MTC Editorial Style Guide
Table of Contents
Why We Need a Style Guide
For Web Pages – Not the News
Responsive Design – Say YES to Mobile
9 Tips for Writing Successful Web Copy
1. Use plain language, and be brief.
2. How we use acronyms.
3. Create meaningful subheads, tab titles, page titles and links.
4. Use white space and create “chunks” of copy.
5. One idea per paragraph and two sentences per paragraph.
6. Use bulleted lists for easy scanning.
7. Active vs. passive voice.
8. Using PDFs.
9. Writing instructions.
MTC Voice for the Bay Area Community
Writing Within A Template
Standard Template - Levels 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
Top Category Template - Level 1
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MTC Editorial Style Guide
Style Particulars
MTC Style Particulars
Page Titles & Navigation Elements
Numbers
Email, Phone & Personal Information
Possessive vs. Plural Possessive
Use of Quotations, Boldface or Italicizing Common Nouns
Serial Commas
Use of Ampersands
Email. Website. Internet.
Continue adding MTC style particulars per your needs.
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MTC Editorial Style Guide
Why We Need an Editorial Style Guide
Purpose: Establish a cohesive and consistent writing style
across the website that embodies the MTC brand.
Users seek value. They want simplicity. They appreciate accuracy. And they are
notoriously demanding. Disappoint them, and they’ll leave.
Users collectively ask, “What can this website do for me?” And then, “What has this
website done for me lately?”
As editors and writers, our responsibility is to present an excellent user experience for
everyone. That means a consistent editorial voice and, above all, clarity.
This guide establishes a cohesive writing style for the MTC website—including best
practices, proven usability tenets, and responsive design. Our goal is to present the best
possible content to the Bay Area community.
For Web Pages – Not the News or Press
Releases
The standards in this guide are for your web pages: the roughly 300 pages that demand
quick access, a short read, and immediate value by your users.
It is not intended to dictate a style for press releases, blogs, or the news. This editorial
niche often has its own set of standards, due to a different user experience. When users
click on a news item, they expect a longer read.
There are many standards that cross over into both experiences, but this style guide does
not address these similarities.
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Responsive Design – Why It’s Critical to
Your Success
What is Responsive Design?
The responsive design approach ensures
that your website is programmed to look
good on any device.
Whether it be a smartphone, laptop,
desktop or tablet, your website should
work well, and look good, on all personal
devices.
As writers we must create copy that is
succinct, tight, clear and well written –
so that it “responds” to whatever device
is being used.
Users need to easily navigate where they want to go, and find what they need when they
get there. This is called a good user-experience.
Whether users are on the phone or at their desktops – your copy touches their entire
journey.
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9 Tips for Writing Successful Web Copy
The following tips are based on proven usability tenets and best practices for the web.
1. Use plain language, and be brief.
Don’t assume your users know what you know, because they don’t. Stay away
from insider MTC language. Use words that your users use.
You are reading Plan Bay Area on BART during your daily commute.
A fellow passenger strikes up a conversation. He’s heard about MTC,
but knows little. He wants to know more.
Your friend is visiting from England. She wants to know how to get
around town via public transportation. How would you tell her how
to access information on the website?
The language you use in these conversations is the language you
should use on the website.
Instead of this:
Seaports to Streets: Climate Initiatives Grants have been used to test
emissions-reduction strategies ranging from a Shore Power
demonstration that allows ships berthed at the Port of Oakland to turn
off their diesel engines and power their on-board systems through the
regular power grid to cold-in-place recycling that eliminates the need
to truck in hot asphalt for street and road repair projects.
Write this:
Climate Initiatives Grants: Grants have been used to test strategies for
reducing diesel ship pollution at the Port of Oakland.
Grants have also been used to test recycling measures for road repair
projects, instead of trucking in hot tar!
Bottom line? Give readers what they need to get the message quickly, and
understand its value.
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2. How we use acronyms.
There are many acronyms in use for MTC. The follow accommodates what’s best
for the website, your users and your business.
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3. Create meaningful subheads, tab titles, page titles and links.
Titles and subheads should be value driven. They should summarize the information that
follows. Remember that users scan, looking for meaning.
Users want to know quickly what information they’ll receive. If we attempt to be clever,
they may feel cheated by the content that follows. They may not “get it.” Users want
simplicity.
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4. Use white space and create “chunks” of copy.
A chunk is usually a paragraph. Far more paragraph breaks are used in web copy than in
print copy.
User read 25% slower on the web. Creating white space makes it easier for users to scan
and grasp the message.
All the slides in this guide incorporate this tip.
5. One idea per paragraph and two sentences per paragraph. Usually.
Users read in chunks of information. Make the chunks/paragraphs short, easy to access
and easy to understand.
This may seem like a repeat, but it deserves it’s own number. It may feel awkward to
some writers, especially for print writers. Practice makes perfect.
All the slides in this guide incorporate this tip.
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6. Use bulleted lists for easy scanning.
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7. Active vs. passive voice.
It’s best to write, “MTC proposes regulations that…” instead of “The regulation was
proposed by MTC…”
Rather than this: The cat was eaten by the dog.
Use this: The dog ate the cat.
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8. Using PDFs.
One goal of the new MTC website is to reduce the amount of PDFs that are posted on too
many pages.
Many of these PDFs are outdated. Many pages arbitrarily link to other pages, in reference
to other PDFs. And the list goes on.
Best practices and usability tenets dictate judicious use of PDFs.
Attach a PDF to your page only when it adds value and compliments the intent, or
meaning of the page—and, of course, if it’s legally required.
Never, ever, post a PDF as the sole means of conveying a message. PDFs should only
compliment the message on the page.
And on many pages, invite users to visit the digital library to dive deeper for more
information:
The digital library is still in development along with the rest of the website – including
your copy!
But eventually, more than 35,000 PDFs and documents will “live” in the library to meet a
variety of needs: archiving, research, legal, legacy, public access, etc.
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MTC Editorial Style Guide
9. Writing instructions.
If you send users to 511.org, recommending that they use a tool, or download an app,
your instructions better be clear.
Anytime you write instructions, you must run through the tasks involved and experience it
for yourself. Take notes of every action along the way, and what happens. Then write
copy accordingly.
This may be the biggest mistake that websites make – incorrect instructions. Bad
instructions play a significant factor in users throwing up their hands, and leaving!
Not this:
There’s App for That
MTC is a lead player in the Bay Area Incident Management Task
Force, which in 2015 released an iPhone app known in the App Store
as Responder Incident Report.
The app allows responders to snap a simple photo of an incident
scene, quickly add key details and instantly send to a pre-defined
group through a secure server. It automatically captures the GPS
location and arrival time for each responder and participants receive
customized alerts when new information is ready for viewing.
If users were to try and follow the above directions, they’d fail.
After trying to find the app yourself, this is what you’d write:
Check Out Our App: Responder Incident Report
We’re excited about our new app! MTC has designed an app to
help Bay Area responders snap a photo of an accident at the
scene, add key details and send to the participants that can help.
Get automatic GPS location, arrival times of responders and
customized alerts—all on a secure server.
Go to the iTunes App Store and type “Responder Incident Report”
in the search bar (upper right-hand corner).
It’s extremely important to be accurate. You will curry much favor with your users.
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MTC Editorial Style Guide
MTC Voice for the Bay Area Community
Use a voice that is appropriate for the general Bay Area public. Our language should be
informative, respectful, personable—and above all—approachable.
Avoid business, or insider, language. Never assume that the general public understands
what you, an MTC employee, understand. They don’t. We must develop copy that is easy
to grasp and absorb.
Our job is to enlighten the public about the work that MTC is accomplishing – and the
services we are providing – within our communities.
MTC is at the “center” of all-things-transit. Yes, we network with important agencies,
organizations, committees and regulators that are critical partners in the work that we
accomplish… but MTC is at the helm, steering the ship.
Just A Few Examples
 MTC is responsible for the transportation needs across nine counties
and 101 cities.
 Every step we take builds upon decades of earlier planning. We have
just begun work on Plan Bay Area 2040.
 A well-maintained and well-operated transportation system is crucial
to the success of Bay Area growth. We call this approach “Fix It
First.”
 Getting your feedback is important to us at MTC, and we embrace
community involvement in many ways.
 We also negotiate agreements among numerous local agencies.
 Our Policy Advisory Council plays a large part in our commitment
toward public participation.
 There is intense competition for state and federal funding programs.
Find out how MTC promotes Bay Area causes in Sacramento and
Washington, D.C.
 Save time and money when you rideshare in the carpool lane. Call
511 and say Ridesharing.
 Together we have a wide range of duties and a shared mission: Keep
the Bay Area moving.
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MTC Editorial Style Guide
Writing Within a Template
Successful websites use relatively few design templates. Websites that use more are
difficult to navigate, and confusing and dizzy for most users.
Remember, design templates are coded and programmed to respond to any device.
Responsive design is key.
Your web copy should fit into a template that has been designed to adapt to the myriad
devices used by your audience.
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Standard Template – Levels 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6
95% of MTC web pages use one standard design template. These pages are referred to as
levels 2 thru 6.
(As users navigate from a level 1 page to a level 2 - and subsequently 3, 4, 5 and 6 –
they are diving deeper for more information.)
 The standard template example on the next page introduces MTC.
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This example is for a top-level page, using a standard template:
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The intent of this page, again using a standard template, is to enlighten our users about the whatand-how of our efforts to combat climate change. The tabs provide additional info, but don’t get in
the way of a clear message in the body copy.
Short, concise, accessible, and easy to scan.
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When users click on Adapting to Rising Tides in the navigation bar, they’ll land on this detail
page (again, using a standard template):
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Top Category Template – Level 1
Global navigation elements are the five top tabs you’ll see on every page across the website.
When you click on these tabs, you’ll land on that top category – or Level 1 – page. This is an
example of a top category template:
[TBD – based on future development work]
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MTC Style Particulars
This section is placed here as only the first step toward capturing your style nuances.
You will inevitably add to this page, incorporating the more common particulars used by your team.
It is strongly recommended that an internal MTC writer be dedicated to the task of keeping this
guide current, and adding to the foundation below.
Page Titles & Navigation Elements
The MTC website has many pages: Use acronyms and ampersands whenever possible to reduce
lengthy menu items.
Example 1:
Use title case for each page title: Transit-Oriented Development
For the navigation title (or element), use: TOD
Example 2:
Page title: Bay Bridge West Span Bike Path
Navigation title: Bay Bridge Path
Example 3:
Page title: Local Streets and Roads
Navigation title: Local Streets & Roads
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Numbers
[TBD by MTC Writers]
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MTC Editorial Style Guide
Email, Phone & Personal Information
Example:
If you’d like to speak with someone at MTC, please contact:
Denise Rodrigues
Contract Compliance Office
Phone: (510) 817-5897
Email: drodri@mtc.ca.gov
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Possessive vs. Plural Possessive
[TBD by MTC Writers]
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Use of Quotations, Bolding or Italicizing Common Nouns
Think about your readers.
If it benefits a reader’s comprehension and ability to easily grasp the common nouns that are
referenced in the same sentence, do the following:

Investments made with Cap and Trade money include the “California High
Speed Rail” system and a statewide “Transit and Intercity Rail” program.

Dial 511. When you hear “Welcome to the Bay Area’s 511,” say
Ridesharing.
Use your best judgment. You’ll be fine.
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Serial Commas
If it benefits a user’s comprehension, go ahead and use a serial comma.
Would it change the meaning if you left it out? If not, then don’t use it.
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Use of Ampersands
General rule of thumb is only use ampersands in navigation elements (or navigation titles).
Example:
Page title: Local Streets and Roads
Navigation title: Local Streets & Roads
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Email. Website. Internet.
Send me your email address. Visit our website. The Internet drives me crazy.
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