Writing Reference

Kip Landergren

(Updated: )

My personal style guide and cheat sheet for spelling, grammar, punctuation, and typography.

Contents

Spelling Conventions
“artefact” vs. “artifact” “artifact”. “artefact” is chiefly British spelling
“auto-complete” vs. “autocomplete” “autocomplete” when referring to the technology, “auto-complete” when used as an adjective
“check list” vs. “checklist” “checklist”
“client side” vs. “clientside” vs. “client-side” “client side” when referring to the location, “client-side” when used as an adjective
“code base” vs. “codebase” “codebase”
“command-line” vs. “command line” “command-line” when describing a noun, like “command-line interface”; “command line” when referring to the tool. review When to Use Hyphens
“descendent” vs. “descendant” “descendant”
“extensible” vs. “extendable” prefer “extensible” when referring to the ability to add new functionality, “extendable” when meaning the opposite of “retractable”. credit
“filename” vs. “file name” “filename”
“lifecycle” vs. “life cycle” “life cycle”
“metadata” vs. “meta data” “metadata”
“moulded” vs. “molded” “molded”. “moulded” is chiefly British spelling
“onscreen” vs. “on screen” vs. “on-screen” “on-screen”. review When to Use Hyphens
“plugin” vs. “plug-in” “plug-in”, for both software and hybrids
“reenabled” vs. “re-enabled” “reenabled”. review Hyphen with “re” Rule
“referable” vs. “referrable” “referable”
“regexp” vs. “regex” “regexp” when working in the context of emacs, JavaScript, or ruby; “regex” everywhere else
“server side” vs. “serverside” vs. “server-side” “server side” when referring to the location, “server-side” when used as an adjective
“spellcheck” vs. “spell-check” “spell-check”

Commonly Confused

Words
adverse vs. averse “adverse” means harmful; “averse” means having a strong dislike
excel vs. accel “excel” means to exceed; “accel” is a shorthand for “acceleration” (and likely not what you want)
real estate magnate vs. real estate magnet a “magnate” (prounced mag-NAYT) is a person of rank in a specific area; a “magnet” (pronounced mag-NUHT) is, figuratively, a thing which is attractive—see Merriam-Webster’s explanation
whatever vs. whichever “whatever” is used when the choices are open-ended; “whichever” is used when the choices are specific or constrained

Ascending vs. Descending

An alphabetical list in:

One way to remember this is to convert the character to the corresponding ASCII code and sort.

Some confusion may arise when referring to a list of letter grades, where an “A” is numerically higher than a “B”. So how can you keep it straight?

The important consideration is that you are no longer sorting “letters”, but “grades”, which have a different value system. Ascending and descending always refer to the items’ intrinsic value.

Abbreviations
cf. short for the Latin “confer/conferatur”, used to refer comparison material
vs. short for “versus”

Grammar

When to Use Hyphens

Hyphenate when the two parts form an adjective before a noun. Great explanation of all use cases of the hyphen on the Grammarly blog.

Hyphen with “re” Rule

Two conditions for use:

Great further explanation on GrammarBook.com.

When to Use “a” or “an”

Example: “Give me an ‘H’!”

There are special cases to consider for words starting with an “h”, as explained in the Merriam-Webster indefinite article usage guide.

Punctuation

Oxford Comma

Prefer “foo, bar, and baz” to “foo, bar and baz”. More info on Wikipedia’s Serial Comma article.

The Apostrophe

Common:

Possession and pluralization, including for names ending in “s”, are explained well in this overview.

Conventions
“versus” vs. “vs.” vs. “vs” vs. “v.” prefer “vs.”
“c.f.” vs. “cf.” use “cf.”
“et al” vs. “et al.” use “et al.” as “al.” refers to an abbreviation

Typography

Single vs. Double Quotes

Prefer double quotes.

Using Ampersands

Generally, use when:

Title Casing

Capitalize all words except:

Style

Capitalization

General Preferences

External References