Style Guide Discussion

[Lashley66]

Howdy!

I have been brainstorming a style guide for our content. If you are unfamiliar with what a style guide is, it is a general set of standards for formatting documents (punctuation, spelling, documentation). What I am trying to put together is a “house guide” that those editing the content will use to maintain consistency across categories, sub-categories, etc.

My struggle currently is that we volunteers are from all over the globe, so editing norms may be different depending on where you live. For example, color vs colour or toward vs towards are common difference between English in the United States and other English speaking countries, and there are many differences outside of spelling alone.

So, I would love to start a discussion where we come to a consensus about what preferences we have for punctuation, spelling, citing sources, etc.

This thread could also be a place for those interested in copy editing this project to come together and plan!

 

[Smaug_the_Mighty]

I have three points of view on the editing norms conundrum:

1. Tolkien wrote LOTR in British English, so there could be an argument to present any commentary and analysis in British English also.

2. Corey Olsen started the project and is the main contributor (being the voice in the podcast and videos, although often reading others' ideas, and not as present on the forums); he uses American English, and therefore it could be natural to use American English as the standard for a project largely based on his ideas.

3. I'm Australian, and therefore use our strange mix of British and American English, with plenty of Australianisms thrown into the mixing pot.

I think it could also be valuable having some commentary on different interpretations due to language change and nationality. This could be a sub-category in the Language section. I'll mention this in the brainstorming thread.

 

[Ragnelle]

English is not even my native language, and there are others in my situation. Citation would be fairly easy to just decide on a format for, spelling will probably be hardest to change from what you are used to.

I also wonder how important it would be to have the same spelling/version of English. In Norway (where I am from), we have two official versions of the written language, "bokmål" and "nynorsk". The first is based on the written Danish used during the union with Denmark (ended in 1814), the latter is based on the dialects of (especially) the western coast. In a project like this, both would be used according to the main language of the writer. I was part of a book-project where about 10 essays were in "bokmål" and one or two in "nynorsk". We had a style we had to keep to, but the language was not part of it.

There are less differences between British, American and Australian English then between the two Norwegian languages, so I do not think there should be a problem for readers. We could mark which English is used for each article, if that would make it easier.

 

[Haerangil]

I am german.I learned standard british english at school and am officially bilingual, but hanging around on the internet considerably contaminated my english, not only with american english but probably all kinds of webinglish. I don't even know WHAT i am writing in most of the time...

 

[Lashley66]

English is not even my native language, and there are others in my situation. Citation would be fairly easy to just decide on a format for, spelling will probably be hardest to change from what you are used to.

I also wonder how important it would be to have the same spelling/version of English. In Norway (where I am from), we have two official versions of the written language, "bokmål" and "nynorsk". The first is based on the written Danish used during the union with Denmark (ended in 1814), the latter is based on the dialects of (especially) the western coast. In a project like this, both would be used according to the main language of the writer. I was part of a book-project where about 10 essays were in "bokmål" and one or two in "nynorsk". We had a style we had to keep to, but the language was not part of it.

There are less differences between British, American and Australian English then between the two Norwegian languages, so I do not think there should be a problem for readers. We could mark which English is used for each article, if that would make it easier.

The copy editor in me likes consistency in published works and academic writing (we have numerous style guides in English for literally everything), but I understand that would be a struggle for some or not a priority. The point of the style guide would be a reference guide for those editing the content. Those writing will not necessarily need to worry about the spelling, grammar, and formatting choices because editors will be making those changes/suggestions for them.

Obviously, when quoting Tolkien or Corey directly, we would have to make spelling choices according to their native language. I love editing, so I don’t mind spending my time helping with maintaining consistency and making a guide for others interested in editing side of this project.

 

[Lashley66]

I am german.I learned standard british english at school and am officially bilingual, but hanging around on the internet considerably contaminated my english, not only with american english but probably all kinds of webinglish. I don't even know WHAT i am writing in most of the time...

Love the idea of “webinglish”! I have the same problem as a native English speaker. My problem is local dialects as I was raised in the southern United States where you have to be familiar with colloquialisms and euphemisms to keep up.

 

[Ragnelle]

The copy editor in me likes consistency in published works and academic writing

I can get that. I just come from a country where language is a very serious thing, and what written language you use is a big deal - and not only for the minority language. I'm therefore both used to that the two languages can be used in the same publication, and aware of how important the choice of language can be. Translating from the author's choice of language is frowned upon, unless it is to make the text available in both, and there is a rule that there has to be at least 25% of both languages in publications from the government (that is, if 75% is in Bokmål, 25% has to be in Nynorsk, and vice versa). So I am just giving another perspective, coming from a context where the choice of language is a very delicate thing.

 

[Lashley66]

I can get that. I just come from a country where language is a very serious thing, and what written language you use is a big deal - and not only for the minority language. I'm therefore both used to that the two languages can be used in the same publication, and aware of how important the choice of language can be. Translating from the author's choice of language is frowned upon, unless it is to make the text available in both, and there is a rule that there has to be at least 25% of both languages in publications from the government (that is, if 75% is in Bokmål, 25% has to be in Nynorsk, and vice versa). So I am just giving another perspective, coming from a context where the choice of language is a very delicate thing.

Absolutely! Thank you for sharing that perspective. I always love learning about the complexities of language outside of my own.

 

[FirstFish]

We could ask for and use the style guide that Signum uses for our Writer's Forge.

 

[FirstFish]

Which also leads me to ask, do we want to make translations available for the wiki? Allowing people to localize their experience with auto-generated content in any language that the wiki software supports? Or allowing specific languages to be moderated by volunteers?

 

[Smaug_the_Mighty]

Interesting idea FirstFish. My immediate reaction is no, for the reason that the text that we are discussing is written in English, and many of our discussion points are specifically about the English language and its use in the text, and could be lost in translation. But I entirely realise that this is a very English-centric viewpoint from an Aussie who doesn't speak any other languages, so I'd be very interested to hear what others have to say on this topic. If others are keen for translation of the wiki into other languages, it's definitely something we should consider!