The Random Thoughts Of A Style-Guide Wrangler

Among the many hats I wear among the Illuminati, I help keep tabs on our Editorial Style guide (with Managing Editor Allison Page doing most of the work). I admit to being biased, but I think it's one of the most-comprehensive style guides in the biz.

The style guide doesn't tend to change too much, but every so often we'll expand, clarify, or decide a different way is better, and we'll update the guide accordingly.

For changes that are particularly interesting, I'll send a note around to folks in the office who this might affect. But every so often, I'm not quite sure what to do.

Like, we recently changed our guide so that we prefer "standee" over "standie."

Do I send an email about that? Because (for example), it feels weird telling (say) GURPS Line Editor Sean Punch about it, because – as best I can tell – we've used either version of the word exactly none times in the GURPS library. How would I write that email? "Hey, just as a heads up, this word you've never used? We're now using this other word you'll never use." It's important for our marketing folks to know, I'm certain, but I'm pretty sure they're the ones who requested the change.

So, I guess the only logical thing to do is . . . ummm . . . write a blog post and reveal some of the oddball decisions I need to make.

-- Steven Marsh

(SJ replies. Hee, hee. I can throw some light on this particular one. Actually, the word comes up fairly often in boardgame descriptions. A pawn which incorporates an image of a character plus a plastic base can be called a "standee." And we had to put it in the editorial guidelines to empower others to correct it when I write "standie," which I do, having first encountered the word more than 40 years ago. It's like sulfur/sulphur. Words change!)