Writing Style

These are the Guide2Life writing guidelines. In a world overflowing with information^[1], the ability to communicate clearly and simply is crucial.

While we uphold academic rigor to ensure reliability and accuracy, we avoid the dense style of traditional academic writing. This approach makes our content more accessible and engaging for a wider audience.

Simple & Concise

Our primary goal is to turn knowledge into action.

This means that readers must be able to understand complicated concepts and apply them to their own lives.

Our writing must prioritize clarity by presenting complex ideas in simple, concise language.

Simplicity

• Use plain language that can be easily understood by a wide audience.
• Avoid technical jargon unless it is necessary.
• When specialized terms are essential, define them upon first use.

Oversimplification

Remember, simplicity does not mean oversimplification; it means conveying your message with clarity and precision without unnecessary complexity.

Conciseness

"I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." Mark Twain.

• Every word must serve a purpose.
• Be ruthless in cutting fluff and redundancies.
• This doesn’t mean your writing should be dry. Aim for richness in content but conciseness in expression.
• Use active voice and strong verbs to create clear and direct sentences.
• Keep paragraphs short to maintain reader interest and comprehension.

By combining simplicity with conciseness, your writing will not only be understood but also remembered.

Consistency

It should be impossible to tell that Guide2Life is a contributor-driven project.

Structural Elements

Headings

Facing a wall of text can be daunting for any reader.

Headings and subheadings break down long text, making content more approachable and easier to navigate. ^[2] They guide readers through a logical progression of ideas and help them quickly find information that interests them.

You can use H2 and H3 like this:

## This is an H2 heading

### This is an H3 heading

H2 headings will also be shown in the right side navigation bar.

Quotations

"A quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself, always a laborious business." A.A. Milne.

Joking aside, quotations can help readers remember important points. Use them.

Links

Lists

Blocks

Details

To achieve this clarity, we must write in a friendly, conversational tone that directly addresses the reader. Use the second person ("you") to create a connection with the audience and make the content feel more personal and relevant. When referring to the authors or the team behind the guide, use the first-person plural perspective ("we").

Avoid jargon and technical language whenever possible. When specific terms are necessary, define them clearly. Engage readers by using active voice, short sentences, and clear paragraphs. Proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation are essential for maintaining the guide's professionalism and credibility.

Eliminate unnecessary words and phrases that don't serve the guide's purpose. Every word should count and contribute to conveying the message as directly as possible.

When there is a detailed explanation that is useful, but not absolutely required, place it in a dropdown block using

::: details 
This is a details block.
:::

Which will give you the following:

Details

This is a details block where you can put a lot more information about a specific subtopic that is useful, but not absolutely required to understand the topic.

References

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1. Carr, Nicholas. The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. ↩︎

2. Lemarié, Julie, Robert F. Lorch Jr., and Marie-Paule Péry-Woodley. "Understanding How Headings Influence Text Processing." Discours. Revue de linguistique, psycholinguistique et informatique. A journal of linguistics, psycholinguistics and computational linguistics 10 (2012). https://doi.org/10.4000/discours.8600. ↩︎