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Content writing guidelines

Applicable to all content

These guidelines apply to all content written for eclean, including documentation, blog posts, and other materials.

If you're writing content for a public or private eclean platform, you should follow these guidelines to ensure consistency and quality.

We have a set of guidelines for writing content for our platforms here at eclean. These guidelines are intended to ensure that all of our content is consistent and of high quality.

Primarily, these guidelines elaborate on our tone and style, word choice, and general writing rules. In addition, they provide guidelines for writing content for our platforms.

AI tools for writing

While we recognize the appeal and intrigue of AI writing tools, we at eclean have some concerns and opinions regarding their use in copywriting, particularly for marketing, advertising, and web content.

The internal blog post titled "Writing content with AI—the eclean opinion" discusses and explains our concerns and opinions regarding AI writing tools. We recommend reading it prior to using AI writing tools on eclean.

Tone & style

We are fully aware that defining a company's tone and style is difficult, if not nearly impossible. There are numerous considerations, such as the company's culture, values, and objectives.

Nonetheless, we have done our best to compile a list of guidelines and suggestions that we believe will assist you in writing content that is consistent with our tone and style:

  • Be friendly and approachable. We want to be approachable and welcoming to our users, so we should write accordingly.
  • Transparency is key. We want to be as open with our users as possible. Make it clear that your content is written by a human being, not a robot.
  • Be concise and to the point. We wish to be as clear and concise as possible. We do not wish to waste our users' time with repeated or unnecessary information.
  • All skill levels should be considered. We aim to be as accommodating as possible. We do not want to disengage our users by using overly technical or simplistic language unless the situation calls for it.
  • Be calm and collected. We want to be as calm and collected as possible. We do not want to come across as arrogant or condescending.

If you feel that this list is insufficient, we have created tonality guides for both internal and external engagement to help employees know how to engage with others inside and outside the organization.

These guides are not designed specifically for content writing, but they do contain information that can be adapted for use in content writing:

There are a variety of online tools, such as tonality checkers and paraphrasing tools, that can help you achieve the desired tone in your writing, even if you occasionally find yourself at a loss for words. Here are a selection of our favorites:

Grammar & spelling

Correct grammar and spelling should be a given for any content writer. However, we recognize that not everyone is a native English speaker, so we have provided you with some helpful hints.

  • Use a spell checker. The majority of modern text editors and word processors include a built-in spell checker that highlights misspelled words.
  • Use a grammar checker. The majority of modern text editors and word processors incorporate a grammar checker. It highlights and suggests corrections for grammatical errors.

There are also a plethora of online web-based tools that can help you write content that is grammatically correct. We strongly recommend using one of these regardless of your English proficiency. The following are some of our favorites:

Sourcing & plagiarism

At eclean, we take plagiarism very seriously. We will take action against anyone who plagiarizes our content, regardless of the form it takes.

Obviously, you are allowed to quote and cite your sources, but you must do so correctly. Here are some guidelines for avoiding plagiarism:

  • Always cite your sources. If you quote or paraphrase the work of someone else, you must cite your sources. This includes images, videos, and other forms of media.
  • Always use quotation marks. When quoting someone else's work, quotation marks are required.
  • Always use a plagiarism checker. We recommend using a plagiarism checker if you are unsure whether or not your content is plagiarized. Here are a few of our favorites:

Optimization

Basic SEO knowledge required

Content optimization is a dynamic and complex subject. To fully understand content optimization and its fundamentals, you must have a basic grasp of SEO and how it operates.

We recommend that you read our guide on SEO Optimization to gain a basic understanding of SEO or to refresh your existing knowledge with new tips and techniques. The guide has links to numerous tools and external resources to help you comprehend SEO and its purposes.

Optimizing your content can imply a variety of things, for example, it can imply optimizing your content for search engines or optimizing your content for readability and accessibility.

We have compiled a list of guidelines and suggestions that we believe will assist you in optimizing your content for search engines, readability, and accessibility:

  • Use headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings are an excellent way to organize and simplify your content.
  • Use images. Images are an excellent way to make your content more engaging and understandable.
  • Always use alt text. Alt text is an excellent solution to increase the accessibility for those with visual impairments.
  • Use keywords. Keywords are an excellent way to increase the discoverability of your content by search engines.
  • Use links. Links are a great way to refer to other pieces of content and increase the discoverability of your content on search engines.
  • Add metadata. Metadata is a fantastic method for providing search engines with additional information about your content.
  • Use a readability checker. If you are unsure whether or not your content is readable, we suggest using a readability checker. The following are some of our favorites:

Sometimes it can be difficult to apply all of these guidelines and suggestions. We cannot expect you to always find space for all of them in your content. However, we expect you to make every effort to implement as many as possible. We appreciate the fact that you prioritize quality over quantity.