Style
- Submitting work to the editor
- When you submit work to the in edit forum, attach your write-up as a word document. You may not be a big Micorsoft fan, that's ok, but there are a few features in Word, that speed up the editing process. If you don't have access to Word, just attach it as a plain text file (.txt).
- Use an easy to read font...something like Arial or Times New Roman. Fancy fonts are sometimes difficult to read, and we want to make the editing process as easy as possible, and use the same font all the way through your submission. And besides, once your write-up is published to the site, the standard website font will be used.
- Use the appropriate template from the templates forum. You don't have to follow it exactly, but a template will help you submit a complete write-up, and reinforce continuity of all published work.
- Make sure your submission is ready to be submitted to the editors before you submit it. In other words, don't submit sloppy work. Use a spell checker...there are a number of them on the web. Read it aloud to yourself three times...you'll be surprised at how many errors this prevents. You can also have a friend read it.
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- Language
- Use American English for spelling. For example: use center and not centre, airplane and not aeroplane, meter and not metre, etc...
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- Time
- Use the 12-hour clock for measuring time (3:41 pm), and use a lower
case am/pm with no periods following.
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- Punctuation
- Use punctuation inside parentheses when the sentence contained is
complete e.g. (The ship orbited Mars.) Not: (The ship orbited Mars).
Also notice the first word is capitalized when a complete sentence is
used. This is also correct: We turned on the slip-space generator
(a device that enables you to stay in slip-space) before we entered
the gate.
In a sentence containing a parenthetical expression, any punctuation belonging to the main sentence goes outside the parentheses. Example: The import manifold was hot (over 650°)! And. We went to Earth, Luna(Earth's moon), and Mars yesterday.
Put commas and periods within closing quotation marks, except when a parenthetical reference follows the quotation. Example: "Quite down," he said. "And keep your hands off." Also: She said, "It's time to go." - Top
- Numbers
- When using single digit numbers spell them out. Instead of (1,2,3...9)
use (one, two, three...nine). The exception is when using numbers that
have units after them—use digit space abbreviation. Examples:
1 kg, 3 gee, six people, and 55 years.
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- Paragraphs and indenting
- Paragraphs help the reader follow a story more easily, especially
on an web-document. Double space when starting a new paragraph to put
some white space between blocks of text, and start a new paragraph for
the following
- Change of place.
- Change of time.
- Change of topic.
- When the speaker changes.
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- Publication dates
- Don't put your publishing dates on your work. Keep this documentation stored securely at home, to help prevent someone from stealing your work.
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- Emphasis
- Don't use ALL CAPS to add special emphasis to a piece of work. If the particular piece of writing is done correctly, there is no need to emphasize in this manner—the piece will just stick out on its own. The same goes for a repeated or bolded word. Make your writing stand out on its own. This is not to say that you cannot use ALLCAPS or repeated words in writing. Eric Nylund used it effectively in the Halo series when he depicted several lines of text scrolling down the teleprompter. Repeated words can also work well if used for effect instead of emphasis. Jan’s eyes teared up as the fingers of her assailant squeezed tightly around her throat. “Stop stop stop”, her vocal chords squeaked as she tried to scream out with her last breath.
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- Capitalization
- Capitalize the first word of a sentence. He emerged from the slip-gate.
- Capitalize a proper noun. The Milky Way Galaxy is our home.
- Capitalize a person's title when it precedes the name. Do not capitalize when the title is acting as a description following the name. Senator Grax is the senator for the Sol system.
- Capitalize points of the compass only when they refer to specific regions. She came from the South, but if you want to find the ship, turn west at the next block.
- After a sentence ending with a colon, do not capitalize the first word if it begins a list. These are my favorite weapons: blaster, knife, and mine.
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- Units of Measure
- Use the metric system for all measurements. Check the table below
for the proper roots and prefixes. The measurements of temperature (Celsius
& Kelvin) do not use the prefixes.
base unit Symbol Quantity meter m length kilogram kg mass second s time ampere A electric current kelvin K thermodynamic temp mole mol amount of substance candela cd luminous intensity derived units Symbol Quantity Formula liter L Volume 1 L = 1 dm3 newton N force 1 N = 1(kg * m)/s2 pascal Pa pressure/stress 1 Pa = N/m2 watt W rate of energy use 1 W = 1 J/s joule J work done 1 J = 1 N * m volt V wave difference (kg * m2)/(A * s3) coulomb C Charge 1 C = 1 A * 1 S other units Symbol Quantity Formula Celsius temperature [K] - 273.15 byte data storage hertz Hz wave frequency gee gravitatioinal force
yotta- Y 1024 1000000000000000000000000 zetta- Z 1021 1000000000000000000000 exa- E 1018 1000000000000000000 peta- P 1015 1000000000000000 tera- T 1012 1000000000000 giga- G 109 1000000000 mega- M 106 1000000 kilo- k 103 1000 hecto- h 102 100 deka- da 101 10 100 1 deci- d 10-1 -10 centi- c 10-2 -100 milli- m 10-3 -1000 micro- µ 10-6 -1000000 nano- n 10-9 -1000000000 pico- p 10-12 -1000000000000 femto- f 10-15 -1000000000000000 atto- a 10-18 -1000000000000000000 zepto- z 10-21 -1000000000000000000000 yocto- y 10-24 -1000000000000000000000000 - Top
