Help:Healthcarepedia Style Guide

Present accurate content

• Up-to-date
• Cite references and link to reliable sources
• Link to appropriate examples

Healthcarepedia content should be accurate, up-to-date, and reliable

Align content with user motivations and goals

• Anticipate the questions that users want answered
• Expect users’ motivations to evolve
• Put the most important information first
• Stay positive
• If appropriate, provide specific action steps and the benefits of taking action
• Create interactive content

Healthcarepedia is a free educational guide to healthcare in the U.S.

Increase accessibility by presenting content in plain language

• Keep paragraphs and sentences short and simple
• Always use language that is familiar to your users
• Use the active voice
• Define complex terms
• Use everyday examples to explain medical or technical concepts
• Write in a friendly, conversational tone

Healthcarepedia content should be accessible--presented in a simple and clear format that fosters engagement

Stay objective

• Avoid advocacy and characterize information and issues rather than debating them
• Avoid providing opinion as fact
• Explain major points of view, giving due weight with respect to their prominence in an impartial tone
• Identify opinions as representative of a particular point of view
• Use reliable, well-regarded sources

Healthcarepedia content should be objective; citing from reliable, high-quality, sources