We publish too much not to have some ground rules for consistent style. Suggestions welcome.
All of these are liable to being subbed without warning:
- Job titles never take capitals. They are not proper nouns;
- Personal titles that form part of a full name (eg Professor Tim Blinko) do take capitals;
- Avoid title case in headlines (“And so to bed” not “And So To Bed”);
- Do not use trailing full stops in contractions (can lead to full-stop-followed-by-comma ugliness);
- Companies are always singular;
- No full stops in acronyms/ initials (BBC not B.B.C.);
- Initials are closed up (ie AB Smith not A B Smith);
- No spaces within ranges (eg 21-23 May 2010, not 21 – 23 May 2010);
- Don’t use superscript/ contractions in dates: 3 April not 3rd April (superscript can cause problems with web browsers);
- Always use UK date formats DD-MMM-YYYY;
- No definite article in VWC’s name (VWC NOT The VWC, Verulam Writers’ Circle NOT The Verl…etc)
- Add categories other than “On Writing” (which is just a place holder). Not really bothered about tags, but add them if you wish;
- Don’t get in a tizzy about split infinitives unless you are posting in Latin;
- Avoid all sexually/ racially derogatory language (unless that is the subject of your post, obviously). Some of it is illegal anyway;
- Use real web addresses in links (not shorteners like tinyurl);
- Avoid in-jokes that mean nothing outside VWC.
On the blog: post freely with one caveat: pay attention to the previous post. When was it posted? Give it the courtesy of space if it has only been up a few hours, if it is about an important VWC matter or if it is time sensitive/ seasonal.