Clear language
Acre Lifts always aims to be understood easily, so write in a straight-forward honest way to let people know, as clearly as possible, what we do and what we offer.
Things to avoid
- hard sell and jargon
- long complicated sentences
- excessive use of footnotes and small print
- ‘clever’ words when simple ones will do the job
Abbreviations
Avoid abbreviations whenever you can. Use them only when they will be understood by everyone. For example PC (for personal computer).
Punctuation
Try to avoid over-punctuating, the use of unnecessary commas in particular. But use punctuation carefully and creatively to support the meaning of your words.
UPPER and lower case
Avoid the unnecessary use of capital letters; when in doubt use lower case. However, apply the normal rules of grammar – the word at the start of a sentence should have a capital letter.
Singular/plural
Acre Lifts is a company (a singular entity) so it needs the singular form of the verb to follow it.
‘Acre Lifts believes’
The exception is in above the line advertising, where the spoken voice will make it more appropriate for Acre Lifts to project itself in the plural.
‘Acre Lifts believe’
However, if we’re talking about the people who are part of Acre Lifts we’ll say
‘at Acre Lifts we believe’
