# Never Use

> The short list of things that break the CRAFTSMAN+ voice on contact: em dashes, exclamation marks, hype vocabulary, and celebration emoji.

Canonical: https://brand.craftsmanplus.com/voice/never

## Punctuation

**No em dashes anywhere.** Use a period, a comma, a colon, or a semicolon. This applies to every format: copy, decks, docs, commit messages, alt text.

**No exclamation marks.** The voice is calm. If a sentence needs an exclamation mark to land, the sentence needs rewriting, not louder punctuation.

## Emoji

No rocket, sparkle, or fire emoji. Product and partner communication generally carries no emoji at all; if a channel's culture expects one, a single neutral marker is the ceiling.

## Vocabulary

These words are banned in all CRAFTSMAN+ output:

revolutionary · game-changing · unleash · supercharge · seamless · effortless · next-level · cutting-edge · delve · robust · leverage (as a verb) · empower

And any sentence built on "we're thrilled to" or "we're excited to announce."

The pattern behind the list: every entry claims a quality instead of demonstrating one. The fix is never a synonym; it is specificity. "Exports to HTML in one click" needs no adjective.

A miss on this page is a defect, not a style choice: fix it before publishing, and do not ask permission to correct it.