Editorial Standards

These are the rules the writing on this site is held to. They are short because most of them are refusals.

What is written here

Everything published is a standing note on communications practice: what a piece of work contains, how it is usually done, and what commonly goes wrong. Notes are revised in place when the explanation can be improved rather than reissued with a new date, because practice does not change weekly and a stream of dated items would suggest otherwise.

What is not written here

No note comments on a named organisation, campaign or individual, and no note reports an incident. Where an example would ordinarily be given, the note describes the shape of the situation instead. Figures are not quoted unless the note also explains where the figure comes from and what it does not measure, which in practice means very few figures appear at all.

Attribution

Notes carry the publication name and no personal byline. Nothing here should be read as advice about a particular organisation's circumstances; it is general explanation, and the reader is the one who knows their own situation.

Corrections

Where a note is wrong it is corrected in place and the correction is described in the note itself rather than appended as an afterthought. A note that has needed several corrections is usually a note that was answering the wrong question, and it is rewritten rather than patched.