Loomio
Thu 23 Oct 2014 5:55PM

Style guide

R Robert Public Seen by 40

Another attempt to post the draft style guide, since it didn't work last night.

Would you like to contribute to Slaney Street?
We are looking for a diverse range of writers and articles.
We are keen to develop writers and activists, and to create a culture of writing within the Birmingham community. Even if you haven’t written anything before, why not give it a go?
We are a Birmingham-based blog and newspaper and write primarily about local issues. However, we are not limited to this. Feel free to contribute articles on any subject.
Please use ordinary language as far as humanly possible, and if you absolutely must use a technical term, explain briefly what it means. Keep sentences and paragraphs reasonably short, and don’t make the article any longer than it absolutely has to be. Short articles are very welcome. If we make things difficult for the reader, they’re likely to give up and not bother!
Pictures would be appreciated if possible.
Send a pitch or a completed article to the editorial board via
slaneystreet@gmail.com

BS

BRIAN SHERIDAN Thu 23 Oct 2014 9:45PM

This is good, my only suggestions would be to state that we do not tolerate racist sexist etc and that feedback will be provided should the article not be considered good enough, which consequently raises the issue of editorial standards, do we have any, do we want any? Brian

R

Robert Thu 23 Oct 2014 10:15PM

Good idea. I definitely think we should have editorial standards.

BS

BRIAN SHERIDAN Fri 24 Oct 2014 9:46AM

But very loose standards, we don't want to marginalise anyone whose first language isn't English or whose grammar isn't great, it just needs to readable and concise really. Best

SF

Sean Farmelo Fri 24 Oct 2014 10:03AM

I think it is good - but the last sentence sounds a lttile patronising and I think the point has already been made above about not using technical terms etc. So I would remove "If we make things difficult for the reader, they’re likely to give up and not bother!"

Also to include @natashaturner more complex actual style guide alongside this information about writing blogs (sorry can't find it on my comp nat - could you post it up again?)

R

Robert Fri 24 Oct 2014 2:13PM

The danger is that we may end up so keen to be inclusive we end up posting stuff which is essentially unreadable, but may at the same time have something important to say. That's where good editing comes in. When my wife was on an access course way back, for instance, the stuff she wrote was fine, except that her English skills were so poor it had no chance of passing. I spent hours completely rewriting everything, and she passed the course that way. I still check anything academic she writes, but it's only for reassurance as she's now learnt. I think we need to be helping anyone in that position to gain skills and to get good stuff into print in a readable form, rather than just printing it as it comes.