Grammar and Mechanics

We spell out unusual acronyms the first time we use them and put the acronym in parentheses alongside it. From then on, we use solely the acronym. (Exception: if an acronym is commonly used by the users, there's no need to write it out.)

For time zones, we use the two-letter format with a space preceding the acronym.

When writing in an active voice, the subject of a sentence performs the action. Use active voice by default. Using an active voice helps our product sound more conversational.

When writing in a passive voice, the subject of the sentence receives the action. (Tip: words like “was” and “by” often indicate a passive voice.)

Passive voice can be helpful when we want to:

We abbreviate addresses as much as possible:

Text alternatives (alt-text) should be written for several types of non-text content:

UX copy for text alternatives should follow specific guidelines:

For headings and CTAs, we may use ampersands to stay within a hard character limit. We don't use ampersands in full sentences or after commas.

We use asterisks to show if a field is required.

We use sentence casing for most user-facing content, including:

Exception: We use Title Casing for fully branded product names.

Tip: Use this handy capitalization tool to double-check your case work.

We use colons to introduce bulleted lists, numbered lists, and lists within a sentence. We don’t use them to introduce radio buttons or checkboxes. We don’t capitalize the first word after a colon.

We use contractions to sound conversational and save space. That said, avoid using conditional contractions (examples: could’ve, should’ve, would’ve) as they’re more difficult to understand.

Use hyphens to connect two or more words that should be understood together. Don’t hyphenate the word “very” and most words that end in -ly.

En dashes are used in ranges and shouldn’t have spaces on either side.

Use em dashes to separate words in a compound adjective or phrase. We don’t use em dashes to separate words in a compound noun.

Use em dashes to:

We don’t use e.g. or i.e. because they can increase cognitive load. Instead, we use the actual words (like replacing “e.g.” with “example” or “like”).

We only use ellipses for truncation.

We rarely use emojis and only when the tone is celebratory. We don’t use them more than once per page and never to replace a word.

It’s easy to overuse exclamation marks, so we only use them in moments of celebration (but never more than once per page).

In the product, default to using the first-person plural when referencing Thumbtack.

We sometimes use the third-person when referencing Thumbtack in:

Using the right header tags helps people scan the information on their screens quickly so they can move forward with their tasks. Here are some best practices for using header tags:

Link (hyperlink) text should be meaningful. It should specifically describe the destination of the link. Don't link punctuation if the CTA is inline at the end of a sentence.

Improve readability by breaking up large chunks of text into lists. We follow this guidance:

We use an Oxford (or serial) comma to break up a series of three or more elements.

We stick to the following guidance:

Round to the nearest dollar amount in:

Use the entire dollar amount (including cents) to:

Whenever possible, we spell out dates instead of using the numerical format. We only use shorthand if there’s a restricted character limit.

Use the format (xxx) xxx-xxx. Whenever possible, the phone number should be linked.

We stick to the following guidance:

Periods should only be used at the end of complete sentences. Avoid using periods in headers (so try to change full sentences into phrases).

We never use semicolons. Use an em dash instead or consider rewriting the sentence.

We occasionally use bolding to emphasize a point or to refer to navigation (example: By selecting Continue you agree to these terms of use.)

We don’t use italics in the product, but italics are used in help center content.

We only underline links.

We don’t use strikethrough text as it isn’t accessible.