Language Guidelines

This page is part of the Qt Writing Guidelines.

We use the Microsoft Writing Style Guide in the Qt documentation. Essentially, use clear and direct language in American English. We write to a diverse audience and we need to communicate Qt topics in an approachable and understandable manner.

Here are some clarifications for Qt documentation:

1. Use active voice, not passive. Passive does not make a sentence formal, but unnecessarily weakens the sentence. See Verbs
2. Use the pronoun you in to address the reader when appropriate. See Nouns and Pronouns.
3. Use because instead of "since" or "as". See Use simple words, concise sentences.
4. Use a serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma. See Commas
5. Use US spelling and avoid latin abbreviations. See Use US spelling and avoid non-English words. Here is a summary :

Use	Instead of
for example	e.g.
that is	i.e.
namely	viz.
therefore	ergo