Editorial style guide

This is the reference manual for ollelindholm.com, establishing house rules for spelling, punctuation and consistency. I have a love of languages, so every once and awhile, feel free to break the rules if the prose is better for it.

For the craft, voice, and convictions behind the writing, see Why I write.

General

• Write in standard British English.
• Use a clean, conversational tone: direct, unpretentious, and respectful of the reader's attention.
• Prioritise clarity and rhythm over academic formality.

Numbers

• Spell out whole numbers from zero through ten in prose ("two weeks", "seven years").
• Use numerals for 11 and above ("12 essays", "150 subscribers").
• Always use numerals for specific measurements, percentages, ages, and money: 5%, 8 km, £15, 3 years old.
• Never start a sentence with a numeral. Spell it out or rephrase the sentence: "Thirty days passed before..." rather than "30 days passed before...".
• Use commas in numbers of four or more digits: 1,000, 25,000.

Punctuation

• Quotation marks: Use standard double quotation marks ("...") for speech, direct quotations, and highlighted phrases. Reserve single quotation marks ('...') strictly for a quotation within another quotation ("She noted, 'This is a rare find.'").
• Full stops and commas: Place punctuation inside quotation marks when it belongs to the quoted speech; place it outside when quoting isolated phrases or terms.
• Dashes: Avoid em dashes. Use a spaced en dash ( – ) sparingly for parenthetical thoughts, or prefer a comma, colon, or full stop.
• Colons and semicolons: Use colons to introduce lists or conclusions. Use semicolons sparingly, only to link closely balanced independent clauses or to untangle long, comma-heavy lists.
• Exclamation marks: Avoid in reflective and technical prose. Use only where unfeigned excitement or speech demands it.
• Spacing: Always use a single space after full stops and punctuation marks.

Capitalisation

• Headings and titles: Use sentence case across all page titles, essay headings, and subheadings (e.g. "Voice and stance", not "Voice and Stance").
• Proper nouns: Capitalise specific names of people, places, institutions, and defined movements.
• Job titles and disciplines: Lowercase general professions and roles ("software designer", "editor", "philosopher") unless directly preceding a personal name as a formal title.
• Web terms: Lowercase "internet", "website", and "web".

Abbreviations and acronyms

• Spell out terms on first mention followed by the abbreviation in parentheses, unless the acronym is universally understood (such as BBC or URL).
  • Example: "cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)".
• Avoid obscure abbreviations wherever possible. If an abbreviation is only used once in an essay, spell it out each time and drop the abbreviation entirely.
• Omit full stops in all capitalised abbreviations: BBC, HTML, CBT, RSS, CSS.
• Use lowercase with full stops for common Latinisms if used: e.g., i.e., etc. (though plain English alternatives like "for example" and "that is" are often preferable).

Contractions

• Use natural contractions freely in essays, notes, and commentary ("I'm", "don't", "can't", "it's").
• Avoid forced or archaic contractions ("'tis", "'twas").
• Expand contractions only when an intentional, emphatic rhythm is needed ("I did not agree").

Bullet lists

• Introduce lists with a clear lead-in sentence ending in a colon.
• If list items are complete sentences, capitalise the first word and end with a full stop.
• If list items are short sentence fragments or single words, lowercase the first letter and omit closing punctuation.
• Maintain parallel grammatical structure across all items in a given list (e.g. all starting with imperative verbs).

Italics

• Use italics for titles of books, films, long-form journals, podcasts, and albums (e.g. Steering the Craft, On Writing Well).
• Use italics sparingly for gentle vocal inflection or emphasis on a single word.
• Do not italicise long paragraphs or pull quotes.

Bold

• Use bold to anchor key takeaways or highlight actionable terms in reference guides.
• Never bold whole sentences or paragraphs in reflective essays.

Singular vs plural

• Collective nouns: In British English, collective nouns (team, government, committee) may take either singular or plural verbs depending on whether they act as a single unit or an assemblage of individuals. Stay consistent within a single piece.
• Data: Treat "data" as an uncountable singular noun in general prose ("the data shows"), reserving the plural only for strict academic contexts.

Dates and times

• Date format: Day Month Year, without commas or ordinal suffixes: 18 October 2026 (not "October 18th, 2026" or "18th October").
• Decades: Write without an apostrophe: the 1990s (not "the 1990's").
• Time format: Use the 24-hour clock for precision: 17:30, 09:15. If writing in 12-hour prose, format as 5.30 pm with a space and no capitals.

Units of measurement

• Default to the metric system: kilometres, metres, kilograms, celsius.
• Leave a space between the numeral and unit abbreviation: 10 km, 45 kg, 20 °C.
• In general prose, spell out the unit when whole numbers under ten are involved ("five kilometres").

Spelling

Follow British English conventions without exception.

• -ise over -ize: organise, realise, recognise, personalise, prioritise.
• -our over -or: colour, favourite, honour, humour, neighbour.
• Double consonants in inflections: travelling, travelled, cancelled.
• -re over -er: centre, theatre, metre.
• -ence over -ense: defence, licence (noun), practise (verb) vs practice (noun).
• Distinctions:
  • programme: a plan, schedule, broadcast, or syllabus.
  • program: strictly computer source code.

Miscellaneous

• Links: Use meaningful anchor text that tells the reader where the link leads ("read my notes on local-first software"). Never use "click here" or paste naked URLs into body text.
• Alt text: Provide informative descriptions for meaningful images. Leave alt="" blank only for purely decorative graphics.

A–Z dictionary

A

• AI (artificial intelligence): No full stops. Prefer writing about specific tools or technologies rather than using AI as a vague buzzword.
• aka: Also known as. Lowercase, no punctuation.

B

• backend: One word, no hyphen, when referring to server-side code or infrastructure.
• blog post: Two words.

C

• CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy): Spell out on first mention, British spelling (behavioural).
• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets. All caps, no periods.

E

• e.g.: For example. Lowercase with periods, followed by a comma. Prefer "for example" in flowing prose.
• email: One word, no hyphen.

F

• frontend: One word, no hyphen.

H

• HTML: Hypertext Markup Language. All caps, no periods.

I

• i.e.: That is. Lowercase with periods, followed by a comma.
• indie web / IndieWeb: Capitalise as a proper noun when referring to the IndieWeb movement; lowercase when discussing independent personal websites generally.
• internet: Lowercase "i".

L

• local-first: Hyphenated adjective describing software that keeps data on the user's device.

M

• markdown: Capitalise (Markdown) when referring to the syntax or specification; lowercase when speaking colloquially about markdown files.

O

• open source: Hyphenate when used as a compound modifier before a noun ("open-source software"); leave open when following a verb ("the library is open source").

P

• permalink: One word. A permanent static hyperlink to a specific web post.
• POSSE: Publish on Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere. Capitalised acronym; spell out if introducing to unfamiliar readers.

R

• RSS: Really Simple Syndication. All caps.

S

• setup / set up: "Setup" as a noun ("a clean setup"); "set up" as a verb phrase ("I set up my site").
• smartphone: One word.

W

• web: Lowercase.
• webmention: One word, lowercase.
• website: One word, lowercase.

Resources

Several web pages and books inspired my own style guide. I'm sharing them here for easy reference.

English style guides on the web

• BBC News style guide
  
• The Guardian style guide
  
• The UK Gov style guide

Swedish style guides on the web:

• TT-språket
• Myndigheternas skrivregler - åttonde upplagan)

General accessibility style guides for the web:

• The World Wide Web Consortium: W3C
• Nielsen Norman Research Group: NNG

Books on writing and style:

• Steering the Craft: A Twenty-First Century Guide to Sailing the Sea of Story, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Elements of Style, by EB White and William Strunk Jr.
• On Writing Well, by William Zinsser
• On Writing, by Stephen King

First version: 15 November 2025, from my home in Sweden.

Second version: 18 June 2026, from my home in Sweden.

Last revised: 1 week, 6 days ago