Grammar and formatting

Effective grammar and formatting are crucial for creating professional and polished content. Following these guidelines helps maintain high-quality content and aligns with the standards set by Kinsta.

For rules not covered by this document, abide by the AP Style guidelines.

Abbreviations and acronyms

When using id est (i.e.) and exempli gratia (e.g.), always follow each letter with a period, but no comma:

• Be sure to set up your script so it runs continuously (i.e. forever).
• Web developers code in scripting languages (e.g. JavaScript, PHP, Python).

For acronyms, spell it out the first time you mention it and display the acronym in parentheses:

• Internet as a Service (IaaS)

After that first instance, you can use the acronym throughout the rest of the article.

More common abbreviations, such as PHP and API, don’t need to be spelled out.

Ampersands

Ampersands should only be used as part of a company or brand name:

• Johnson & Johnson
• Crate & Barrel

Otherwise, use “and.”

Apostrophes (possessive)

For possessive words that are plural or end in an “s,” follow with only an apostrophe:

• View your subdomains’ metrics.
• Check out our series’ publications.

Capitalization

Capitalize the proper names of all Kinsta products, features, and teams when they’re directly mentioned (but not the word “team” itself):

• MyKinsta
• Application Hosting (product), as in “There are many application hosting providers on the market but Kinsta’s Application Hosting is the best of all.
• Marketing team

Capitalize specific roles, but not general roles:

• We just hired our new Lead Web Developer.
• The developers made some updates to the interface.

Capitalize the first word after a colon, but only when that word begins a complete sentence:

• One last thing: Double-check your work before turning it in.
• You need three things to succeed: a goal, a plan, and determination.

Capitalize third-party brand, product, and feature names as found in their official site and/or documentation.

• WordPress
• Laravel
• npm
• NGINX (controversial, but for consistency, let’s adopt this format throughout the content)
• Cloudflare

Captions

When captioning an image or other media element, include a period at the end even if the caption isn’t a full sentence:

• No: The WordPress dashboard
• Yes: The WordPress dashboard.

This helps screen readers (for the visually impaired) sound more human.

Commas

We use the Oxford comma, which is defined as “a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’ (e.g. an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect).”

Here are some examples:

• No: You can highlight, remove or change any text.
• Yes: You can highlight, remove, or change any text.
• No: Your post should include images, videos and other media.
• Yes: Your post should include images, videos, and other media.

Contractions

We think they’re great! Contractions help you sound friendly and down-to-earth. Use them as often as you like. If you want to highlight the negative, then do not use the contraction.

Dashes and hyphens

Use an em dash (—) with spaces on either end to offset an aside:

• DevKinsta — the most recent of our many tools — was first released in 2020.

Use an en dash (–) to indicate a number range:

• The wait time can be 12–48 hours.

Use a regular dash (-) for word or phrase hyphenation.

Decimals and fractions

Spell out fractions:

• No: 2/3
• No: ⅔
• Yes: two-thirds

When they’re too complicated to spell out, convert to a decimal instead.

File names, directory paths, and file extensions

Wrap file names and directory paths in code blocks:

• You can find your classes in the style.css file.
  • Renders: You can find your classes in the style.css file.
• Find this function in your index.php file.
  • Renders: Find this function in your index.php file.
• Open the file path/to/file.ext.
  • Renders: Open the file path/to/file.ext.
• Find this file under path/to/directory.
  • Renders: Find this file under path/to/directory.
• Use the .mp4 extension for videos.
  • Renders: Use the .mp4 extension for videos.

Money

When writing about most currencies, use the currency sign before the amount. Only include a decimal if it’s not a round dollar amount:

• $40
• $9.95

Be cognizant of which currencies place the symbol after the amount instead of before, such as the British pound (£). You can refer to this compiled list when in doubt.

Numbers

Generally, we follow the AP style guide for numbers:

• Numbers one through nine should be spelled out (e.g. “two” instead of 2)
• Use numerals (digits) for numbers 10 and greater (e.g. “10” instead of “ten”).

Writers may come across some exceptions to this rule (e.g. use numerals when referring to list items or ages). When in doubt, refer to the AP Style guidelines, and use your best judgment for the rest. Here are some resources with additional details and examples:

• GSA (18F) Content Guide: Numbers, percentages, and dates
• Proofed: Everything You Need to Know About Numbers in AP Style
• Writing Explained: AP Style Numbers
• The Journalist’s Resource: Associated Press style basics

Percentages

Use the % symbol instead of spelling out the word “percent.”

Quotation marks

We use double quotation marks as utilized in American English. Apostrophes should be used to enclose quotes within quotes:

• Mark suggested that the project could “be a good use of time.”
• “I’ve got to find some paper,” she said.
• He told them, “I’ve found the ‘secret sauce’ we need for this!”

Ranges and spans

Use an en dash (–) to indicate a number range:

• The wait time can be 12–48 hours.

Telephone numbers

Use dashes between digit groups. Do not use parentheses or spaces:

• 636-555-3226
• +1-404-867-5309

Temperature

Given that we have an international audience, use Celsius degrees to express temperatures.

• 25ºC

Date and time

If you want to express the date of an event, spell out the names of the months and days of the week. Additionally, use cardinal numbers, not ordinal numbers:

• No: The new version is scheduled for release on July 14th.
• Yes: The new version is scheduled for release on July 14.

For other cases, given that we have an international audience:

• Use the date’s international format (ISO 8601).
• Use 24-hour format UTC time.

For example:

• YYYY-MM-DD at HH:MM UTC.
• 2024-12-25 at 20:00 UTC.
• You may include seconds if necessary: YYYY-MM-DD at HH:MM:SS .
• 2024-12-15 at 20:00:05 UTC.

If the timezone is irrelevant to the context, omit it.

Reporting data

If you’re reporting data in a table, for example, you may change how you present it but don’t change the format:

Run	Date	Time
3	2024-09-28	18:32:04
4	2024-09-28	18:45:53

Units of measurement

When writing unit of measurements, use a space between the numeral and the unit:

• No: 3.3GB, 4GHz
• Yes: 3.3 GB, 4 GHz
• No: 7mm
• Yes: 7 mm

The one exception to this rule is for on-screen units of measurement, for which you can omit the space:

• 1em
• 600px
• 96DPI
• 12pt