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As family historians we do a lot of
writing! Whether it’s as simple as
entering names and dates and places into a family tree program, writing e-mails
to colleagues and family members, blogging to the world, creating a published
volume of your research, writing for a genealogy journal, and much more, it’s
important that we do it with style!
I, as many, may remember that in high school and/or college
we were required to use a “certain style guide” as we wrote. Of course, not all teachers/professors
required the same one and these guides never agreed on everything ... Trust me
when I say that after dealing with a few of those, I knew that I would never be
an “editor!” And, that I have learned to
very much appreciate what editor’s do to help writers!
Unfortunately, not everyone has access to their very own
editor.
That said, there are many of these older style guides and
some newer style guides which might help make your writing more accessible. I was reminded of this when earlier this year
I came across, Writing For the Digital Age: 5 Free Writing Style Guides
Online. It was a bit of a nostalgic trip since the
last guide mentioned is The Elements of
Style, William Strunk, Jr. I
remember that one!
Even if I do not necessarily “follow” every element of these
guides, they actually do help one write better.
There are also style guides that have been created and are
specific to our genealogy community.
Some of these are:
- Guidelines for Writers, National Genealogical Society Quarterly – A Journal for Today’s Family Historian
- Numbering Your Genealogy: Basic Systems, Complex Families, and International Kin (National Genealogical Society)
- Genealogical Writing in the 21st Century: A Guide to Register Style and More, 2nd edition (American Ancestors aka NEHGS)
Some recent
Upfront with NGS blog posts about
writing:
- Genealogy Writing -- Do you use the popular "Historical Present" tense? Should you?
- 20 redundant phrases to eliminate from your genealogy writing & other writing tips!
What one writing tip
would you share?
Do you know of another
great style guide, whether genealogical or general?
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