Headlines

“Idea” headlines are the idea behind or substance of the content they head, and they should be sentence case. (E.g. “We are thinkers, dreamers;” “Let’s light the way, together.”) These are most often slide titles. Refer to AP Style for title case rules.

“Label” headlines are the name of the content they head, and they should be title case. (E.g. “Global Leaders;” “Luminary Insight.”)

Our Purpose Line Treatment

Discover True Light in the World

Our purpose should be written in title case, un-italicized, with no period (unless it’s embedded in a sentence). Avoid altering the verb e.g. “Discovering,” “Discovered,” etc. We also recommend presenting all client purpose lines and principle titles in title case.

Always Caps Word Bank*

·      Luminary

·      Luminary Fellow

·      North Star

*We no longer capitalize purpose, mission, vision, values, thinkers, ideation, or pretty much anything we used to.

Use Active Voice

Active voice is when the subject does the action. It’s almost always the stronger sentence construction. (E.g., “Emily proofed the deck,” not “The deck was proofed by Emily.”)

Avoid Ampersands

Don’t use them unless they’re in a name or title (e.g. Proctor & Gamble, President & CEO, R&D). When you need to be economical, such as in a Gantt chart, use a plus (+) sign.

Avoid Widows and Broken Words

A widow is when there’s only one word on a line. A word is broken when it’s plit between lines, resulting in hyphenation. Neither look good, and they confuse the reader’s flow.

Hyphens, En Dashes, and Em Dashes

Use a hyphen (-) to join words (e.g. all-in-one, self-esteem). Prefixes, suffixes, and compound modifiers are the most common use cases. A compound modifier is when words are combined to function as a single adjective and most often come before their noun. (E.g. “She is a well-known author,” vs. “As an author, she is well known.”)

Use an en dash (–) when representing a range of numbers or time or connecting two things to show a relationship (e.g. 3–4 p.m., March–May, the London–Paris flight). On a Mac, type option+[dash].

Use an em dash (—) with spaces surrounding to set off a phrase or clause that provides additional information. (E.g. “Emily wrote a masterpiece — as she always does — within the hour.”) On a Mac, type option+shift+[dash].

On Abbreviations

Only use an acronym on first occurrence when you are 100% sure that 100% of your audience will know with 100% confidence what it is (e.g., BCG, AI). Otherwise, provide the full phrase on first occurrence and include its acronym in parenthesis to use for subsequent occurrences. However, if a generic term would be as clear in subsequent occurrences (e.g., the firm, the system, the policy), use that, instead. In general, omit periods from all-caps abbreviations (e.g. NASA, UNICEF), but include in lowercase abbreviations (e.g., e.g., a.m.). When in doubt, ask ChatGPT for the AP Style rule.

Numbers

Spell out numbers one through nine (unless you really need the clarity of a digit, such as in an SOW). Use numerals for 10 and higher.