The technical side of writing is what we call mechanics. Here, you’ll find all the information you need about everything from how to write numbers to the best practices of capitalisation. These rules might differ from the rules you’re used to in your native language, so check back here if you’re ever unsure.
Abbreviations
Don’t use full stops in abbreviations if an abbreviation consists of the first and last letters of a word. If the abbreviation consists of the first part of a word, use a period. Only use well-known abbreviations, making sure that the reader understands them.
Do: Dr Smith
Don’t: Dr. Smith
Do: incl.
Don’t: incl
Acronyms and initials
The first time you use an acronym in a text, place it in parentheses after the full version of the phrase. After that, just use the acronym.
Do: Akersgata 55 (A55)
Don’t: A55
Brands
We write our brands’ names as they do. We are here to support them.
Do: FINN.no
Don’t: Finn
Do: SvD
Don’t: SVD
Capitalisation
Always capitalise the first word for all headings, subheadings and publication titles (sentence case). Use initial capitals for proper nouns (names of people, specific places and things).
Do: This is a correctly written sentence.
Don’t: This Is Not Correctly Written.
When writing out titles of people or teams, capitalise all words in the title if the title is usually abbreviated. For very long titles, avoid capitalisation to make the reading experience easier.
Do: Kristin Skogen Lund, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Schibsted.
Don’t: Kristin Skogen Lund, Chief executive officer of Schibsted.
Do: John Doe, Head of Finance.
Don’t: John Doe, head of finance.
Do: Jane Doe, learning and development lead consultant, global financial markets.
Don’t: Jane Doe, Learning and Development Lead Consultant, Global Financial Markets.
We also capitalise names of teams and divisions in Schibsted.
Do: News Media
Don’t: News media
Do: Financial Services and Ventures
Don’t: Financial services and ventures
Do: Product and Tech
Don’t: Product and tech
Do: Learning Lab
Don’t: Learning lab
We don’t capitalise phenomena, even if they are sometimes abbreviated.
Do: artificial intelligence
Don’t: Artificial Intelligence
Do: user experience
Don’t: User Experience
Contractions
Use contractions when suitable, Schibsted is a family and our tone is more often than not casual.
Do: It’s
Don’t: It is.
Do: We’ll
Don’t: We will.
Dates and times
When writing dates, always put the day before the month. In English, the first letter of the month is always capitalised. Don’t use double digits for single-digit dates.
Do: 31 December 2022
Don’t: December 31 2022
Do: 31/12/2022
Don’t: 12/31/2022
Do: 1 January
Don’t: 01 January
Dates can also be written as spoken, using the last two letters of their written form (th, rd, st, nd).
Do: The new year starts on the 1st of January.
But make sure to use the correct abbreviations.
Do: 1st
Don’t: 1th
Do: 2nd
Don’t: 2st
When writing about time, use the 24-hour clock as your first choice. You can use “am” and “pm” for global texts, but make sure to use the same style throughout your text. If you choose to use “am” and “pm”, always write them in lower case. Timezones are written in capital letters.
Do: 13:00 CET
Don’t: 13:00 cet
Do: 01:00 pm CET
Don’t: 01:00 PM CET
When using am and pm, remember that am comes from “ante meridiem”, translating to “before midday” and pm comes from “post meridiem” translating to “after midday.”
Monetary measurements
Use the correct abbreviations for currencies, for example, NOK, SEK and USD. When writing out millions, billions, etc, use lowercase or the correct abbreviations: thousands (k), million (m) and billion (bn).
Do: USD 4 million
Don’t: 4 million USD
Do: USD 4m
Don’t: 4 USD m
Numbers
Write cardinal numbers (one, two, three) as words up until twelve, but from 13 and on, use digits. When using ordinal numbers (first, second, third), opt to write them as words instead of abbreviations unless you’re writing dates.
Do: We’ve invited three speakers to the event.
Don’t: We’ve invited 3 speakers to the event.
Do: We believe we’ll have over 50 attending the event.
Don’t: We believe we’ll have over fifty attending the event.
Do: This is the first event of the year.
Don’t: This is the 1st event of the year.
Do: The event will take place on the 1st of March.
Don’t: The event will take place on the first of March.
If you’re starting your sentence with a non-decimal number, write it as a word or re-write the sentence.
Do: Two hundred people showed up at the event.
Don’t: 200 people showed up at the event.
Do: Despite our initial estimate, 200 people showed up at the event.
Don’t: Despite our initial estimate, two hundred people showed up at the event.
Number formats
Use English number formatting (1,000,000 – one million; 10.3 – ten point three). Don’t use decimal points unless the number is less than 10 million. Use (-) for negative figures (SEK -16 million), but don’t use + before positive figures (an increase of SEK 6m)
Do not use parentheses () for negative figures.
Do: 1,222.33
Don’t: 1 222,33 / 1222,33 / 1.222,33
Quotations
When writing in English, use quotation marks for direct speech, not dashes. Put commas, periods, exclamation marks and question marks inside the quotation marks.
Do: “This event was great,” they said.
Don’t: “This event was great”, they said.
Don’t: – This event was great, they said.
Symbols
Use the per cent sign (%) after a figure (revenues increased 10%), without a space before. If you, for some reason, aren’t able to use the %-sign, write out per cent, not percent
Avoid &, +, $, =, @ in text. Use words (and, plus, USD, equals, at).
Do: 300%
Do: 300 per cent
Don’t: 300 %
Don’t: 300 percent
Text styling
When formatting text, you may use bold and italics sparingly. Avoid these text stylings in longer texts like news articles and press releases. Bold and italics are more appropriate in text like fact sheets, guides, lists, etc. Don’t use underline except for hyperlinks.
Use bold to emphasise a word or phrase
Do: Our revenue this quarter was up by millions compared to last year.
Don’t: Our revenue this quarter was up by millions compared to last year.
Use italics for names of books and periodicals, including newspapers and reports or documents.
Do: The company’s revenue skyrocketed last quarter, according to The New York Times.
Don’t: The company’s revenue skyrocketed last quarter, according to The New York Times.