Slant writing style guide

Some starting ideas:

General rules:

  • No plagiarism
  • All content should be written in semi-formal second or third person
  • Do not use capital letters or bold text for emphasis
  • Write out both the full version and the abbreviation at first occurrence
  • Quotes longer than a few words should utilise the quote markdown formatting

Questions:

  • Titles should be written in the form of “What are the best…?”
  • Titles should have a question mark at the end.
  • Provides context on the use-case and requirements if applicable
  • Poor: “What are the best laptops?”
  • Good: “What are the best laptops for programming?” (use-case)
  • Best: “What are the best laptops for programming under $1500 with Linux support?” (use-case and requirements)
  • Is scoped in a way that all options are directly comparable
  • Poor: “What are the best developer SaaS services?”
  • Good:

Options:

  • Option titles do not end with a period
  • Option descriptions explain what the option is (objectively) not how it performs (subjective)
  • It’s best to have descriptive images (such as screenshots) instead of branding (such as logos)
  • When adding an application that has a free and a paid version, always list the paid version (unless the questions is specific to free apps)

Pros & cons:

  • Titles do not end with a period and shouldn’t be capitalized
  • Titles should be a standalone statement
  • Poor: “Fast, easy to use, intuitive UI”
  • Good: “Has an intuitive UI”
  • Titles should describe benefit/drawback not list a feature
  • Poor: “Concurrent compilation”
  • OK: “Fast build times” (assuming the description explains why)
  • Best: “Concurrent compilation provides faster build times”
  • Description should provides more detail to the statement.
  • Descriptions should be readable by users that aren’t acquainted with the domain, so it’s best to explain acronyms and domain specific language.

References:

  • References should have quotes
  • References should be as independent as possible
  • Priority: objective data > expert opinions > editorialized reviews >
    word of mouth > product page
1 Like

One thing do bother me a lot. Why making all questions as “questions” and basically always enforcing the use of “What are the best” in the beginning?

I’d change the keyword “question” to “topic” thus incentivizing to use less and more meaningful words on the title. Let “best” google searches be led by other people linking to it. I guess that’s bad SEO doing it the way it’s done right now.

So “What are the best laptops for programming under $1500 with Linux support?” would become just:

  • Laptops for programming under $1500 with Linux support

And it would almost automatically help reducing poor “what are the best laptops?” questions because it would become just “laptops” and people would naturally try to fill in a little bit more context.

1 Like