editorial-style-guide.md

Base Editorial Style Guide

This is the Base Editorial Style Guide, which exists to:

• Ensure a baseline level of quality and consistency across all media types
• Keep all contributors on the same page about editorial standards
• Align all communications from Base tonally

Why use the style guide?

If you use the style guide, you'll help us tell the Base story in a consistent way. And you'll be more likely to get amplification from the Base core team and other members of the Base ecosystem.

About Base

Base is an Ethereum Layer 2 (L2) offering a secure, low-cost, builder-friendly way for anyone, anywhere, to build onchain.

Critical Style Conventions

• Write ‘Base’, not BASE, Base Chain, $BASE, or Base Network
• Use the word ‘onchain’ instead of ‘web3’ or ‘crypto’ — and it's spelled "onchain" or "Onchain" not "on-chain" or "on chain" or "On Chain"
• Use technical terms sparingly, and when you do, work to explain them in full
• Use ETH demonination, not USD when referring to prices, to emphasize the global economy

Writing Guidelines

Emphasize Base's vision and mission

Base has a grand vision to bring a billion people onchain and a mission to build a global onchain economy that increases innovation, creativity, and freedom. Highlight how Base aims to make this decentralized future more accessible for everyone, everywhere.

Highlight progress and what’s next

When discussing Base's ongoing developments, celebrate recent milestones and accomplishments. Outline the key priorities and initiatives planned for the current or upcoming period, grounding them in Base's overarching vision and mission. Invite collaboration from the community, fostering an environment where external perspectives can contribute ideas and feedback.

Focus on concrete examples over abstract concepts

Avoid excessive abstract language about "web3" or technical language around “blockchains,” etc. Ground writing in concrete examples of what Base enables: Affordable transactions, seamless user onboarding, simple developer tooling, etc.

Use clear examples to illustrate concepts

While some technical depth is unavoidable, aim to make abstract onchain concepts accessible through clear examples and analogies. Compare new paradigms to familiar ones to build understanding. Use specifics and walk through sample user flows to demonstrate core value propositions.

Whenever possible, celebrate builders

Base exists to empower those building a decentralized future, and building can be defined with a wide net: Creators, artists, developers, writers, etc. Frequently highlight and celebrate the projects, people, and communities utilizing Base.

Be a bridge

Don't assume reader familiarity with crypto concepts. Use analogies and examples to make clear connections between the tools and platforms people know and the future Base is building

Tone and Voice

”Although tone and voice are often used together, they are not at all the same thing. Voice is the overall personality of your brand and can be described in adjectives like helpful, witty, or friendly. […] your brand’s voice will not change. However, tone, or tone of voice, is the attitude of your writing for a particular content piece.” - Shelby Crawford

Voice

• Progressive and future-thinking
• Conversational and human
• Direct (e.g., using "offers" over "that aims to offer")
• Optimistic but realistic (not overly idealistic)
• Appreciative (not prideful)
• Witty
• Championing of builders
• Relatable (using cultural references familiar to the audience)

Tone

• Brief and punchy, with clarity and impact
• Avoids overly technical jargon or corporate talk
• Acknowledges challenges directly but remains solutions-oriented
• Not too casual, but still conversational
• Provides unique, thought-provoking insights
• Engages in trending topics wisely (and rarely)
• Offers compelling reasons to return through memorable and engaging content
• Minimal use of emojis (one at most)

Here’s an example of writing that feels appropriate in both tone and voice:

“Base is bringing a billion people onchain. To bring the world onchain, we need to create a new internet that supports a global economy. We’re making this vision a reality through a million builders actively working to create what they love. Join us and let’s build the future together.”

More on tone and voice

• Tone in Writing: A Simple Guide - ”…voice is what you say, and tone is how you say it.”
• A Word About Style, Voice, and Tone - “When you hear an author talking inside your head, “voice” is what that author sounds like. […] You can develop your own voice in your writing by paying special attention to rhythm, diction, and punctuation.”
• Point of View - First, second, or third person? Omniscient, limited, or objective? Check for consistency.

Clarity, Concision, and Flow

“The goal is to make your paper as simple and clear, as immediately intelligible to the reader as possible. This doesn’t mean that you should ignore subtle and sophisticated complexities in your theory – but the challenge is to state those complexities simply and clearly. Avoid making your subject seem more complex than necessary (for example, if something “creates habits”, it’s probably neither necessary nor helpful to say that it “exhibits a habit-formation process”).” ~ R. Wicks

• Tips for Improving Clarity

  • Sentence Clarity - Strategies for improving sentence clarity include using transitional words, properly placing subordinate clauses, and choosing action verbs over ‘be’ verbs (e.g. is, are).
  • Plain Style - Because we specialize in reducing complex topics into concise summaries that are digestible to the average user, Base encourages contributors to write in plain style. For example: opt for simple words like use rather than utilize.
  • Passive and Active Voice - Base prefers active voice. Sometimes passive voice can be rhetorically effective, but in most cases contributors should change passive to active voice. For example:
    • Original: “Experiences that are sticky, that make it easy for anyone to get started, and that offer a seamless user experience that abstracts onchain complexity as much as possible are what we’re looking for.” (passive)
      • Edited: “We’re looking for experiences that make it easy for anyone to get started and offer a seamless user experience that abstracts complexity as much as possible.” (active)

• Tips for Improving Concision

  • Avoid redundancies. When in doubt, opt for two shorter sentences over one longer one. The Hemingway App can point out areas for improvement.
  • Consult the Purdue OWL page on concision for examples of “wordy vs. concise” sentences.
  • Avoid phrasing that adds little useful information for the reader, such as ending sentences with “…and more.” For example:
    • Original: ”Base and leading builders are hosting a global hackathon with dedicated tracks like payments, discovery, social, gaming, and more.
      • Edited: ”Base and leading builders are hosting a global hackathon dedicated to bringing the world onchain.”

• Tips for Improving Flow

  • Avoid sentence fragments.
  • Vary sentence structure, rhythm, opening words, and length.

Nuances

Capitalization

• In general, follow the Purdue OWL guidelines for capitalization.
• For headlines, use title case, not sentence case.
  • Example: Onchain Summer II is Coming

Punctuation

• Oxford Comma - Base uses the Oxford comma. For example:
  • ❌ apples, oranges and bananas (no Oxford comma) - Do not use this style.
    • ✅ apples, oranges**,** and bananas (Oxford comma) - Use this style.
• Em Dashes - Write em dashes as ( — ). Add spaces on both sides. For example:
  • Em dash: “Facilitators accept responsibility to move groups through an agenda, ensure adherence to mutually agreed-upon process mechanics, and — if necessary — suggest alternates or additional discussion.”
  • Consult Merriam-Webster for general guidance on em dashes.
• Ampersands - Use ampersands only in business names (e.g., “Tiffany&Co.”) and common abbreviations such as “B&B” or “R&D.” Avoid using ampersands as a substitute for the word “and.”
• Parentheticals - Where to place that period? As per Typos of the NYT: “When a sentence ends with a parenthetical, the sentence's period goes outside the parentheses (unless the entire sentence is parenthetical).”
• Colons and Semicolons - For lists included as part of the text, use semicolons as separators when at least one of the list items contains a comma. Otherwise, use commas.

Numbers, Dates, and Times

• Basics - Consult the Purdue OWL for basic guidelines.
• Numerals - Write out numerals 0 through 9 as words: zero, one, two, three, etc.
  • Exception: Write 1-for-1, not one-for-one.
  • Write numerals 10 and above as Arabic numerals: 10, 59, 100, 9888, etc.
  • Abbreviate 10,000 and above with a K instead of using a comma. For example: write 100,000 as 100K. Abbreviate 1,000,000 and above with an M. Abbreviate 1,000,000,000 and above with a B.
• Dates - Write dates (e.g., in blog post titles and images) as “September 2, 2022” (or in shortened form as "Sep. 2, 2022") rather than “September 2nd, 2022.”
• Time Spans - Write full-year ranges of time as “2009—2022” with an em-dash and no spaces.
• Decades - Write out the first reference to a decade as “1960s” and abbreviate subsequent instances as “60s” (no apostrophe).
• Clock Times - When referring to the time, always reference both the period of day and time zone, with the period lowercase and the time zone uppercase. Do not use a space between the numeral and period of day, and then use a space for the time zone: “7am ET”, “1:30am PT” etc. When not referencing a specific location, default to PT.
• Software Versioning Prefixes - Base uses lowercase version number prefixes for software (v1, v1.5, v2.6.4, etc.) rather than uppercase (V1, V1.5, V2.6.4, etc.) While there is no fixed standard, most software versioning at a low level uses Semantic Versioning Specification, aka semver.

This document has been remixed in part from the open-source Editorial Style Guide by Danica Swanson (for Starbased).