Post archive for July, 2009

July 30, 2009

Download our Web Editorial Style Guide: Get Answers to Burning Questions About Correctness

Early this summer we wrapped up a great project and we'd like to share the fruits of our labor with you. After about 18 months of discussion, development, and drafts, the Web Editorial Style Guide we wrote for the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has finally been published as a wiki on EIA's intranet. While we can't offer you access to their intranet, we can offer you the Style Guide as a PDF download.  Just complete the Style Guide download form and you'll get the 66-page Style Guide. Though the Style Guide is illustrated with EIA-related examples, its common sense advice is useful for anyone who wants to publish correct, consistent content.

We realize it's the height of the summer vacation season and the Web Editorial Style Guide will never make your list of books to take to the beach, but we think it's a great resource for:

• Documenting editorial style decisions and settling editorial conflicts. The Style Guide puts the rules about writing in writing. For example, for EIA website is one word. End of discussion.
  
• Establishing a climate of collaboration in online publishing. This is especially true for EIA's Style Guide, published as a wiki. Though the EIA web management team has placed limits on users' abilities to change the Style Guide wiki, their choice to publish the Style Guide as a wiki enables them to update the Guide easily and frequently.  For example, a recent request from an EIA employee in Dallas on how to handle the phrase "Lower 48 States" led to a decision, published in the Style Guide wiki: capitalize the word State, omit the hyphen. 
• Providing guidance on editorial issues large and small. In addition to recording rules for writing correctly, the Style Guide includes advice on writing well. For example, the first chapter of the Guide contains this advice:

We hope this Web Editorial Style Guide may serve as a model as you update or develop a style guide for your online writing. We're also interested in how you "govern" online writing in your organization. Leave us a comment to let us know whether you use a style guide. If so, did you develop it yourself? We'd love to take a look at your guide, so provide a link, if you're willing.

-- Leslie O'Flahavan

July 24, 2009

Five Grammar "Rules" That Beg To Be Broken

For those of us who were actually taught grammar in school, we have stored in our long-term memory a list of unbreakable grammar rules. Usually they start with never. Often we remember the rule, but we don’t actually remember why it’s a rule. And guess what: some of the nevers never were grammar rules. They are grammar myths passed down from English teacher to English teacher to your boss.

Here are my top five grammar “rules” begging to be broken.

1.   Never end a sentence with a preposition. Because grammar rules exist to enhance clarity, it’s hard to see why this rule persists. Here’s an example of a clear sentence that ends in the preposition from and the tortured sentence that results from trying to avoid ending the sentence with a preposition:

• I have no idea of where this rule came from.
• I have no idea from where this rule came.
  [Example is from Michelle Pierce’s Copyblogger post]

2.   Never start a sentence with a conjunction: and, but, so, nor, or. This rule is strictly a grammar myth. The Chicago Manual of Style states that there is no historical or grammatical foundation for this rule. On the other hand, Chicago points out that there’s no guarantee that starting a sentence with a conjunction improves the sentence. “But the alternative—enforcing a baseless restriction—probably doesn’t help.”

3.    Never split an infinitive.  First off, what’s an infinitive? An infinitive is a form of a verb preceded by the word to: to go, to run, to shop. Splitting an infinitive means inserting a word or phrase between to and the verb.  Nobody quite knows the origin of this rule against splitting an infinitive. (Latin? Old English?)  But nearly everyone agrees it’s obsolete. Here's an example of a split and an un-split infinitive.

• Split infinitive:  I decided to quickly look for a new job. 
• Un-split infinitive: I decided to look for a new job quickly.

4.    Never use the passive voice. Although almost everyone knows this rule, many people don’t really know what passive voice is. (It is not the same as past tense.) It’s okay—even preferable—to use the passive voice when you want to emphasize the action rather than the actor. Mistakes were made by John emphasizes the mistakes rather than the actor—John—who made the mistakes. Sometimes the actor is excluded entirely: Mistakes were made. Using the active voice, John made mistakes, clearly points the finger at John. 

5.    Never write a one-sentence paragraph. Most paragraphs contain more than one sentence. That’s because it usually takes more than one sentence to completely express an idea. But sometimes one sentence does the job. There is no need for additional window dressing. A one-sentence paragraph stands out like a neon sign. For example:

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