General
Use American English spelling (-ize and -or, not -ise and -our).
Write in the active voice whenever possible.
When referring to either the blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. editor or the classic editor, qualify the editor the first time (block editor or classic editor), then use editor by itself after that.
With the verb log in, the correct preposition is to. Write log in to, not log into.
Write homepage as one word (not home page).
Quotation Marks
Do not use quotation marks for emphasis. Phrases in quotation marks may be interpreted by readers as irony or sarcasm.
Similarly, do not use quotation marks to indicate a command or something the user needs to type. The user may mistakenly assume the quotation marks are part of the command. Instead, use backticks (`) to create an inline code block: npm install react.
Quotation marks should be used only for direct quotes and the titles of documents.
Capitalization
Always capitalize WordPress (and remember to capitalize the P).
Capitalize Classic Editor when referring to the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.. Do not capitalize it otherwise (classic editor).
Capitalize the names of pages, links, plugins, and buttons (the Save button, the Posts page).
Do not capitalize regular nouns, including WordPress elements: theme, plugin, page, block, user, administrator.
Do not capitalize a word just to add emphasis to it. Instead, place it in boldface or italics.
Hyphenation
In general, don’t hyphenate compound adjectives unless it clears up ambiguity or makes the sentence more readable (small-business owner but open sourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. software).
Do not hyphenate compounds with an adverb ending in -ly (a nicely formatted document).
Hyphenate the adjectives back-end and front-end (a back-end developerBack-end developer A back-end developer modifies database and features of the WordPress core. In other words, it manages everything under the hood.). Note that the nouns are back end and front end.
Do not hyphenate login. Note that login is a noun or adjective; the verb is log in (Go to the login page to log in).
Lists
Use a colon (:) to introduce a list when it is preceded by a full sentence. Do not use a colon otherwise, even if you are introducing a bulleted list. It can interrupt the flow of reading.
Correct
The following basic options are supported by this plugin: order, orderby, and column_id.
This plugin supports the order, orderby, and column_id options.
Incorrect
The following basic options are supported by this plugin, order, orderby, and column_id.
The options this plugin supports are: order, orderby, and column_id.
Oxford Comma
Use the Oxford comma, which means including the final comma before and or or in a list: apples, oranges, and bananas.
Rearrange ambiguous sentences, such as My brother, the teacher, and Mr. Green came to dinner. If the brother is also the teacher, this would be better as Mr Green and my brother, the teacher, came to dinner.
Consistency
Above all, be consistent. In addition to applying the above grammar rules consistently, it’s important to use terms and vocabulary consistently so as not to confuse the reader. This also makes it much easier for the localization team to translate the document.
In the following example, we use the terms data, ID, iteration, and query consistently.
Correct
To retrieve the data for all of the posts, don’t iterate through the array of IDs. This would result in a separate query being made for each ID on each iteration. It is much more efficient to make a single query that fetches all the data at once.
Incorrect
To retrieve the data for all of the posts, don’t iterate through the array of IDs. This would result in a separate SQL query being made for each post on each loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. It is much more efficient to make one request to the database that fetches all the results at once.
