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The Insomnia Style Guide

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The Insomnia Style Guide

Unread postby icycalm » 03 Dec 2011 18:22

Because I am tired of having to edit the same shit all the time, here are some general guidelines (which by the way also apply to the forum), which I am going to be updating as they occur to me.



1. No punctuation marks at the start or end of quoted passages, with the exception of the end when it also ends the sentence.

Examples:

"You are being a dickface," she said to me. WRONG

"You are being a dickface", she said to me. RIGHT

They claimed that they were "indie," but it was all a lot of hogwash. WRONG

They claimed that they were "indie", but it was all a lot of hogwash. RIGHT

BUT:

And he told me, "Go forth and prosper you ungrateful little fuck!" RIGHT

DOUBLE BUT:

The fuckers claimed that they were "indie!" WRONG

The fuckers claimed that they were "indie"! RIGHT



2. If a parenthesis ends with a period, exclamation mark, or question mark, and that parenthesis also ends the sentence, there should not be a period outside the parenthesis.

Examples:

So you see, it's not that I didn't understand him (as I've already explained a hundred times goddamit!). WRONG

So you see, it's not that I didn't understand him (as I've already explained a hundred times goddamit!) RIGHT



3. Em-dashes must be separated with spaces from the words before and after.

Examples:

But a person cannot be "evil" universally—only from the perspective of a group whose interests he threatens. WRONG

But a person cannot be "evil" universally — only from the perspective of a group whose interests he threatens. RIGHT
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icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby icycalm » 03 Dec 2011 18:28

4. On the subject of em dashes again.

In the forum it's okay to use "--" instead of "—" for em dashes, since the latter symbol does not exist on (most?) keyboards. When you are submitting articles or reviews, however, you can afford to spend a few more seconds copy-pasting the "—" symbol in every occurrence of an em dash in your article.
User avatar
icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands

Unread postby icycalm » 03 Dec 2011 18:44

5. The '80s, the '90s, etc., not the 80s or the 90s, etc.
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icycalm
Hyperborean
 
Joined: 28 Mar 2006 00:08
Location: Tenerife, Canary Islands


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