Writing and Formatting Best Practice

The purpose of this section is to provide additional guidance to the AP Stylebook and best practices for writing and formatting content. The information in this section has been organized alphabetically by topic.

Abbreviations and acronyms

Generally, spell out on first mention. There may be cases, such as when the abbreviation or acronym is widely known, when the writer may choose to use the abbreviation or acronym on first mention. and then parenthetically include the spelled-out name of group, project, or not at all. Either is fine. Example: NASA or CIA are fine on first reference.

It is not necessary to include the abbreviation unless it appears more than once in copy. This will save space.

Ampersands

Ampersands are considered more a design or space-saving element than the word “and.” As such, only use ampersands if space, design, trademarks or customer preference necessitate it.

Bulleted lists

KBR uses true bullets instead of dashes for lists, as shown here:

• Abbreviations and acronyms
• Ampersands
• Bulleted lists
• Clause agreement
• Headlines

Writers should strive for consistency in bulleted lists as to whether the bullets will be individual or groups of nouns, simple clauses, or complete sentences.

Final punctuation (period) should only be used at the end of a bullet that is a complete sentence. Semicolons and commas should not be used at the end of a bullet point to denote the continuation of a thought. This is implied through the bulleted list itself. Furthermore, the penultimate bullet should not include the word “and.”

1. Example of a bulleted list with short phrases

Points of the KBR employee value proposition include:

• A shared purpose across the company
• Belonging, connecting and growing
• Living our values

2. Example of bulleted list with complete sentences

Inclusion and Diversity Projects in Progress:

• We are continuously reviewing trends using employee demographics.
• We are including veteran status in data capture.
• We are piloting support for neurodiverse candidates and employees.
• We are developing plans for STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) outreach.

Please note in the second example that to avoid beginning each bullet with “We are,” the writer could delete the phrase and begin the bullets with the verbs (continuously reviewing, including, piloting, developing). This would save word count without detracting from the meaning. Technically, the clauses would still be complete sentences since the subject (we) is understood. However, it would be up to the writer’s discretion to include final punctuation for each bullet.

Another final tip for bulleted lists. If most of the bullets are one line of text, even if long, try to be consistent and make sure they’re all one line instead of having one that’s longer and needs to be broken up with punctuation.

Just remember: be consistent.

Clause agreement

If beginning a sentence with a dependent clause to enhance an independent clause, be sure the dependent clause agrees with the independent clause.

Here is an example of disagreement between the clauses. The dependent clause begins the sentence in this example.

With more than 60 years of experience, KBR solutions are at the leading edge of technology.

Since “KBR solutions” cannot have 60 years of experience, it’s clear that the clauses do not agree. A solution would be as follows:

With more than 60 years of experience, KBR experts provide our customers with solutions at the leading edge of technology.

Another option would be to rewrite the sentence so that the whole thought is clearer and more active.

KBR experts have been providing customers with leading-edge solutions for more than 60 years.

Exclamation points

It’s good to show excitement! But generally, exclamation points should be avoided in most externally facing content. An exception would be in social media posts.

In the case of internal communications, limit your writing to one or two exclamation points per deliverable.

Headlines

As a rule, between 50 and 60 characters with spaces should be maximum. But shorter (and more impactful) is better.

Photo captions

This is largely left to the discretion of the writer or project owner. There are two best practices:

1. Include a short description of what’s happening in the picture, including the setting or KBR location, and naming the personnel from left to right, top to bottom (or back to front). Names can be omitted if it’s a large group or if the names aren’t known.
2. Simply include names of personnel in the photo, indicating position from left to right, top to bottom (or back to front). “Left” and “right” can be shortened to “L” and “R” to save space if needed.