Proven Winners^® Grammar and Spelling Guidelines

Please review these guidelines when writing and editing copy for Proven Winners so we can have a consistent style.
If you add to this list, please send Susan Martin (susan@provenwinners.com) this link for her to review any additions.

• Use a single space after a period.
  
  
• Don’t capitalize the seasons (spring, summer, fall, winter) unless they are in a title.
  
  
• Don’t capitalize the directions of north, south, east, and west unless talking about a specific region (East Coast).
  
  
• Use capital letters for proper nouns (Jim, Mary), proper names (West Virginia), popular events (World Series, Kentucky Derby).
  
  
• Use ^® and ^™ in titles and first use on the page only
  
  
• Use the entire name of plant with the genus – Supertunia Vista^® Bubblegum^® Petunia
  
  
• For Proven Winners, botanical nomenclature and common names are handled in the following manner:
  • The genus is always capitalized and italicized. For example, 'Ruby Spider' Hemerocallis.
  • The species is always lower case and italicized. For example, 'Sunset Coral' Phlox paniculata. 
  • If the word "hybrid" is listed as the species, we omit that word when using it in copywriting. For example, 'Ruby Spider' Hemerocallis, not Hemerocallis hybrid. We feel this word means "GMO" in consumers' minds, even though it really doesn't. Including it provides no useful information for the general reader. Per International Nom List rules, the omission of a species name after the genus automatically denotes that the plant is a hybrid. 
  • The common name is never italicized. For example, 'Ruby Spider' daylily or "Those daisies are so pretty."
  • The common name is not capitalized unless it is part of a title or subtitle. For example, an article titled "2 New Sunflowers You Need This Year" would have the word Sunflowers capitalized. However, if common names are used in body copy as prose, they are not capitalized. For example, "I went to the garden center and bought some new daylilies, sunflowers and boxwood."
    
    
• The plant names and their accompanying trademarks on the plant records on provenwinners.com are considered the most current. If you have a question, ask the plant manager of that item (Savannah, Andrew at WG or Kristina at SMN.)
  
  
• Numbers one through ten should be spelled out in body copy. Numbers greater than ten should be spelled using numerals. If a sentence starts with a number, it should also be spelled out.
  • Examples: Eight out of 25 of the plants in trials received awards. Thirty five people attended the event. I would like option number six delivered to my office, and I do not like options 19 or 20.
  • Exception: In titles of website articles, we use the numeral in the title because it is better for SEO ranking reasons (ie. 10 Reasons Why… instead of Ten Reasons Why…)
    
    
• No dash in these words:
  • Thank you
  • Seasonlong
  • Warms up
  • Log in (verb) or login (noun)
  • Log out (verb)
  • Midsummer
  • Mildew resistant
• Common compound words
  • Year-end (noun) or …as the year ends (verb)
  • Sign-in (noun) or sign in (verb)
  • Follow-up (noun) or follow up (verb)
    
    
• Avoid run-on sentences. Example—Wrong: We have a cool new plant, tap here to see it. Right: We have a cool new plant. Tap here to see it.
  
  
• When writing for web, use shorter sentences and break copy up into more paragraphs than if you were writing for print. Long sentences and blocks of copy are difficult to read on a phone.
  
  
• When including a list of items in a sentence, do not add a comma between the second to last item and last item in the list.
  Example—
  Right: I need milk, eggs and coffee from the grocery store.
  Wrong: I need milk, eggs, and coffee from the grocery store.
  Two exceptions to this rule are: 1) if the items in the list are complex phrases or 2) if the meaning of the sentence may be unclear to the reader if you omit the last comma.