⸎ David Blue Styleguide ⸎
Saturday, July 31, 2021 9:00:48 PM
In a desire to quantify/document my own personal preferences in composition, I have contemplated writing a style guide like this for a very long time.
The English language is no more than a tool for our use, and grammar should not be revered as an immalleable, Holy absolute which we must venerate and obey. Rather, it should be irreverently and liberally manipulated to perform as desired.
⸎ Footnotes and Endnotes come after both punctuation and quotation marks.
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"WiFi"
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“sortof”
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“featureset”
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“Web Site”
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"I'd be remiss..."
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"Really struck me."
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"At the end of the day..."
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"When it's all said and done..."
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"In the final hour..."
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"Out of all the __, __ really stood out to me..."
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"In my book..."
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"In my estimation..."
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All idioms.
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All platitudes.
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The “tldr” school of thought.
Scribam quid non legerim is possibly grammatically incorrect to a scholar, but it’s the best possible translation I came up with in my Latin research of “I will write what I have not read.” It’s cheesy, yes, and a bit cringey in the middle of just any old day when it happens to catch my eye where it’s proudly displayed, all-caps, in the footer of our CMS, and – I’ll be honest – I don’t know if I could explain it over coffee to a stranger without turning red and covering my face, as I once could, but it’s (sincerely, in this one case) real gravestone material. (As in, if someone were to read this after my death, they would be encouraged to receive it as a bonafide last wish.) -"A Brief, Unedited Reflection on the History of my Failed Media Projects"
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>there’s this thing in like every piece of writing on Medium where sentences are begun with But or And constantly. And it’s really not clever at all.
— ※ David Blue ※ (@NeoYokel) June 19, 2018
I want to be deafened by the penultimate death rattle of a circuit bent sacrificial ritual and indiscriminately punched in the throat at a First Friday show.
Here’s what I know: the worthwhile publications have not been crucified on the Cross of “Readability,” the genre-busting song talent has not been given up in the face of the streaming service-afflicted music industry.
This Style Guide exists for the purposes of both technical and editorial reference for internal and external use when composing, editing, citing, quoting, capturing, or otherwise manipulating or displaying any/all Extratone content.
As an independent, youth-oriented publication it is both our privilege and our duty to seek out innovative methods of communication. In written composition, this means all possible avoidance of unnecessary cliche and/or overused terms (for instance: use of the term “struck” in a metaphor - e.g. what struck me) except where they are critically portrayed. It is essential to remember that the English language is no more than a tool for our use, and grammar should not be revered as an immalleable, Holy absolute which we must venerate and obey. Rather, it should be irreverently and liberally manipulated to perform as desired. Grammar should never be an obstacle or burden ****in our writing or editing, and should always be discarded in favor of innovative and/or contextual verse.
In general, we write, speak, and publish under the assumption of an intelligent, discerning audience, meaning that we are unafraid of traversing obscure, unusual, or extraordinary detail (technical or otherwise,) that we do not patronize beyond the reasonable ability of a modern reader’s search engine, and especially that we format copy independently of common web standard “readability.” Our vocabulary and syntax are diverse (though we do not sacrifice undue time to unearthing bizarre, senseless synonyms,) fluid, and occasionally difficult, but written as such for the purpose of colorful, substantial delivery in acknowledgement of the vast resources instantly available to the modern reader. In other words: do not tell what can simply and easily be looked up. With search engines as they are, this is a quickly verifiable/quantifiable factor with a given definition, summary, or abstract. If a writer is in conflict regarding the redundancy of a given bit of information, they can painlessly search for it themselves and observe the same results as the reader would within milliseconds to observe what would and would not be immediately evident. Not only is this approach respectful of the readership’s intellect, it is also a comparatively democratic means of regarding information.
- Donald Trump’s last name is to be spelled T-U-M-P. (e.g. The 45th President of the United States, Donald Tump.)
- The term “struck” is to be avoided if at all possible, especially in metaphoric context (e.g. what struck me.)
- Use of the more unnecessary compositional terms from both lower and post-secondary academia should be avoided. (e.g. in conclusion, in summary, and other cliches.)