Guardian style guide

[UnquietDad]

Abridged version given away with the Grauniad this weekend. Contains much of interest to pedants!

Interestingly they argue that it is a fallacy that "none" must take a singular verb. And I didn't know that "Frisbee" and "WiFi" were trademarks, and that one should use "plastic disc" and "wireless network".

They defend their "actor" policy while remaining inconsistent by defending "waiter/waitress", and mentioning in passing that there's not much they can do about awards ("Best Actress"). There is an interesting political dimension to some of the entries ("war on terror" is always in inverted commas; friendly fire never).

And amusingly, they insist on the "Heavy Metal Umlaut" when describing the work of Motörhead and Mötley Crüe. Meat Loaf's diatribe against people who spell his name as one word is quite funny too (and he's quite right - it's on every poster, ticket and album so there is no excuse).

[policywonk]

I was extremely excited about this guide (although haven't got around to reading it yet). I'm actually putting their full style guide on my Christmas list.

[Aitch]

i love the sunday times style book, it's hilarious.

[Cappuccino]

oh really, WiFi?

when I was a reporter we used to have to be really careful about portacabins - 'portable buildings' or pointed letters would be sent to us

[Threadwworm]

tsk at UQD for using 'fallacy' to mean commonly held false 'belief'.

[Threadwworm]

I stand corrected. Web dictionaries appear to give 'false notion' as a meaning of 'fallacy' as well as its puer meaning of 'argument based on a false or invalid inference'

[NormaStanleyFletcher]

I love this book. I brought it in to work today for fellow pedants. They all want it.

I like the entries for literally and exclusive.

I have also resolved to use more semicolons.

[AllFallDown]

Full Guardian style guide is here:
www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/0,,,00.html?gusrc=gpd

[WideWebWitch]

I enjoyed flicking through it yesterday too.

[UnquietDad]

There are some old favourites in there: fulsome, Lucian Freud, infer/imply.

[Spockster]

This is grammar for journos, not for pedants. They don't even advise the correct use of data and agenda...God knows what they would say about forums/fora...and octopodes....

[AllFallDown]

They say forums, on the grounds that it has passed into common usage.

[NotCod]

why do they need to ahev a style guide?

[policywonk]

So that their journalists don't say things like 'Ooh, I felt all schizophrenic but then I made my mind up!' (except they still do)

[NotCod]

id say let em

[policywonk]

Your modern liberal attitudes are most unwelcome in this topic!

[Spockster]

"Innit" has also passed into popular usage, along with Capitalising Everything and, of course, the good old rogue apostrophe. Very poor attitude, IMO.

[Spockster]

...or should it be, I.M.O.?

[Aitch]

oh i love random capitalisation. it Makes Me Happy.

[pofaced]

Check out BBC Radio 4 News style guide... fantastic! They can HEAR when a correspondent/ reporter puts a semi-colon in rather than a comma... puts those Grauniad typos to shame
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/radio_newsroom/1099302.stm

[pofaced]

And then this is the link to the alphabetical guide news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/radio_newsroom/1099593.stm
...the other link just explains why style guides are necessary for the unbelievers