Editorial: The Engadget style guide reaches a MILESTONE
By Nilay Patel 
posted November 30th 2009 5:09PM
posted November 30th 2009 5:09PM
That's sort of a crazy coincidence -- while we're not so sure word spacing and porn have anything to do with each other, we did just re-do our style guide when we launched our jazzy new redesign, and we actually thought long and hard about how to handle intercapped, all-capped, and otherwise non-standard product names. This is something we deal with a hundred times a day, and we simply weren't going to let Motorola tell us to write MILESTONE over and over again, completely contradicting our own sense of style and taste -- as the Times says, "Writers of the world, fight back!" Well, we can't say no to that, so we thought we'd share our four newly-minted rules for writing out non-standard product names:
- Product and company names that are regular English words shall be treated like proper English nouns, complete with proper capitalization. Example: DROID becomes Droid and nook becomes Nook.
- Product and company names that are not regular English words shall be capitalized first as proper nouns, and then as the company treats them. Example: RAZR stays RAZR, but chumby would become Chumby.
- Intercapped product and company names should generally be treated as the company treats them, unless it's egregious and / or looks weird. Example: iPhone stays iPhone, BlackBerry stays BlackBerry and TiVo stays TiVo, but ASUSTeK becomes Asustek. This rule is subject to many exceptions based on usage and history, and also functions as the "this is stupid" loophole.
- Acronyms should obviously be in all-caps.
We think these rules are flexible to handle most situations, although there are some edge cases and blatant Rule 3 violations out there. Still, it's a start -- unlike the Times, we're pretty sure "iPhone" and "MasterCard" are here to stay, but we feel like our rules are a small step towards making our site clearer and more readable. Either that, or we're just crazy in the head.
@Nilay Patel Because you didn't bring up any other devices, like BlackBerry or TiVo... erm.. wait... ;)
@bjsguess
I remember a small brouhaha over the proper capitalization of Nook in one of the stories about it, so it's not like nobody cares about this. I for one am all in favor of not automatically butchering the English language just to satisfy some marketing department that thinks they're being clever. These rules do go farther than I would, but I applaud Engadget for having them.
Just one note and one question. First, wouldn't BlackBerry fall under rule #1? It's a regular English word.
Also, what do you do when you run into a sentence that starts with an intercapped word that starts with a lowercase? Is there something in your guide for that? Is it just a simple rewrite of the sentence to move the word?
When I think of the nerdy emails Engadget must have gotten to warrant such a PSA, I weep for humanity
hahahah..... so you spent a bunch of time thinking about it and came up with some rules and then added rule 3 - which basically says you will do whatever you feel like on a case-by-case basis.
hahahahahah..... OK... if it makes you happy.
i think this will be about as effective as making 'weekend' and 'hamburger' illegal in french. you can't rein in language. they may take our longhand but they'll never take away our freedom to write iDiosynCraticaLly!
Speaking of Times, when's the serif font dropped?
@dsp4
hoho, well played.
Two stories below this one you have a story about an Asus motherboard, wherein you refer to them as "ASUS".
WTF?
-bZj
A William F Buckley book at Engadget? Who is the mega-conservative in your ranks?
Must be why this site is full of win.
If you really cared about readability, you'd change the body text to something other than Times New Roman. Use Georgia if you really want a serif face, but at the moment Engadget is painful to read.
I don't get it. I understand where the editors at Engadget are setting up rules for the way they write but don't get why it seems like the masses are genuinely so upset about it. It really doesn't matter to me if they call it the iphone, Iphone or iPhone, it's still the same device to me.
Newspapers have been dealing with this problem for years, and I'm glad that Engadget has created rules for dealing with this. Most Newspapers have to do the same thing because there isn't a standard for dealing with names like these.
Could you also add an editorial rule for not starting sentences with "So"?
As long as the naming scheme is legible, who gives?
Now about those nVidia graphics cards....
This is pretty funny. Good job Nilay.
These are all well and good, until you start getting nastygrams from everybodies' legal departments for using their trademarks improperly.
The new style looks pathetic. Seriously guys - Times New Roman? I get a headache reading text here.
Since Engadget has so many apple fanbois, maybe they should start using Lucida Sans Unicode.
I say leave the branding alone...who is Engadget to change it?
Please get rid of the serif fonts. The mix of fonts looks terrible.
Total agreement on your standards.
But for the love of llamas, give us Arial font for articles. Or at least give us a CSS alteration that allows it without a hack.
Like, why is what I'm typing right now in Arial and easily readable, yet the line of text just above this is italicized Times. It just looks weird, and I'd like an option out with some sort of Grease Monkey script.
@Majicebe
*without* a Grease Monkey script that is.
Also, WTB edits ;)
*applause*
Excellent stuff. Good work, Engadget.
NINTENDO GAMECUBE
nVidia changing?