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AP Stylebook for iPhone vs online subscription
As someone who cares about words, I have been considering signing up for the AP Stylebook Online ($25/year, all prices listed are USD) or buying the AP Stylebook for iPhone ($24.99) but had trouble deciding which one would be the better deal. You can also pick up a printed version of the 2010 stylebook at the AP website for $18.95. (The 2009 version is available on Amazon.com for $12.89, but the 2010 stylebook is not yet available on Amazon.com as of this writing). I contacted the folks at AP and asked if I might be able to review the iPhone app and get a trial for the AP Online to compare them on the iPhone and iPad. The quick and dirty summary is: if you want access to the AP information on your iPhone frequently, without having to rely on the availability of an Internet connection, get the iPhone app. For any other use case: get the online subscription. Read on for more...
Editorial: The Engadget style guide reaches a MILESTONE
So last week the New York Times Magazine published a piece called "Against Camel Case" which argues that intercapped product names like iPhone and TiVo are "medieval," because they harken back to a time in which people mostly read aloud, slowly sounding out each word as they tried to understand them. Proper word spacing, says the Times, "eventually made possible phenomena like irony, pornography and freedom of conscience." 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.
'Videogame Style Guide' now available for free, for limited time
When he's not busy blogging about the potentially deadly mix of urine and PlayStations, Joystiq blogger Kyle Orland has been busy at work on The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual, a ... uh, style guide and reference manual about video games. Or is that videogames? Over a year ago, style guide coauthor Dave Thomas prompted this Joystiq poll to determine whether we'd use "videogames" or "video games" here at the 'stiq. Astute readers will certainly note that we use the latter, as determined by our savvy voters. Those who voted for that winner will be disheartened to learn that "videogames" -- Thomas' preferred variant -- is indeed the guide's preferred spelling.So, why a style guide for games writers? Kyle attempts to tackle that question over at GameDaily, while edifying readers on the correct styling of Xbox (hint: that's the correct version). But what about PLAYSTATION 3? We don't have to write it in all caps, do we? Interested parties -- even you FAQ writers -- can request a free eBook copy of the book for a limited time -- an altruistic effort we can only imagine is intended to save each and every one of us from reading "X-BoX-360" ever again. Want to add a leatherbound* copy to your mahogany bookcase? Hard copies are available for $15 paperback and $25 hardback. *Leather binding not available.Free - Request The Videogame Style Guide and Reference ManualRead - Book Excerpt: 'A Question of Style' (GameDaily BIZ)
Videogame Style Guide writes the book on game journalism
We here at Joystiq don't usually post about our own outside work, but I figured I'd make an exception for my first foray as a dead tree book author. The Videogame Style Guide and Reference Manual is an effort to set down some consistent answers for those niggling copy editing questions that constantly come up when writing about games -- questions like whether videogame should be one word or two (the guide says one, you say two), whether to capitalize the B in Xbox (no) and whether the term "Wiimote" should be excised from the English language forever (yes, yes, a thousand times yes). Not everyone will agree with our choices, and others won't even care, but as I say in the book's introduction, we hope that addressing these issues will "build trust and respect for both our art and the emerging field of gaming as a whole." The guide will be available in hardcover, paperback and eBook editions on June 1, 2007. Working game journalists can register for a free eBook edition for a limited time by e-mailing freebook@gamestyleguide.com. Read - Excerpt from the Guide's introductionRead - Official Guide web site
