[mhammer]

I got a note from PG editor Shawn Hammond the other day. A few weeks earlier, we had discussed a piece I wanted to do that had interested him.

What he sent me was a PG style guide, and their writer's guidelines & policies. The style guide is interesting. Twenty-one pages of how different things are to be written, abbreviated, hyphenated, or referred to.

For instance, "X-bracing" should use a capital X and be hyphenated. "Tune-o-matic"is capitalized and hyphenated, as per the trademark name. "Soundhole", "stompbox", "solidbody", and "roundwound"/"flatwound" are all one word, without spaces or hyphens, while "pole piece" is two words, unless used as a modifier ("pole-piece screws").

And so on; all in alphabetical order. None of this is any sort of criticism. It's just funny to see a style guide specific to writing about guitar-related topics. I suppose I can put it to good use here, should any disputes arise as to how something should be written. Not that PG is necessarily the last word on writing style, but at least you'd know how to write or spell something in a manner that created less confusion.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Style guides can drive you crazy. I used to do speaking tours for Microsoft and got into writing some material for their other speakers. An American online magazine contacted me and wanted to pay me to write a series of articles. It didn’t pay a lot but what the heck I thought. It’ll be easy money. They sent all sorts of paperwork, a contract, tax forms etc. It took me a couple of days to read through it all, fill in the forms, and get it back to them. Then they sent me the style guide. It was onerous to say the least. I struggled for three weeks to write the first article and finally gave up. It just didn’t sound like me.

 

[1SweetRide]

I’ve done a lot of writing for publications. When they have many contributors, they need to ensure the articles are consistent in their use of the terminology. I’ve had to create some of these guides and wish more of them existed. To me, it’s a sign of professionalism.

 

[dcole]

You have wrote for PG magazine before, have you not Mark? I thought you might of had one of these all ready, though I just learned about them now, lol!

 

[1SweetRide]

You have wrote for PG magazine before, have you not Mark? I thought you might of had one of these all ready, though I just learned about them now, lol!

No, I wrote for a flying publication and was the editor for a few on-line web presences in the IT industry.

 

[greco]

You have wrote for PG magazine before, have you not Mark?

Yes.... @mhammer wrote this....Behind the Bucket Brigade | Premier Guitar

 

[JazzyT]

I got a note from PG editor Shawn Hammond the other day. A few weeks earlier, we had discussed a piece I wanted to do that had interested him.

What he sent me was a PG style guide, and their writer's guidelines & policies. The style guide is interesting. Twenty-one pages of how different things are to be written, abbreviated, hyphenated, or referred to.

For instance, "X-bracing" should use a capital X and be hyphenated. "Tune-o-matic"is capitalized and hyphenated, as per the trademark name. "Soundhole", "stompbox", "solidbody", and "roundwound"/"flatwound" are all one word, without spaces or hyphens, while "pole piece" is two words, unless used as a modifier ("pole-piece screws").

And so on; all in alphabetical order. None of this is any sort of criticism. It's just funny to see a style guide specific to writing about guitar-related topics. I suppose I can put it to good use here, should any disputes arise as to how something should be written. Not that PG is necessarily the last word on writing style, but at least you'd know how to write or spell something in a manner that created less confusion.

Is this German or English, with all these compound words? When in doubt I error on the separate words side. I guess I'm flat wound.

 

[mhammer]

I’ve done a lot of writing for publications. When they have many contributors, they need to ensure the articles are consistent in their use of the terminology. I’ve had to create some of these guides and wish more of them existed. To me, it’s a sign of professionalism.

Well that's just it. The goal is for everything that shows up in the pages or webscreens of the publication be consistent. As was conveyed in the document, it is intended to be "evergreen", such that as new technology gets introduced or becomes of interest, it gets added to the 21 pages, and referred to in a consistent manner.

Is this German or English, with all these compound words? When in doubt I error on the separate words side. I guess I'm flat wound.

Look around on forums and web-sites, and you'll find that some terms are written by people in a variety of ways. The alnico things in single-coil pickups might be written by someone as "pole pieces", "polepieces", or "pole-pieces". I suspect I've probably written it in all three ways at various times, likely responding to someone's post, and using whatever format they used. But if the folks who massage pieces for publications are going to run a document through their spell-checker, ideally you want to save their time and energy by having things written in a consistent manner up front, by the writer, such that editorial staff can spend less effort on correcting superficial things, and more time paying attention to the overall coherence of the piece.

 

[mhammer]

You have wrote for PG magazine before, have you not Mark? I thought you might of had one of these all ready, though I just learned about them now, lol!

I didn't receive the documents until now because it wasn't finished until recently (timestamp is 03-16-2018). I guess they figured it was time to get down to business.

 

[StratCat]

Its about putting out a consistent document (the magazine) and its a reflection of professionalism.

Imagine if all the contributors did their own style, how the magazine would look as one document with so many inconsistencies.

My company is no different, and in fact, we have to be cognizant of using proper (er, Commonwealth) english or US english.

Colour vs color
Etc...

 

[colchar]

None of this is any sort of criticism. It's just funny to see a style guide specific to writing about guitar-related topics.

As the former editor of an academic journal, it isn't funny at all. Every publication has set standards for style that all of their writers must follow, it isn't just common in the industry it is the norm.

 

[mhammer]

Then substitute "odd", "unexpected", or "pleasantly surprising" for "funny".

But on the topic of actual funny, I was in Loblaw's the other day, and staring at the magazine rack while waiting in the checkout line. A number of magazines have titles referring to the topic or object of interest: Whiskey, Cat Fancier, Guitar World, Cigar Afficionado, et al. Just below Whiskey, I saw a magazine whose title appeared to be "BRA". "Well..." I thought, "that's, um, pretty specific for a magazine title". So, on the way out, I strolled over to confirm that really was the title. Turned out it was an issue of BRAIN, with part of the title covered up by an adjacent magazine.

Many years back, I went with my room-mate to a mall nearby. As we were standing outside, the angle we were both standing at aligned with a sign in the background in a rather amusing way. It was a Sears store, but the S was covered up by his head, and at the precise visual angle/level of his ears, the remainder of the store sign could be seen, such that it looked like his head was somehow a labelled diagram, showing where his "ears" were.

Visual overlap is a constant source of amusement.

 

[Guest]

Then substitute "odd", "unexpected", or "pleasantly surprising" for "funny".

But on the topic of actual funny, I was in Loblaw's the other day, and staring at the magazine rack while waiting in the checkout line. A number of magazines have titles referring to the topic or object of interest: Whiskey, Cat Fancier, Guitar World, Cigar Afficionado, et al. Just below Whiskey, I saw a magazine whose title appeared to be "BRA". "Well..." I thought, "that's, um, pretty specific for a magazine title". So, on the way out, I strolled over to confirm that really was the title. Turned out it was an issue of BRAIN, with part of the title covered up by an adjacent magazine.

Many years back, I went with my room-mate to a mall nearby. As we were standing outside, the angle we were both standing at aligned with a sign in the background in a rather amusing way. It was a Sears store, but the S was covered up by his head, and at the precise visual angle/level of his ears, the remainder of the store sign could be seen, such that it looked like his head was somehow a labelled diagram, showing where his "ears" were.

Visual overlap is a constant source of amusement.

Out of all the magazines on the rack, you focused in on BRA Weekly. What would Freud say?

 

[mhammer]

Not much, I suspect. It did have the biggest font size of any of the mags there. HUGE white boldfaced Arial letters on a dark background. Caught my attention before I had any idea what the word was.

 

[StratCat]

Not much, I suspect. It did have the biggest font size of any of the mags there. HUGE white boldfaced Arial letters on a dark background. Caught my attention before I had any idea what the word was.

By design

 

[Hammerhands]

You can add a word list to Word.

If you make some adjustments to the settings, I think it may pick those up during spell correction, or auto-correct or the horrible auto-suggest.

Can a lot of what is in the style guide can be implemented, in general settings or in document settings, in most word processors?

 

[1SweetRide]

Well that's just it. The goal is for everything that shows up in the pages or webscreens of the publication be consistent. As was conveyed in the document, it is intended to be "evergreen", such that as new technology gets introduced or becomes of interest, it gets added to the 21 pages, and referred to in a consistent manner.

Look around on forums and web-sites, and you'll find that some terms are written by people in a variety of ways. The alnico things in single-coil pickups might be written by someone as "pole pieces", "polepieces", or "pole-pieces". I suspect I've probably written it in all three ways at various times, likely responding to someone's post, and using whatever format they used. But if the folks who massage pieces for publications are going to run a document through their spell-checker, ideally you want to save their time and energy by having things written in a consistent manner up front, by the writer, such that editorial staff can spend less effort on correcting superficial things, and more time paying attention to the overall coherence of the piece.

I've seen Poll Pieces too.

 

[mhammer]

You can add a word list to Word.

If you make some adjustments to the settings, I think it may pick those up during spell correction, or auto-correct or the horrible auto-suggest.

Can a lot of what is in the style guide can be implemented, in general settings or in document settings, in most word processors?

Yeah probably. But nothing wrong with doing it right from the outset, because you know how, rather than relying too much on software. I've been using word-processing software since early 1985, but I still don't trust spell-checkers. To wit, the style guide indicates "pole pieces" when explicitly talking about them, and "pole-piece" when using it as a modifier. The software would need to know what the overarching context is in order to make the determination of correct or incorrect hyphenation. I suppose that can be done, but it is done more appropriately by a human. Always good to test your knowledge of spelling on a regular basis - your Grade 5 teacher has probably retired by now.

A spell checker might catch poll-piece but would not likely catch poll piece.

 

[allthumbs56]

Are you even allowed to refer to Premier Guitar as PG?

 

[colchar]

Then substitute "odd", "unexpected", or "pleasantly surprising" for "funny".

It shouldn't be odd, unexpected, or pleasantly surprising either as it is the norm, not the exception.