Grammar

When writing for the modern digital world, standard grammar rules can be broken to keep it conversational.

Complex grammar is harder to scan and absorb, and can cause stress if travellers are struggling to understand what they’re reading.

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Abbreviations and acronyms

If it’s a universally known abbreviation or acronym, we don’t have to write it in full.

Always abbreviate a measurement if it’s joined to a numeric value (with no space).

If it’s not joined to a numeric value, see gudiance in 'If it's for a longer piece of content' and 'if you're tight for space' below.

Don't use Latin terms like:

• e.g.
• i.e.
• Etc.

When describing the cost of a hotel or car and space is limited, use ‘a night’, don’t use ‘per night’.

Use ‘per person per night’ in running sentences when it improves readability.

 

 

And don’t use punctuation or spaces.

If in doubt, check with the Content Design team.

 

If the acronym or abbreviation isn’t joined to a numeric value, write the term out in full the first time it appears on a screen or in a journey, followed by the abbreviation or acronym in brackets.

• Kilometres (km)
• Turks and Caicos Islands (TC)
• Estimated time of arrival (ETA)

You can then use the acronym or abbreviation from that point on if it comes up again.

 

If you don’t have enough space to write it out in full, you can go straight to the abbreviation or acronym only if:

• It’s universally recognised
• Needs no extra explanation

This is especially true with days of the week and months.

• Mon 11 February
• Mon 11 Feb

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Capital letters

Titles and headings

We normally use sentence case capitalisation as it’s:

• easier to read, especially in long titles
• softer and friendlier
• more conversational/less formal
• easier to define as a style rule

But there are a few exceptions. Use letter case for:

• product titles, such as ‘Price Alerts’
• proper nouns for locations, place names etc.
• metatitles for SEO purposes

Proper nouns

Proper nouns are almost always written in title case.

Some exceptions would be:

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Clauses

Every sentence needs its clauses, but stick to one or two to maintain scannability. To remove complexity and make sentences more conversational, minimise comma usage by breaking complex clauses up into separate sentences.

Avoid starting your sentences with a clause as much as possible so we lead with the subject.

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Compound adjectives

We always hyphenate compound adjectives:

• Pick-up time
• Drop-off location
• Check-in desk
• Online check-in

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Contractions

Use contractions to write conversationally and reduce the word count.

Use simple, instantly-recognisable contractions:

• We’ll
• You’re
• It’s
• Can’t
• Don’t

To keep things readable and easy-to-understand, don’t use conditional and complicated contractions:

• Mustn’t
• Shouldn’t
• Would’ve
• She’d

And for inclusivity and accessibility purposes, don’t use slang contractions in product content.

• Y’all
• Ain’t
• ‘em

These can be used sparingly in social/marketing content when we know the audience will understand the styling of language. If in doubt, check with the Content Design team.

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Conjunctions

Conjunctions join sentences, but they often just make the sentence longer without adding clarity or meaning.

To keep sentences concise, remove conjunctions if it doesn’t change the message, and use a comma or split it into two.

You can use conjunctions (sparingly) to start sentences if helps keep the tone conversational:

• And
• But
• Or

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Narrative

First-person narrative

Only write from a first-person perspective of the traveller when we need to let the customer know about something we need to do or can help with — or if there’s an issue of our making.

• We’ll contact the airline on your behalf
• We couldn’t load your flight results
• Please contact us, we’ll be happy to help

You should also only use first-person perspective when writing FAQ titles or tickbox interactions.

• FAQ example: When will I get my tickets? You should get them within the next 24 hours
• Interaction example: I’ve read and agree to the terms of this booking

Second-person narrative

To maintain a conversational, customer-first and direct relationship with the audience, write in the second-person perspective as much as possible.

Third-person narrative

Avoid at all costs, unless you’re writing for SEO purposes and need to include 'Skyscanner' throughout the copy. Use first-person instead.

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Personal pronouns

Be clear about who’s speaking, who’s being spoken to and who’s being referenced. This helps the audience understand the content better, and creates a direct, personal, 1-on-1 relationship.

Never change between first and second-person narratives in a piece of content, unless it’s an FAQ or a non-CTA interaction (see ‘First-person narrative’ section, up next).

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Punctuation

The average reading age in the UK is 9 so a simple use of punctuation is: easier to absorb, and quicker to scan and read.

Accents

Proper nouns, e.g. place names
With proper nouns such as place names, aim to use the correct accent(s) where appropriate. However, if the place name is typically written without accents, e.g. ‘Vietnam’ instead of ‘Việt Nam’, avoid using them to improve the scanability of the copy.

Common nouns, e.g. ‘cafe’
Avoid using accents when writing Anglicised common nouns such as ‘cafe’. For screenreaders, accents can sometimes ensure the wording is enunciated properly, e.g. ‘rosé wine’ vs ’rose wine’.

Ampersands

We should avoid using ampersands in interface copy. Write using plain language as readers from different demographics may not understand the symbol.

The only scenarios ampersands should be used are if the symbol is part of a company’s name, such as ‘P&O.’, if space is really tight, or if it's within a meta title for SEO writing.

Apostrophes

Use apostrophes as part of contractions:

• We’ll

Use them as possessives:

• The traveller’s plans
• British Airways’ policy

But don’t use them after numbers or abbreviations

Bullet points

If bullet points follow on from a sentence, write them in lowercase with no full stops. If each bullet is a complete sentence in itself, start with capital letters and end with full stops.

 

What bullet points should look like:

• if the sentence follows on from above

This is what bullet points look like when they're complete sentences:

• I'm a complete sentence.

Bullet points as dividers

When including separating dividers in running copy, use bullet points ( • ) with space either side in for scanability.

• Don't use vertical bars or commas to separate different pieces of content

Commas

Aim for one comma per sentence, two max. Remove any redundant commas, use different punctuation (like hyphens), rephrase your sentences or split them into two.

No natural pause? No need for a comma.

Don’t use commas before the conjunction.

Only use Oxford commas if it aids readability.

Colons

• Use colons before bullet points.
• Use colons before a long list.
• Don’t use them before a logo, button, image or icon
• Never use semicolons.

 

If you use a colon to highlight dynamic text like a booking ID number or email address in a sentence, aim to end the sentence with them.

• Unfortunately your credit card was declined for booking: <booking ID>.
• Please contact the airline to find out more: airline@airline.com

Use colons directly between a field title and data field (like price).

• Total: £50”

But don’t use them if the price is spaced out from the field title (e.g if the title is left aligned and the price is right aligned.

• Total…………..£50

Exclamation marks

Use exclamation marks sparingly and only to highlight a positive action or outcome. If in doubt, leave them out.

Ellipses…

Use 3 dots when describing an action in progress, like ‘Downloading…’, or when text has been truncated because of space restrictions. No spaces appear before ellipses, or after if the sentence follows on:

• Won’t be long now…
• Sun, sea and sand...it’s time to see it all.

Full stops

Use full stops as normal in body copy. If a sentence ends with a URL, don’t use a full stop separate from the link afterwards:

• Go to skyscanner.net

 

These text areas don’t need a full stop at the end. But if anything is more than one sentence, then use one after the first sentence:

• Titles
• Headings
• Radio buttons
• Indents and inline messages
• Fields
• Field errors
• Labels
• Callouts
• CTA

 

If a bullet point is a complete sentence in itself, always end it with a full stop:

Here are some ideas of things to do in Edinburgh:

• Take a tour of the castle.
• See some great acts at the Edinburgh Festival.
• Eat and drink at the amazing bars on George Street.

Forward slash

The only place we use ‘/’ is in our URLs – not in our writing.

Hashtags

The only appropriate moments for a hashtag are:

• if we’re promoting an event we’re hosting or appearing at
• if our post is offering information that directly relates to news affecting our travellers, like #LombokEarthquake

Use capitalisation to indicate new words:

• #GreatCopyWorks

Hyphens and dashes

Use hyphens (-) for:

Use en dashes (–) with spaces on either side for:

Use em dashes (—) for:

For date ranges that are part of a sentence, don’t use a hyphen or dash.

If there isn’t enough screen space to write a date range in full, use an en dash, but add spaces in between.

• 11 – 13 Feb

• Don’t use hyphens to break long words over multiple lines.
• Don’t use hyphens to denote anything electronic, e.g. e-mail

Icons

Use leading icons (coming before the copy) sparingly on badges, buttons and chips to give visual context to label copy. A general rule of thumb is that the icon should give clear context independently without the copy.

• Don't use trailing icons (also known as trailing accessories). They're reserved for chips and buttons that trigger actions such as sharing or drop-down menus.

Quotation marks

Use double quotation marks when writing what someone has said

• “I love Skyscanner”.

 

If we’re clarifying, emphasising or signposting the name of something in a sentence, we use single quotes

• Log in to the app and visit ‘Profile’ to see your personal details
• Your ‘fare’ is different from your ‘ticket’
• Loved ‘Crazy Rich Asians’? Take a look at these Singapore suggestions.

 

If the sentence inside the quotation marks is complete, the full stop (or a mark) lives inside the quotes:

• “Exactly!”, she said.

 

If the sentence in quotes is incomplete, the mark lives outside:

• She described it as “more amazing than I imagined”, and she was right.

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