General Writing Guidelines

Consider this a guide that you can keep referring back to and a checklist that you can use
before submitting your article. By keeping these points in mind, we can review/edit your articles
quickly.

Types of Articles 1
Font Style, Size, and Formatting 1
Capitalization Rules 4
Spacing Must-Nots 4
Common Content and Grammatical Considerations 5
Introduction and Conclusion 8
Overview Sections 9
Portions of Code 9
Images 10
Hyperlinks 11
Keyword Usage 12
The Last Step: Plagiarism 12

Types of Articles
The different types of articles we draft typically fall into one of the following categories.

● X-to-Y: Includes details about moving data from a source to a destination.

● Informational: Includes other types of articles providing information about:

○ Comparisons between different platforms or tools.
○ General Data Science-Related Topics
○ A List of the Best …

Font Style, Size, and Formatting

While drafting an article, the first thing we usually start with is creating an outline. Here’s how
you must maintain the font style, size, and formatting.

Remember to use only the Arial font style for the entire document.

● Title: The main title of the article must be in the Title case. Let the title remain
left-aligned.
● Sub-Headings: Next, we start with the sub-headings. These must be in Heading 2 (H2)
style.

● Sub-Sub-Headings: As you proceed drafting the article, you will need to add
sub-sub-headings. These must be in Heading 3 (H3) style.
● Further Sub-Headings: If you want to add further sub-headings within the H3s, you can
use H4s.

● Normal Text Body: The main body of the article, apart from the H2, H3, and H4, must
be in Font: Arial, Style: Normal text, and Font size: 11.
Capitalization Rules
Capitalization rules will apply to all headings, subheadings, and bullet point starters. The rules
that you must keep in mind include:

● Always capitalize the first letter of the first and last words.

● For any other words in between, avoid capitalizing the following:

○ Articles: a, an, and the
○ Conjunctions: and, for, or, etc.
○ Prepositions: in, on, by, to, for, with, at, from, etc.

● Anything else must be capitalized.

Spacing Must-Nots
Here are a few things that you must avoid doing in your article while drafting on Google Docs:

● DO NOT change the spacing (Line & paragraph spacing) between lines. Maintain the
default settings.

● DO NOT select Format > Line and paragraph spacing > Add space after paragraph.
 ● DO NOT use Align options to Justify the text of your draft. Let it be left aligned, which is
there by default.

Now that you’ve seen how to go about the font style, size, and formatting, you can start creating
an outline for your article.

Common Content and Grammatical Considerations

Once you have your article outline in place, you’ll start drafting the body of the article.

Unless mentioned otherwise, we expect each article to be a minimum of 1500 words.

Sometimes, the word count may increase beyond 1500. However, as much as possible, try to
keep it less than 2000 words.

Let’s look into some simple content and grammatical pointers that will be applied throughout the
article, from start to finish.

● Sentence Length: Try to keep your sentences within 25 words max. Once in a while
(not regularly), it’s alright if your sentences go up to 30 words; anything beyond that, you
need to split your sentence into two separate sentences or reduce the number of words.

● Paragraphs: Avoid chunky paragraphs as much as possible. Ideally, paragraphs

should be between 4-5 lines max. One-liners, although acceptable, may not be suitable
in most places.

○ Spacing Between Paragraphs: Since you must not change any default spacing
options of the document, you can add a space between paragraphs by pressing
the Enter key twice.
● Bullet Points: Maintain short bullet points, about 3-4 lines max for each bullet point. The
typical format of listing out bullet points is starting with bolded points (that follow
capitalization rules), followed by a short explanation of the point.

Here’s an example of this:

○ Spacing Between Bullet Points: To add a space between bullet points,

complete drafting all the bullet points, and then press Enter, followed by
Backspace.

● Numbers Less Than Ten: Apart from the headings or subheadings, you must spell out
numbers less than ten.

● Use of ‘and’: One and in a sentence is good. Two ands is acceptable at times. Three
(or more) ands in a sentence are too many. When you find yourself using more than two
ands in a single sentence, it’s because you’re trying to club too many things together.
Instead, just split the sentence.
● Use of ‘means’ or ‘meaning’: Avoid using means or meaning to provide further
context to some concept. ‘This means,’ ‘that means,’ or ‘meaning that’ are some
examples of what you must avoid.

● Use of the Same First Word: Avoid starting two consecutive sentences with the same
word, whatever the word.

○ Most commonly, words like The, It, A, and An are used repetitively in
consecutive sentences, which must be avoided.

○ Apart from these words, the name of the platform/company you’re writing
about tends to appear in consecutive sentences. Avoid this by alternating
between the name of the platform/company name in one sentence and It in the
next.

● Use of the Same Word: Avoid repetitively using the same word, particularly adjectives,
in consecutive sentences or across 2-3 sentences. Examples of words we tend to use
repetitively include helpful, useful, beneficial, effective, etc.

● Use of ‘The best,’ ‘excellent,’ ‘excels,’ and ‘ideal’: You will often use phrases such
as the best, excellent, excels, perfect, ideal, stands out, emerges, etc. However,
these are phrases you must avoid.

○ Instead of saying ‘the best tool,’ use ‘one of the best tools.’ Notice the plural
form of the word “tool” when you write “one of the best tools.” Often, writers get
this wrong, and they write “one of the best tool.”

○ Instead of saying, ‘This is an excellent tool for real-time data integration,’ you
can say, ‘This tool is well-suited for real-time data integration.’

○ Use words like suitable, well-suited, one of the best, a good choice, etc.

● Use of ‘you’: As much as possible, try to use you instead of organizations, businesses,
enterprises, users, or individuals.

● Use of Synonyms Together: Avoid using phrases like ‘easy and quick,’ ‘quick and
efficient,’ ‘fast and efficient,’ etc. In such cases, keep any one of the two words from the
phrase for efficient and fluff-free drafting.

● Framing a List: If you are including a list of something in your article, keep in mind:

○ The word that immediately precedes the start of the list must be related to what
the list is about.
 Correct Way: You can integrate data from a range of sources such as
NetSuite, Google Sheets, Chargebee, etc.
Wrong Way: Data from a range of sources can be integrated, such as NetSuite,
Google Sheets, Chargebee, etc.

○ Avoid more than five items in a list.

○ Avoid clubbing items of different categories into a list.

Wrong way: You can move data between different sources and destinations,
such as MySQL, Amazon S3, MongoDB, BigQuery, and Redshift.
Correct way: You can integrate data from different sources such as MySQL,
Amazon S3, and MongoDB. Some of the supported destinations include
BigQuery, Redshift, and MariaDB.

● Platform UI Options: Always bold the mention of any platform user interface buttons,
options, fields, etc.

Introduction and Conclusion

If you’re not comfortable working on the introduction of the article at the very beginning, you can
leave it for the end after you’re done drafting the body of the article. Then, you can finish the
introduction, followed by the conclusion, before proceeding with the next steps.

For the introduction, keep these things in mind:

● Include about 100-150 words in the introduction.

● Include generic information in the introduction.

Note: A good introduction will inform the reader about the benefits of the topic, building
up to why it’s essential to know more about it.

● DO NOT talk about the key features of any platform or tools in the introduction.

● DO NOT include any bullet points in the introduction.

For the conclusion, keep these things in mind:

● The conclusion must summarize the content of the article in about 100-150 words.

● Avoid using the same or similar content from the introduction in the conclusion.

● DO NOT include any bullet points in the conclusion.

Overview Sections
If you’re required to include one (or more) subsections for the overview of any platforms or tools,
there are a few things you must keep in mind.

● If you’re writing an X-to-Y article and including an Overview of X and an Overview of Y,

each overview section should include:
○ A logo of the platform/tool right below the subheading.
○ 100-200 words worth of content describing the platform.

● There are two ways to write overview sections:

1. Use short, descriptive paragraphs (about 3-4 would suffice). Ensure you don’t
club too many features together into a single paragraph. It will create flow issues
between sentences.

Note: The best way to go about this is to pick one key feature in a paragraph and
describe it further in 1-2 sentences. This will create a nice narration flow.

2. Use 1-2 short paragraphs and then list out certain key features using bullet points
(with a short description in each bullet point).

● Maintain consistency between the overview sections in the way you write. If you use
only paragraphs for one overview section, avoid using bullet points for the other, and
vice versa.

For instance, if the overview section of X has two paragraphs and bullet points listing its
key features, ensure that the overview section of Y also follows a similar format.

Portions of Code
Some articles may require portions of code to give more context. If you have to use codes in
your article, ensure the following:

● DO NOT copy-paste code directly from any other source into your article.

● If it’s only about 5-6 lines of code you want to add,

○ Type the code manually.

○ Highlight the code using any lighter shade of grey highlight.

● If it’s more than 5-6 lines of code, it may unnecessarily add to the total word count of
the article. Instead of including such code in text format, consider taking a snapshot of
the code and adding it in the relevant place in your article.
 ● Wherever possible, try to change the customizable, named fields in the code (when
reusing from another source). For example,

○ Name can be changed to Customer Name or Employee Name.

○ ID can be changed to Employee ID.
○ Address can be changed to Customer Address or Employee Address.

● Above all, ensure that the portion of code you include in your article is from a genuine
and dependable source. Cross-verify, if you must, to ensure the correctness of the code.

Note: Codes obtained from the official documentation of any platform are mostly
dependable.

Images
It’s best to have at least 1-2 images in each article. However, it depends on the type of article
you’re drafting.

● For informational articles, try to have at least 1-2 images.

● For X-to-Y type of articles, there will be many images.

Usually, images included might be:

● Copied from anywhere off the internet (from Google search results or any other
blog/website).
● Snapshots that you take while navigating the platform manually.

Regardless of the source of the images, ensure the following points:

● No Personally Identifiable Information: Images, especially snapshots, should not have

any personally identifiable information (such as your name, initials, the first letter of your
name, etc.) Neatly smudge out any such information before uploading the image to the
article.

Note: You may use the Snipping Tool for snapshots. Search for Snipping Tool in
Windows search (Windows icon + S).

● No Competitor/Other Logos: If you are reusing images from the internet, ensure such
images don’t have any additional logos of competitors or of the blog from where you’ve
copied them.

● Clarity of Images: Use images that have good clarity and are at least 400 pixels in one
dimension (if reusing from another source).
 ● Avoid Editing Images: DO NOT stretch, compress, or crop images manually to make
them fit into your article. This may mess up the resolution of the image.

● Adding an Image Source or Image Credit: Mostly, all images must include the text
‘Image Source’ or ‘Image Credit’ right below the image. Hyperlink the text to the website
URL (not the image URL) from where you copied the image.

If you’re working on an X–to–Y type of article, typically, images are included for:

● Both platforms in the respective overview sections.

Note: Only for images of the platform logos, the Image Source or Image Credit must be
hyperlinked to the official page of the platform. This is applicable even if you copied the
image off another blog.

● Step-by-step instructions on how to use the client’s platform for moving data from X to Y.

Note: This may involve you taking snapshots of the platform’s user interface (UI) to
highlight each step.

● Optional: Step-by-step instructions on other methods for moving data from X to Y

(wherever applicable).

Note: This may involve reusing existing images from other blogs on the same topic or
manually navigating the steps and taking snapshots. However, if either isn’t possible,
you may avoid adding images.

Hyperlinks
It’s a good practice to include a minimum of one external and two internal links within each
article.

Internal Links could be links to existing blogs or documentation on the client’s website. Try to
include such links naturally in the article.

External Links could be links to official documentation of a platform or tool. These types of links
are particularly useful:

● For providing additional information about some topic or step.

● When you don’t want to explain a particular topic or step in-depth in your article.

NOTE: Avoid external links to competitors (articles, posts, or content published by rival
companies in the same industry).
When adding hyperlinks, ensure that you only link to the text itself and not to the spaces before
or after the text.

Keyword Usage
Usually, a few different keywords will be provided by the client for each topic. You will commonly
see:
● A Primary keyword (the first one in an uncategorized list of keywords)
● Secondary keywords
● LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing) keywords

These keywords are supposed to be used throughout the article by naturally integrating them in
sentences or subheadings. Ensure:

● You use the primary keyword about 8-10 times in 1500 words. Include the primary
keyword in the following:

○ The main title of the article.

○ As many subheadings as possible.
○ The introduction and conclusion of the article.
○ The body of the article (try to avoid forceful inclusion into sentences).

● You use each of the secondary and LSI keywords (if mentioned) at least once in the
entire article.

● After you’ve completed drafting the article, include the number of times you’ve included
each keyword as a list at the end of the article.

Note: To find out how many times you’ve used a keyword/keyphrase, use Ctrl + F and
enter the complete keyword in the search field. Then, make note of the number of times
you’ve included the keyword in your article.

The Last Step: Plagiarism

Once you’re done drafting your article, the last step is to check the plagiarism percentage of the
article. We use Grammarly for this purpose.

If you’re using Grammarly for the first time, you must log in with the credentials to get started.
Then, click on New.

Here are the next steps you can follow:

 ● Use Ctrl + A followed by Ctrl + C to select and copy the entire content of the document
you just finished drafting.

● Paste (Ctrl + V) this content into Grammarly. You may remove unnecessary things like
the mention of references or keywords at the end of your article.

● Click on Plagiarism at the bottom of the right-side pane.

Grammarly will run a plagiarism check on your entire content and show you the results (if
any plagiarism is found). The results will contain the total percentage of plagiarism and
the links that have similar portions of content as in your article.

● Click on each link in the result to view which part of your content matches with that in the
URL.

● Generally, we try to keep the plagiarism below 3%. If your plagiarism is higher than 3%,
make the necessary changes to reduce it.

● After you’re done with these steps, include the final plagiarism % at the end of the
article.

Note: Grammarly is just one aspect of a plagiarism check. Content could still be considered
plagiarised if the structure matches existing articles.