Our choice of vocabulary makes an impact on our writing, as does the way we structure our sentences and the grammar rules we choose to embrace—or break. Keep these tips in mind when constructing copy.

Focus on first or second person (we/you) in your writing. You can use third person for clarity or to identify a particular industry.

Our industry collections offer an integrated set of tools to help you create more imaginatively and fluidly, solve complex problems, build smarter and faster, and make better design decisions.  AutoCAD helps architects create award-winning buildings, revitalizing a Detroit park with adaptive reuse and environmentally responsible design.

Intersperse short, punchy sentences with longer ones. Don’t be afraid to start a sentence with “and,” “but,” and “or.” Break these grammatical rules carefully but deliberately.

There isn’t a roadmap for doing what hasn’t been done. You have to travel way out of your comfort zone. Think beyond your industry. Bust open best practices. And rebuild things from the ground up. In fact, to us it’s precisely when things seem impossible that the better tomorrow everyone talks about comes into view.

Use subtle alliteration to add flavor.

Problems are our partners in the process.
Blur boundaries and reinvent rules.
Unleashing talent and unlocking insights.

Keep your language simple. Don’t try to write to impress.

• Use instead of utilize
• Do instead of accomplish 
• Get instead of acquire
• Other instead of alternative

Approach humor with caution.

Jokes, puns, pop-culture references, and other humorous content can fall flat depending on your audience—particularly when that audience is global. We don’t need to go for laughs to engage our readers. If we do reach for humor, make it self-deprecating or use understatement or hyperbole for effect. And never punch down.

What did it take to get Perseverance to Mars? Millions of hours to design. $2.4 billion to build. $300 million to land. So…not much, really.

(caption accompanying an image of an explosion) Well, THAT didn’t work.