Editorial style


MintTwist’s editorial style is authoritative and confident.

As writers, speakers and consultants, we’re always striving to be thought leaders with a no-bullshit ethos and approach.

Our editorial style is as much about how we look as it is about how we speak. We should be paying very close attention to what we say, how we say it and how it makes us look when we do. When we write a blog article or create a presentation, we should be asking ourselves some key questions about each slide and each paragraph.

The following page is a quick-reference guide to any questions you may have about your content, whether it’s a sentence in a presentation or a photo in a blog article, referring back to here should help you to create the best content you’re capable of and present it in a way that is quintessentially MintTwist.

Talking about MintTwist

How we speak about ourselves is important. This is a basic guide to the correct syntax to use when we’re talking about ourselves.

MintTwist is

an international digital agency working with brands to create inspiring campaigns.

We are

an award-winning agency that looks to go beyond the conventional relationship.

In other words

Start a description with MintTwist is, and then you can move on to we are. Never say MintTwist are. And MintTwist is always a that, not a who.

Photography

Photography will play an increasingly important role in our editorial style across our website, particularly on the blog and other similar shareable areas.

We should be confident with the use of photography, and where possible we should use our own, provided it was taken with production value in mind. It’s also important to avoid using cheap graphics; never use clip art or overly synthetic-looking images.

A smartphone in a woman's hand

Do use pictures of technology that supports what the article or page is about.

Young people in a meeting

Do portray people naturally and candidly, in a way that appears realistic.

A tray of champagne glasses

Do focus on interesting things, provided readers need not think about why it’s relevant.

A nude man walking on a road

Do be provocative and humorous, provided it adheres to the rest of the guidelines.

Google Analytics logo

Don’t use company logos as featured images, ever. Consider a more relevant photo.

A cheap-looking CGI graphic of wrapped gift boxes

Don’t use synthetic graphics or text, they cheapen your content; instead favour real photos.

A largely empty table with coffee and spectacles

Don’t be too abstract. Picture your article sitting next to other, more interesting-looking ones.

Low-quality image of a teddy bear

Don’t use poor quality, too-small, stretched or badly-cropped images.

Resources for free photography

Copy and grammar

The way we write is a key identifier for our brand and should be given careful consideration.

This is not designed to be a definitive rulebook for writing style and accuracy. Instead consider the following points as a best-practice guide to writing content for MintTwist editorial pieces, documents and presentations and website pages.

Syntax and style

The following points are some important things to remember.

Sentence case vs title case
Our style is to write all headings and titles (including blog articles) in sentence case with an initial capital letter. Do not use title case in titles or page headings. For example:

How to design an engaging website
How To Design An Engaging Wesbite
Ampersands
Do not use ampersands (&) in place of the word ‘and’ — only use ampersands in an organisation’s name, if the organisation does so itself (eg Marks & Spencer).
Imperial vs metric
In general we should use metric for accuracy’s sake, however it may be preferred or appropriate to follow a metric measurement with the imperial equivalent in parentheses, eg “The ball was 24 m (26 yards) away from the line.”
Companies
Companies, groups and organisations etc are inanimate. They take “that” or “which”, depending on the syntax, and not “who”. They take a singular verb. (But sport uses plural verbs for teams).
May and might
May is the present and future tense: might is the imperfect, perfect and pluperfect, so use in reported speech. I may go: he said he might go. “He may have been on the plane that crashed” means he could be missing: “He might have been on the plane that crashed” means that chance intervened and he wasn’t.
Semicolons
Among its uses is to replace possibly misleading commas in lists of names accompanied by descriptions (The meeting was attended by Smith, Home Secretary; Lord North, the expert on the United States; John Brown, an American opposed to slavery; and Joseph Smith, an expert on baths).

A–Z guide

Detailed grammar and style guidance