Freedom style guide
Jan 21 2005 09:45
Hey all, I've just started work on a dedicated style guide for
Freedom.
Having gone through the staple 'Sheffield style' and found no
advice whatsoever on how to write SolFed, and not having found an
anarchist version online, I thought it might help sort out the
writing style we all use.
As such, any suggestions from y'all would be welcome on all those
little things like whether we should write % or per cent.
Jan 21 2005 10:46
#2
I can't help but feel you aren't taking this seriously John.
Jan 21 2005 10:59
#3
Saii wrote:
I can't help but feel you aren't taking this seriously John.
You got that just from "%"?
Jan 21 2005 11:29
#4
Saii Wrote
Quote:
Having gone through the staple 'Sheffield style' and found no
advice whatsoever on how to write SolFed, and not having found an
anarchist version online,
I hope this is not an example of Freedom's dedicated style.
Not entirely sure, what this paragraph means, But if this refers to the SolFed on how to write pamplet, i've got a copy if you want it. Just pm me. Or contact Sheffield Solfed, i'm sur they will have one laying around somewhere (probaly a box full under their beds).
Freedom's style should be baggy jeans and floppy hair like John. 
Jan 21 2005 12:04
#5
I've got the text of 'typography for anarchists' which includes a (very short) style guide i can email you.
The guardian's style guide i available online somewhere too.
And I'd go for 'SolFed'!
Jan 21 2005 12:14
#6
Jason Cortez wrote:
Freedom's style should be baggy jeans and floppy hair like John.
Excellent 8)
Jan 21 2005 12:54
#7
Quote:
I hope this is not an example of Freedom's dedicated style.
No, it's a post asking what our dedicated style should be like 
.
I wasn't commenting on SolFed, I was musing on the lack of help in Sheffield Style on how to write it (Solfed, SolFed SF, in full etc).
I've got the text of a couple of style guides at home for a reference point, so I should be good ta 
.
Jan 21 2005 15:29
#8
K I'm on to the list of banned words and phrases. This should include any of the old Activist standbys like 'scam', 'the odds are stacked', 'conspiracy' (unless you have incontrovertible evidence and it is actually part of the scoop), deliberate mis-spellings to make you sound more street, 'anarchists believe' (because 'they' don't, you do), proletariat, bourgeoise - any other 19th century words - etc.
Add your most hated and they shall with any luck be barred from future Freedoms (unless there's a general outcry)
Jan 21 2005 19:07
#9
"'anarchists believe' (because 'they' don't, you do), proletariat, bourgeoise - any other 19th century words - etc. "
Fuck -- that's 80% of Freedom's content gone in a flash! Will there be big blank spaces to indicate the censorship, a la Daily Worker 1956?
Jan 21 2005 19:32
#10
Censorship would imply stopping people from writing on subjects which compromise the paper. This is a style guide you stirring git.
Jan 21 2005 19:35
#11
Senses of humour can now be purchased on-line, i believe
Jan 21 2005 19:36
#12
Seriously, the 'anarchists believe/do' is one of my bug-bears. I don't like the (19 language either, so well done
That always sounds patronising, doesn't it?
Jan 21 2005 22:53
#13
Saii wrote:
K I'm on to the list of banned words and phrases. This should include any of the old Activist standbys like 'scam', 'the odds are stacked', 'conspiracy' (unless you have incontrovertible evidence and it is actually part of the scoop), deliberate mis-spellings to make you sound more street, 'anarchists believe' (because 'they' don't, you do), proletariat, bourgeoise - any other 19th century words - etc.Add your most hated and they shall with any luck be barred from future Freedoms (unless there's a general outcry)
None of those words are ever used anyway.
And 'the odds are stacked', and 'scam' - WTF? 
Jan 22 2005 00:18
#14
They've come up in activist magazines I have here, and are just generally poor english.
What words would you ban?
Jan 22 2005 00:56
#15
Saii wrote:
They've come up in activist magazines I have here, and are just generally poor english.What words would you ban?
loads have been banned for ages... I mean not written down, just common sense ones really.
Jan 22 2005 10:15
#16
Wot? You're talking utter shite, Simon. Anarchists believe that the odds ARE stacked against the proletarian forces of CAG, against the conspiracy between the council and the development bourgeoisie as they attempt to scam us out of our bus station
Jan 22 2005 10:23
#17
Quote:
Wot? You're talking utter shite, Simon. Anarchists believe that the odds ARE stacked against the proletarian forces of CAG, against the conspiracy between the council and the development bourgeoisie as they attempt to scam us out of our bus station
Quote:
loads have been banned for ages... I mean not written down, just common sense ones really.
It wouldn't be for existing writers who have learned the ropes by osmosis, it's for new writers who havent. Our new American writer asked me whether we had a style guide for him to use. We didn't, so I though I'd write one. I'll post what I've got so far.
Jan 22 2005 17:54
#18
Get rid of the, is, and, they, all those anonying words that are four letters or less. Just stop using them.
those anonying words letters. Dosen't appear better?
I don't think you should go all coporate style, keep it a loose guide. I personally think DA suffers from too much of this.
You contacted Sheffield SF and got no, help?
Quote:
No, it's a post asking what our dedicated style should be like .
It was just a joke
Jan 22 2005 19:21
#19
Jack wrote:
Wot? You're talking utter shite, Simon. Anarchists believe that the odds ARE stacked against the proletarian forces of CAG, against the conspiracy between the council and the development bourgeoisie as they attempt to scam us out of our bus station
You missed out linking to an utterly irrelevant Indymedia article.
Ban swearing, unless it's really necessary. Calling cops/bourgeiosie/anyone "the bastards" just sounds like Del Boy drunk.
Apr 9 2005 23:33
#20
Bush Junta has been showing up a lot recently, need find and replace Junta with Administration.
Apr 10 2005 13:53
#21
Catch wrote:
Bush Junta has been showing up a lot recently, need find and replace Junta with Administration.
That was done as a matter of course - must be in the ones jimmer's been editing.
Apr 25 2005 09:43
#22
Saii wrote:
They've come up in activist magazines I have here, and are just generally poor english.What words would you ban?
Ideology/ideological. The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. Not all anarchists accept the "ideology thesis", after all. Maybe not even a majority.
So I vote, replace "ideology" with "regime of power/knowledge."
Apr 26 2005 16:54
#23
the button wrote:
Saii wrote:
They've come up in activist magazines I have here, and are just generally poor english.What words would you ban?
Ideology/ideological. The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. Not all anarchists accept the "ideology thesis", after all. Maybe not even a majority.
So I vote, replace "ideology" with "regime of power/knowledge." :wink:
I hate the word ideology too. Theory I think generally works/sounds better...
Apr 27 2005 07:51
#24
.... also, with "ideology", a lot of the time what people actually mean is "ideas," or like you say, "theory."
Apr 27 2005 10:39
#25
the button wrote:
.... also, with "ideology", a lot of the time what people actually mean is "ideas," or like you say, "theory."
Exactly.
I never really got why the Situs slagged off "ideology" until I spoke to Trots, and realised what ideology actually was (cos I thought anarchism was an ideology) - whereas for them, to work out what to do in a situation they have to analyse the writings of the guy, and work out their response from those writings. It's fucking nuts!
Apr 27 2005 10:42
#26
.... it also tends to be tied very closely to a base/superstructure model (you know the score: dominant class = dominant ideas, and all that ), which Marxists have tinkered with, but never really got away from.
"Determinant in the last instance," & all that shit.
Determinant? Is that a word? Edited for loss of capacity to use own language
%