Content style guide

This style guide defines how we write across dmarced’s articles and platform content.

General principles

Be a teacher, not a dictionary

Write like you’re sitting next to someone explaining how email works — friendly, calm, and clear. We’re people helping other people understand email, so avoid formality, buzzwords, and filler. Assume curiosity, not prior knowledge. Prefer “you” and “we”.

Do: “You can think of DMARC as a contract for cooperation between you and the inbox providers who receive your mail.”

Don't: “Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) is an email authentication protocol.”

Have an opinion

Don’t hide behind phrases like “it depends” or “it’s complicated.” Do the research until you can form a point of view, then share it clearly and confidently.

Do: “DMARC provides feedback almost exclusively through aggregate reports.”

Don’t: “DMARC offers two types of reports: aggregate reports and forensic reports.”

Write inclusively

Our audience ranges from IT admins to people who just inherited DNS access. Some know exactly what DMARC is, while others are hearing about the concept of domains for the first time. Make it easy for readers to solve their problem, whether they’re experts or just getting started.

Do: “You can usually find and update your DNS settings at the same place where you bought the domain.”

Don’t: “Update the TXT record in your domain's authoritative DNS zone.”

Get to the point

Many readers don’t know why they’re here. They just got told “fix email.” Start with what matters most — the “why” or the answer. If you’re explaining something, don’t wait three paragraphs to do so. Lead with the key idea, then expand if it helps understanding.

Do: “SPF helps inbox providers verify whether an email claiming to come from your domain was actually sent from an approved server.”

Don’t: “Email authentication has become increasingly important as phishing continues to rise across the industry.”

Style rules

Use American English

For consistency, we write in American English.

Use sentence case

Write “DMARC setup guide” not “DMARC Setup Guide.”

Headings, titles, and feature names use sentence case. Capitalize proper names and acronyms as appropriate.

Use curly quotes

Write “DMARC setup guide” not "DMARC setup guide."

Use curly quotes in normal text, but stick to straight quotes in code, commands, and examples.

Use dashes deliberately

Use en dashes “ – ” with spaces on both sides for breaks in thought or to add emphasis. They’re cleaner and easier to read than long em dashes “—”. Use em dashes only when they genuinely improve flow or tone — not as a replacement for commas or parentheses.

Credits

Inspired by PostHog’s content style guide. Thank you to the PostHog team for sharing their work so openly.