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Q&A

Posts tagged style

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Q&A Examples for books that don't use (traditional) chapters? [closed]

I'm a big fan of Terry Pratchett, and he doesn't use chapters (mostly). Are there any other authors who tend to not use traditional chapters or chapters at all in novels?

2 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Jürgen A. Erhard‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question novel fiction style
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Q&A Citation in AP style journalism

I'm writing feature articles and trying to adhere to AP style, but I'm not sure how to attribute a source. I'm familiar with academic citation (APA, MLA), but have never done this in journalism. W...

3 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Caveatrob‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Dashes vs. Commas vs. parentheses?

Occasionally I write sentences containing subparts with extra information. I never know how to block off this information from the rest of the sentence. Three ways I have seen are dashes, commas, a...

2 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by Wolf's Dilemma‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What are widely-used UK-English style guides?

In the UK, what are the equivalents to Chicago Manual of Style, the Associated Press style guide, Yahoo, APA, MLA, etc? Most importantly, what are their intended audiences? (AP is used for journali...

1 answer  ·  posted 13y ago by Neil‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question resources style
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Q&A When should I avoid the passive voice? When might I use it?

An opinion exists that overusing of the passive voice can make writing harder for reading and understanding. Is it true for all kinds of writing? How to follow this advice without overemphasizing ...

2 answers  ·  posted 13y ago by rem‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style voice
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Q&A How do we edit a novel that's written by several people?

Two other friends and I have been writing a fan fiction and we basically write a chapter each one after another every week. Now that we're nearing the end of the project, we've noticed that the wr...

2 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by repomonster‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Using colloquialisms the reader may not be familiar with

I'm from Ireland, most of my stories take place in Ireland, and many of my characters will speak with Irish accents and/or dialects to varying degrees. For the most part I think this is OK, and can...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by sudowoodo‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do I always need to use linkers and connectors?

I have a question on linkers and connectors. I'm from Spain, so I learnt English at school and all my English teachers have told me throughout secondary school that we always have to use linkers t...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Starting a sentence with the name of a program or command-line tool: capitalization?

Say you want to talk about a piece of command-line software, like make or bash or the cp command. These commands are all lower-case, and case-sensitive (i.e. won't work on the computer if you capit...

2 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by interfect‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Do you italicize fictitious television show in fiction book?

In a fiction novel. For example: Sanjay was watching World News. World News is a real television program so it's in italics. But what about: Sanjay was watching Dingdong News. Should Dingdong News...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by Sam‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to keep documents with example full date timeless

I am writing a corporate guidelines manual. The manual itself is made in InDesign, and contains sample documents in it that show employees how to correctly write/format despatches. These document...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by RedKnight91‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Single author scientific paper, 'we' or 'I'?

I am authoring a single author paper. Usually when referring to oneself in a paper, 'we' is used. In single author papers I found both 'we' and 'I' (e.g., 'here we/I report xyz'). Which one is sty...

2 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Dahlai‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I decide whether to answer questions, or leave them unexplained?

At first glance, the question may be subjective, but let me provide a specific example: A story I'm self-editing takes place in a present-day small Virginia town. At present, the town is being ha...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by RE Lavender‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Are citations the same as references in IEEE?

It appears that the word citation and references are use interchangeably. Are they the same thing? https://www.ieee.org/documents/ieeecitationref.pdf

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by User‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Cite letter and article separately even though both are on the same webpage?

I am writing a formal research paper (for a competition called National History Day), using the Chicago citation style. I am using as a source this article. I would like to quote/reference the let...

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by heather‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it strange/confusing to initiate/introduce a dialogue without a dialogue tag?

In other words, is it strange/confusing to do this? For the next few seconds, I watched Aiko read the letter with her lips agape---lips that steadily curled up into a smile. A contagious one....

1 answer  ·  posted 7y ago by alex‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A In a formal syntax notation, how should I indicate many optional elements?

We use a BNF style to convey syntax for SQL statements. For a (fictitious) example: CREATE PARSER [schema.]function [WITH [LANGUAGE='language'] [, MODE='[FENCED | UNFENCED]' [, STUF...

1 answer  ·  posted 6y ago by Monica Cellio‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it acceptable to ask a question in an argumentative paper?

Somewhere along the way I picked up a bias against using questions in my writing. Recently I've been reading more about persuasive writing and ideas, and came across a suggestion that asking questi...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by Max Caldwell‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Format keyboard keys in documents

I'm writing a guide to give step-by-step instructions to complete some tasks on the computer. At some points, I need to indicate pressing keys on the keyboard; how may I format the letter/symbol to...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by Oxwivi‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Which citation style do I use if I'm writing a religious book?

Should a self published book on a biblical topic, use MLA or Chicago citation styles? It'll be a persuasive writing on a biblical subject. I want to persuade the reader to my point of view but I k...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by brewpixels‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to write about transgender issues while avoiding cognitive dissonance?

As a writer, it is difficult to help your readers hold two dissonant ideas in their heads. This can occur when the situation you are describing does not match well with the lived experience of your...

1 answer  ·  posted 9y ago by Nathan VanHoudnos‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style grammar gender
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Q&A How to communicate two elements of different general syntactic/semantic type in the same sentence?

I have the following sentence, NAME is a community that helps each other code better by rating each other's efforts and helps managers pair with other fellow developers I was suggested by ...

1 answer  ·  posted 8y ago by jon220‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should embedded figures/images be placed before or after they are referred to in text?

As the title question asks: Should embedded figures/images be placed before or after they are referred to in text? Which is more appropriate? Or does it depend on the setting/context?

2 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by XYZT‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Why one sentence per paragraph in these news articles?

Lately I've noticed some news articles using (usually) a single sentence per paragraph. Some examples: http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29341850 http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/614773...

4 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Crummy‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style journalism
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Q&A Writing an article avoiding Libel

I will be creating a blog article that talks about Illuminati in our local country. I will be talking about the "organization's" role in making specific artists popular (for a duration) and in retu...

2 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by rahstame‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question technique style legal
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Q&A How to reference a figure from text in a technical document

I'm preparing technical documentation for some software. For the installation, there are lots of screen grabs and they all have Figure x captions. What's the correct styling and means of referencin...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by Alex‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A becoming better blogger when I write about diverse topics

I often tend to treat my blog as my diary and thereby end up having a mix up personal and general blogs on my site. I understand that it does not attract readers - a mixed bag of one liner and arti...

1 answer  ·  posted 10y ago by ND_27‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style habits blog
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Q&A Describing common hand gestures

While writing stories how do I describe the action of common hand gestures, for instance the "come on" signal. Is there any reference? I found a list of hand gestures in wikipedia but obviously i...

2 answers  ·  posted 10y ago by user5126‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Chopped sentences with too many conjunction, and repeating the subject again and again

I have tendency to write chopped sentences with too many conjunctions, repeating the subject again and again. I don't want that but I'm not skilled in English. For example how do write the follow...

1 answer  ·  posted 11y ago by user5126‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What style suggestions are common for which words are used in hyperlinks?

With a purpose of avoiding "More details here" style links that do not provide any information in the link itself, what styles are common/popular/suggested? A good example case (with bold as the p...

1 answer  ·  posted 13y ago by MrHen‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style
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Q&A When am I using "I" too much?

Chuck Palahniuk is an author quite well known for writing first-person stories. He has a simple piece of advice for others who wish to do so as well: "Have your narrator say 'I' as little as possib...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by thanby‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A What style should I write a torture scene in?

The premise of my scene is basically that MC is electrocuted by scientists trying to trigger some sort of power in him. I've been writing his view (3rd person) the whole time before, alas I'm only ...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Mina‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a writing style I can use to show "the result that appeared is contrary to the expectation"? [closed]

I'm wondering if there is a English writing technique or style I can use to show that the result that appeared is contrary to the expectation of the first-person narrator? (I'm not using garden-sen...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Toyu_Frey‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question technique style
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Q&A How exactly can a writer write a horror story without making it so scary to the point where it's actually hard to read or watch?

I've recently started getting into horror lately and trying to learn how all of the genre works so that maybe I myself can write good horror. But there's been one thing on my mind that's been bothe...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Mike Anderson.‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A 'This one' as a pronoun

I'm writing a story in English but I'm not a native. I’m a Brazilian Portuguese speaker. It bothers me how repetitive and ambiguous pronouns can be. In my language we can use the equivalent to ‘th...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Louisr‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style grammar
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Q&A In ancient writings, was it usual to address the reader?

I am writing a textbook, in where, just for fun, I would like to present the concepts as if I were telling a story. Again, just for fun, I would like for the writing to sort of emulate an ancient w...

0 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Eduardo‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is there a good resource on all different formatting and writing styles throughout history?

I noticed writers in the past used a different format, in terms of punctuation, indentation, quotations, spacing, and paragraph length, and the format can be different from author to author and fro...

0 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by blackbird‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How do I sound like Thanos when I write?

This is really a dumb question but as a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I have watched Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame so many times. One of the most interesting things that popp...

3 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by Aniket‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it bad style if the personal first person narrator of a story dies during said story?

Right now I'm writing a novel in which I use the changing perspectives of two main characters with limited information each to slowly unveil the whole plot to the reader. Both use the past tense a...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by DLCom‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How to avoid unconsciously copying the style of my favorite writer?

I've been reading and writing for a long time. Last year, I was introduced to Haruki Murakami. I don't know if it's case for every writer trying to figure out their voice, but for me, once I read...

2 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by tawsonfield‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style
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Q&A 1st person addressing a narrator

I'm writing a story in first person, but with a third person narrator for the secondary character. I was wondering if there were any books or stories to research how the first person character coul...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Jack Woods‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A In scientific writing, what is the protocol for shortening nouns?

I often see place or species names shortened in scientific journal articles and would like to know what the correct protocol is. Can I shorten "Gough Island" to just "Gough"? Or "leatherback turtle...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by JaimieC‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it stylistically sound to use onomatopoeic words?

I'm writing a non-comedic fantasy novel, and I find myself using onomatopoeic words, like "SLAM!" and "TWISH" (for the shooting of arrows). To my knowledge, onomatopoeic words are almost only used ...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by A. Kvåle‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A How should I present a resort brochure in my general fiction?

In my story the protagonist goes to live in a health resort. The receptionist presents her with a brochure of activities. At the moment I have written like this in a word document; After patien...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by codeNewbie‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Are there stylistic overlaps between novels and comic books? [closed]

I am going to quote from a novel that in my opinion shows many stylistic overlaps of novels and comic books: The Rowan by Anne McCaffrey. I am holding that novel in my hand now. The use of a lot...

1 answer  ·  posted 4y ago by Snack_Food_Termite‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Can I use spoken English at some places over 'technically accurate English' in a general fiction?

I have written my novel as a 'first person singular' and in past tense. There are lot of times in it where I have written it as I will say it while speaking. I have used phrases which have implied ...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by codeNewbie‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should we avoid "nonsensical" or "unclear" metaphors?

Should we avoid "nonsensical" or "unclear" metaphors? I am not sure if this is a case of "nonsensical" or "unclear" metaphor, but sometimes you have certain phrases that doesn't seem to be suited f...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by blackbird‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Should I write in a style that is more conducive to a situation I am describing or write it the way I normally write?

I am writing a short story that describes a dream that I had as a child. I wrote a first rough draft and had my girlfriend read it to give me some feedback. One thing she criticized is my writing s...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by user3661841‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

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Q&A Is it advisable to add a location heads-up when a scene changes in a novel?

In my novel, I have a scene at home which changes to scene at the office which is completely different. I have written it in a way that in a line or two the reader will understand the scene is chan...

3 answers  ·  posted 5y ago by codeNewbie‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Question style scene narrative
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Q&A How do I indicate a superfan review vs a social-criticism essay?

I occasionally write short essays about classic films, and have been thinking about converting them into video essay for YouTube. What I observe are 2 very different types of essay – I'm not sure ...

1 answer  ·  posted 5y ago by wetcircuit‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭