As well as themes and tone, we need to be consistent in the writing conventions we use. This includes spelling and grammar styles.

The following is a general guide for writing in the McConnell Dowell house style.

This includes all social media content (our website, our social accounts and copy for general marketing purposes).

The writing style for bids, submissions and formal documentation retains all of the below, plus guidelines for MS Word formatting and correct referencing of images and text.
Speak to your submissions manager for access to the Submissions Writing Style Guide document.

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Adhering to certain rules of grammar and mechanics helps us keep our writing clear and consistent.

The Basics

Write for all readers. Some people will read every word you write. Others will just skim. Help everyone read better by grouping related ideas together and using descriptive headers and subheaders.

Focus your message. Create a hierarchy of information. Lead with the main point or the most important content, in sentences, paragraphs, sections, and pages.

Be concise. Use short words and sentences. Avoid unnecessary modifiers.

Be specific. Avoid vague language. Cut the fluff.

Be consistent. Stick to the copy patterns and style points outlined in this guide.

The McConnell Dowell Name

When referring to the Company in all internal and external communications, the Company name is to be written as McConnell Dowell or abbreviated to MCD eg. McConnell Dowell (here in abbreviated to MCD).

When typed in uppercase, the ‘c’ is lowercase in McCONNELL DOWELL.

NEVER use any alternate abbreviations e.g. McCD or MacDow.

McConnell Dowell is treated as a single entity not a group of people e.g., ‘McConnell Dowell is (not are) proud to announce…’, ‘McConnell Dowell has (not have) been awarded…’.

Except where in reference to the staff group. In such cases use the term 'team members e.g., ‘McConnell Dowell team members have been very generous with their time.'

When writing about McConnell Dowell’s experience, you may use the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘our’, and verb forms such as ‘are’, ‘have’, ‘offer’ and ‘propose’.

However, if the subject of your sentence is ‘McConnell Dowell’ or another company name, you must instead use the singular pronoun ‘it’ and verb forms such as ‘is’, ‘has’, ‘designs’ and ‘works’. This also applies to the terms ‘company’, ‘team’ and ‘joint venture’.

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Figures, Measurements and Styling

Spelling

We use UK English grammar rules. Below is a list of common Australian English spellings we need to apply consistently in our writing:
• ‘ise’ instead of ‘ize’ in words such as ‘specialise’ and ‘organise’
• ‘our’ instead of ‘or’ in words such as ‘colour’, ‘labour’ and ‘behaviour’
• ‘re’ instead of ‘er’ in words such as ‘metre’ and ‘centre’
• ‘coordinate’ instead of ‘co-ordinate’
• ‘defence’ instead of ‘defense’
• ‘program’ instead of ‘programme’.

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Numbers

When numbers 1-9 are used in sentences they should be written as words ‘one, two, three, etc’, “the five-year-old boy’.
Numbers 10 and above are to be written as numbers e.g., 100 not one hundred, 20 not twenty etc.
Avoid using numbers alongside one another which can cause confusion e.g. ‘There were 500 pipes driven each 300 mm in diameter’ not ‘There were 500 300 mm diameter pipes driven’.
The exceptions are measurements 5 cm rather than five centimetres.
Where numbers start a sentence – this should be avoided wherever possible – written as a word e.g. ‘Twenty awards were presented at the event’, but ‘At the event there were 20 awards presented’ is preferred.
A comma should be added in front of every third digit from the right to make amounts clear e.g. 20,576 or 5,878,000.

Spacing

A space should always be inserted between the figure and the unit name i.e. 27 m not 27m. unless it's money - see money section below

Superiors

The symbols for cube, square and the power should always be superscript. i.e. 12 m² not 12 m2.

Measures

The metric system measurements are to be used wherever possible - millimetres (mm), centimetres (cm) and metres (m), and their abbreviations lower case.
Use the same measurement throughout a document wherever practicable
Use the simplest way to express dollar amounts e.g., 5 cents not $0.05, and round to two digits where reasonable e.g. $54.78M rather than $54,779,556.00.
Measurements should be presented in the shortest simplest form possible e.g., 20,213.426 mm should be written as 20 m wherever appropriate.
If specificity is required round to two decimal places is suitable detail e.g., 20,213.43 mm or 20.2 m

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Lists

Bulleted and numbered lists should always be formatted as follows:

Sentence case should always be applied i.e. the first letter of the first word in each bullet to be upper case; and
avoid punctuation at the end of each line, apart from the last item which is to be finished with a full stop.

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Money

The measurements for money are also in the metric system not pound, pence etc. and presented with two capitals - AU, NZ, US, UK - if currency detail is required e.g. NZ$5M or US$500,000

Money should be written as a whole number or with two decimal places e.g. $56.7634 should be written as $57, $57.00 $57.80 or $56.76 (in order of preference) not $56.7

Amounts should be presented in the shortest simplest form rounded to two decimal points or e.g. $20,213.42 should be written as $20K or $20,000Use the simplest way to express dollar amounts e.g. 5 cents not $0.05, and round to two digits where reasonable e.g. $54.78M rather than $54,779,556.00 is being rounded then round to whole numbers or add a placeholder 0
$11,000 up to one million which can be written as $1M, $1.6M a billion $1B etc.

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Capitalisation

Only use capitals at the start of sentences, for proper nouns /names e.g. organisations, countries, companies, days, months and more.
To write the title of articles or job titles capitalise the first word, the last word and nouns in between but not the articles or prepositions e.g. Ministry of Transport, Managing Director of New Zealand and NB. Where ministry or managing director are used as adjectives.
In abbreviations and acronyms. For abbreviations write the full name in the first instance and include the abbreviation in brackets afterwards and any subsequent mentions can be abbreviated e.g. Watercare’s Asset Upgrades and Repair (AUR) project was awarded.
In cases where the abbreviation or acronym is more commonly used that the full title uses the shorter version e.g. IT, IQ, SH25A, GST etc.
At the start of a quote where it forms the start of a complete sentence e.g. John says “The pipeline was completed in May 2023.”

Grammar & Mechanics

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Need help using our brand voice to create engaging content? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

To build a strong brand we need to be consistent in what and how we communicate - our Brand Voice.

What is a 'Brand Voice'?

A brand voice is your company personality. It is consistent across all channels, and is built on key themes, topics and a tone that portray your unique brand character to your audiences.

Brand Voice themes and topics

We anchor our communications around some commons topics and themes that are unique to our brand:

Creative Construction - our differentiator and tagline
Stories of our engineering-led innovative ideas and solutions. These can be technical innovations, but also more broadly, with things like sustainability. Using the term 'Creative Construction' in write-ups about our great ideas and innovations is a simple but powerful way of reinforcing our brand.
Providing a Better Life - our Purpose
Stories of the positive impact we and our projects have on the community and our employees. We don't need to use the term "Providing a Better Life" specifically, but we should be linking what we do and the projects we deliver to that purpose. See the examples below.
Creating Better Together - our brand essence
Stories of our collaborative approach to working with our customers, business partners, and the community.
Our 'Employee Promise' - our employee value proposition
Stories of what it’s like to be a member of our team. We use the term 'Employee Promise' as part of these communications. See the example website copy below for how we speak about our 'Employee Promise'.

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Brand Voice Tone

The tone of our communication is shaped by our brand character , which is Creative, Engaging and Accomplished.

To make our communications Engaging, so we use down to earth, simple, conversational language, with short sentences and limited acronyms.

If there's an interesting innovation or achievement we try and emphasis this early on in what we're writing, to engage the reader and emphasis our 'creative construction'

We don't try and be too formal, unless it's a legal document. So we use 'We' or 'Our team', instead of 'McConnell Dowell Constructors (Aust.) Ltd' or similar. And we're not afraid to inject a bit of humour in the right context.

If we're explaining specialist information to subject matter experts, then we get a bit more technical and serious. We keep really detailed technical write-ups for bids and conference papers.

When we’re communicating to engineers, which is often, we add stats and facts to round out the story. Engineers love proofs, so we include them when we can.

For our social media channels we tend to amplify the Creative side of our brand character, using descriptive language that paints a picture in the mind of our audience. Again, humour can play a part, as can emojis.

The last part of our brand character is Accomplished so we tell interesting stories about what we've achieved. But they’re always told through the lens of our purpose of “Providing a better life". We didn't just build a new road, we connected a community and made it a safer, quicker journey.

And finally, because we’re a collaborative bunch and value Working Together, our achievements are always by ‘our team and in partnership with our customers and the community’.

How and where do we use our Brand Voice?

Here's some examples of how our brand voice is used across our social media accounts, website and in our presentations.

Example LinkedIn Post - note the simple but engaging langage with a good mix of numbers and facts for the engineers, along with a little bit of descriptive humour. This post got really good engagement - on topic and told well.

LinkedIn voice example

Example website copy - this is promoting our Employee Promise. The tone is creative and descriptive. The content is anchored on our 'Creating Better Together' theme.

Example PowerPoint slide - Clean, simple, uncluttered design. The main heading is action-oriented and written in a way that brings our purpose to life through our accomplishments. Great picture too! This template is built into our standard PowerPoint pack - so use it.

website voice example

Need help using our brand voice to create engaging content? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Pullup Banners

Pullup or rollup banners are a great way to spread our brand message and increase brand awareness, they can be used at expos, events and around our sites and offices.

Below are a selection of pre-designed banners, available as print-ready PDFs, suitable to send direct to a local printer for manufacture. For example in Australia we use Officeworks.https://www.officeworks.com.au/print-copy/p/pull-up-banners-pcbspbcp

Pullup banners are all sized at 850mm x 2000mm.

If other sizes or designs of pullups are required please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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Brand Messaging

These banners display our purpose and core brand messaging.

p4 primary 1

As well as themes and tone, we need to be consistent in the writing conventions we use. This includes spelling and grammar styles.

Adhering to certain rules of grammar and mechanics helps us keep our writing clear and consistent.

The Basics

The McConnell Dowell Name

Figures, Measurements and Styling

Spelling

Numbers

Spacing

Superiors

Measures

Lists

Money

Capitalisation

Grammar & Mechanics

To build a strong brand we need to be consistent in what and how we communicate - our Brand Voice.

What is a 'Brand Voice'?

Brand Voice themes and topics

Creative Construction - our differentiator and tagline

Providing a Better Life - our Purpose

Creating Better Together - our brand essence

Our 'Employee Promise' - our employee value proposition

Brand Voice Tone

How and where do we use our Brand Voice?

Pullup Banners

Brand Messaging

Australia

New Zealand & Pacific

South East Asia

Careers & Graduates

NEXT: Business Cards

New Starter Kits

Tote bag

Welcome card

Lanyard

'Paper' Pen

Water bottle

Reusable cup

Hi-Vis Vest

Notebook (Australia design)

Ordering - Australian Business Unit only

Welcome Packs form part of the McConnell Dowell Australia onboarding experience and orders are managed centrally.

Ordering - Non-Australian Business Units

Other regions are encouraged to put together and order their own Welcome Packs for new starters.

NEXT: Pullup Banners

Virtual Backgrounds & Social Media

Virtual Backgrounds

Standard Backgrounds

Region/Function Specific Backgrounds

LinkedIn profile banners

NEXT: Overview

Newsroom