re writing about a subset of people, be specific. For example: refer to “instructors”, “business owners”, or ”employees”.

Writing for UI

• The correct spelling should be “add-ons” and “drop-ins” — they should be hyphenated.
• The correct spelling should be “cancelled” and “cancellation” — using two Ls.
• The correct spelling should be “Camp/Event” — both are capitalized and there’s no space between them.
• The correct spelling is “Check In” and “Check Out” — capitalized and not hyphenated.
• The correct spelling is “COVID-19”
• The correct spelling is “check” — not “cheque”
• The correct spelling for stepper buttons are “Go Back” and “Save & Continue”

Writing dates & times

• Date format should be “June 14, 2020”.
• Shortened date should display “MM/DD/YYYY”.
• Time format should be “9:00 am” and “9:00 am EST” for displaying timezones — using lower case “am” and uppercase “EST”.
• Date and time format should be “June 14, 2020 | 9:00 am”.
• Date + time range should display “June 14, 2020 | 9:00 – 10 am”.

Date range formatting

• “June 14 – 16, 2020” for same month.
• “June 14 – August 3, 2020” for different months.
• “June 14, 2020 – February 2, 2020” for different years.
• “Week of January 6, 2020” for weekly ranges.

Time range formatting

• “2:00 – 2:45 pm” for timespans in the afternoon or morning only.
• “11:00 am – 12:45 pm” for timespans across morning and afternoon.
• Time increments should display as hours and minutes.

Numbers

• Phone numbers should display as “(915) 423-4293”.
• Dollar amounts should be displayed as “$120.00”.
• Dollar per year should be displayed as “$120/year” — using a rounded integer.
• Dollar empty state should be displayed as “$ – –” — Notice that the “$” has a space between the two en dashes.
• Ages are displayed  “7 yrs” and “(7 yrs)” — with years abbreviated as “yrs”.
• Counts should be displayed as “Waitlist (3 / 12)” — note the space between the numbers.
• Orders are displayed “Order #23410” — note no space between the “#” and number.

Age ranges are displayed

• “7 – 12 yrs” for years only.
• “3 – 9 mo” for months only.
• “3 mo – 12 yrs” for months and years.

Exceptions

• We do not capitalize the product type after “Free”. For example, we say “Free classes”. (could also be “Free memberships”, etc).
• We do not capitalize “classes” when referring to “Adult classes”
• We don’t hyphenate ”Logged out state“
• We do hyphenate “Multi-day”
• We do hyphenate “Camp-by-week”.

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